Legible Dublin
Public space is central to a city’s identity and how we experience it. Europe, over the last 20 years, has seen radical regeneration initiatives for the provision of public space in cities as diverse as Lyon, Barcelona, Bilbao and Copenhagen. Many of these public space projects have recharged tired public space legacies, provoked debate on new ways to treat the heart of a city and inspired adventurous approaches to civic architecture. Most interestingly these initiatives have been paralleled by an explosion in the opportunities for public life.
Copenhagen provides probably the most interesting insight into how a city can develop an overall vision for a public open space structure. In Public Spaces Public Life, Jan Gehl and Lars Gemzoe document how the provision of new public space was accompanied by a flowering in the public life and leisure activity in those spaces. Initially, the city developed a limited fully pedestrianised network, which was paralleled by a much greater investment in reclaiming a network of urban squares. Copenhagen views pedestrianised streets and pedestrian priority streets as arteries for pedestrian movement, whereas squares invite people to stop, sit down and watch the world go by. Distinction has also been made between necessary and optional activities, with the latter occurring when circumstances are right – when there is nice orientation, an attractive café with seating and a well-designed well maintained public domain. In Copenhagen, each of the redeveloped urban squares has evolved a different character and role over time. Importantly, the creation of the public space network has been accompanied by the severe restriction or elimination of traffic movement.
Dublin has been applying imagination and energy to an ambitious public space programme, which is now gaining momentum and international recognition. The reclamation and remaking of O’Connell Street is currently the most ambitious in a sequence of such projects. The street’s strategic location between the HARP area and Docklands – combined with enthusiastic public support for the Spire, the G.P.O. Plaza and elegant new pavements – has ensured that the provision of public space in the city is achieving a political importance.
The political and popular support to tackle O’Connell Street emerged after a decade of significant public space initiatives. The pedestrianization of the spines of Grafton Street and Henry Street in 1988 was followed in the early 1990s by the initiatives of Temple Bar Square and Meeting House Square, as well as international design competitions for Smithfield and Wolfe Tone Square. High quality spaces are beginning to appear throughout the Docklands, with Mayor Square being the most significant to date.
Dublin city can also look forward to some exciting new spaces over the coming years: a new square beside City Hall; an urban square in the Westgate development adjacent to the formal gardens of IMMA; a major new urban space at Spencer Dock and a new market square surrounding the Victorian market building west of Capel Street. The historic development of the city has also created institutional precincts like Trinity College and Dublin Castle. Formerly impermeable and introverted, they are now more open and more connected to pedestrian movement patterns and constitute a major amenity for both visitor and citizen. Though distinctly different from urban squares, one must also acknowledge the amenity value of significant city parks like St. Stephens Green and Merrion Square.
After a decade and a half of intense urban regeneration, the question must be asked to what extent is the existing and planned public space in the city core successfully responding to the leisure and public life needs of a changing capital city. Is there a sense of coherence and inter-connectedness? Are we responding to the economic social and cultural needs of the city? Is the city geared to secure the long-term sustainability of significant investments in the public domain? How do we move on over the next ten years?
Legible Dublin
In order to develop a strategic response to the challenge of unity and address issues of quality, quantity, coherence and inter-connectedness across the emerging public domain of the extended inner city, Dublin City Council has initiated ‘Legible Dublin’. The study area for this project is the ‘new’ inner city bounded by the canals and extending from Heuston to the Point.
‘Legible Dublin’ addresses the challenge of drawing together the many strands of urban regeneration, reflecting the various layers of economy and culture, and giving weight to the central importance of the structure and location of public space. In doing so, it aims to remap the city in the public imagination by defining key public spaces and routes, while facilitating ease of access to the city’s main destination and attractions.
The vision of Legible Dublin is to create a world class walking city that places the pedestrian at the heart of the design process to reconfigure Dublin’s urban structure by radically improving and connecting the city’s public domain and information systems. The central strategy is the identification of a core network of key urban spaces and connecting pedestrian routes. This framework (fig 1) incorporates many of Dublin’s traditional nodal points – College Green, Christchurch Place, Smithfield, as well as new spaces at Spencer Dock, Heuston Station, National Gallery/Lincoln Place. These spaces have the capacity to act as major orientation points and contribute civic focus and animation. The overall framework will constitute a blueprint for a strategic public urban space structure for the city.
Tackling Key Spaces
In approaching the remaking of the major spaces in the network, it is important that the city is open minded and creative about the potential role of each space in the city structure and visionary in terms of design and rebalancing public space in favour of the pedestrian.
The west side of Merrion Square, for example, could provide a new social space for the city. The traffic is light here and, by taking a small footprint of the park, one could open it up, design an edge of contemporary café pavilions, and create a relationship to the Dail, the National Gallery and National History Museum. Likewise, it is time for the city to tackle the over-engineered city spaces at Christchurch Place and Cornmarket under the banner of a public space project.
Legible Dublin recognises the River Liffey as the main anchoring spine in the city. With the opening of the Port Tunnel in 2006, a major opportunity exists to remake the river corridor as the city’s most important public space. A framework plan will underpin this project with the aim of recharging the public perception of the river and remaking it as an urban navigational spine.
Movement and Public Space
The likely continued levels of heavy traffic through many of our major spaces makes it difficult to achieve the quality of traffic-calmed squares that are being delivered in cities across Europe. We can take some encouragement from anticipated improvements in public transport and the construction of new river bridges. In order to exploit an improved public transport network, a study is needed for the core area, to explore the balance of public transport, vehicular access, pedestrian facilities and public space.
A Network of Small Spaces
Supposing we assume the city can achieve a radical rebalancing of major public space nodes in favour of the pedestrian, Dublin has a limited number of such spaces as compared to Copenhagen. The city needs to support the primary space network with a second layer of more intimate squares devoted to the leisure needs of the pedestrian. This can be achieved through the development control process.
Urban regeneration has changed the face of the city in the recent decade and Dublin is going through an identity change. Public urban space is a major component of that change but its overall delivery to date, though impressive, has lacked an overarching framework to enable public space to play a central role in structuring unity and coherence in the extended inner city. Legible Dublin constitutes such a framework and body of projects to be tackled in the coming decade. An ambitious agenda, perhaps? O’ Connell Street has provided momentum and a solid foundation. Let’s start the next chapter with the river.
- Dick Gleeson, City Planner, Dublin City Council
