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"The vision for O'Connell St. must include a broad-based commitment
to create the kind of quality environment, range of uses, and powerful
sense of place that can live up to its unequivocal role as the main
street of the capital city..." O'Connell St. Integrated Area Plan
Dublin City Council and the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland
(RIAI) announced on, 8th April 2002, that London bloc Architects,
with consultancy from Buro Happold, won the open design competition
for O'Connell Street Furniture.
The competition organised by the RIAI, on behalf of Dublin City Council, was a two stage open competition to design a family of street furniture structures to be repeated along the entire 550m of historic O'Connell Street to enhance the public space ambitions of the capital's premier street, and in time come to be recognised and associated with the quality and ambition of the city. The purpose of the competition was to seek a high quality design for a number of kiosks to which will accommodate retail uses such as coffee, flower and newspaper selling, but will also provide WC, information and phone facilities.
The suite of furniture will include two cafes, a ticket and information offices, five retail units, two news stands, two self-cleaning WCs, twelve public telephone boxes and nine bus or taxi shelters.
Following the announcement London bloc's David Hebblethwaite, commented, "This prestigious competition win is very important to us and Buro Happold. The scheme allows us to work with some of the most vibrant and important public space in a major European capital, and relates closely in ambition to our other streetscape and public space projects that are beginning to take shape in Europe. We were immediately interested in the approach taken by Dublin City Council in developing the design to act as a catalyst for public space. bloc and Buro Happold's interpretation of the brief was to find the maximum generative effect with a very limited streetscape intervention".
Edith Blennerhassett, group director of Buro Happold added, "We were delighted to be associated with such an innovative architectural project which will be an important feature of O'Connell Street and the urban regeneration of the city".
To achieve the ambition of the competition, bloc and Buro Happold stretched each unit to create superthin buildings, bordering on two-dimensional , orientated with the flow of people . Stone ends are turned up from the street paving and pulled as far apart as possible. Stretched between them is a thin film of glass and timber. This creates long facades, slender in the direction of traffic and long for the general pedestrian flow. Each wide face opens to have a presence on the street up to two times the plan size of the structure. A relief plan of the street is cut into the stone of each thin face and LED lights are incorporated to orientate the public and provide both visual and Braille signage. The glass walls and roof are wrapped in timber slats that act as shading and security, creating a glint, going from opaque to transparent as the viewer moves along the street, revealing the use inside.
The seven types of unit designed are:
- Café (2 no.)
- Tickets & Information (1 no.)
- Retail Unit (5 no.)
- News Stand (2 no.)
- Self Cleaning WC and retail (2 no.)
- Public Phone Boxes (12 no.)
- Bus or Taxi Shelter (9 no.)
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