TALAMH COITIAN-TA

Talamh coiTianTa

SubmiTTed by aoife o’donnel, eimear henry + aidan conway

aS parT of The “our common Ground” exhibiTion

weSTporT arTS feSTival 2012

followS iS our propoSal To caSTlebar Town council

Having recently visited the rejuve-nated Lough Lannagh. We were all astounded by the change the works had brought about and by the quality and variety of public space created.

Then we began to think, being busy minded idle handed young architects. How could this be better? and also where can we catch our breath and pause to enjoy our surround-ings. Okay before someone leaps away form this booklet to proclaim “There are going to be benches! its still a work in progress!” We have no doubt that this is the case, but our thoughts were taking us a little beyond just a few benches.

There seems to be and opportu-nity for a distinct public feature, something to compliment the existing amenities of the lake and new out door gym. Something akin to a bandstand. a shelter, a venue come meeting place or simply somewhere to sit in the shade or away from the rain.

Genesis of the idea and our past experience

Having all studied architecture at University of Dundee for the past three years. We were all in-volved in the second year Design-Build Shelter Pro-ject. The project consisted of two 3 week periods, the first for shelter design. Where all 70 students divided across three predetermined sites generated their own concepts and proposed a scheme. Of these three were taken forward to be further de-veloped with the hope of being constructed during the second 3 week period with the aid of the other 67 students.

Not only did the students have to come up with technical solutions for the construction of these designs, they were also responsible for the entirety of the fundraising and construction of their respec-tive shelters.

Having had their individual designs chosen Aoife and Eimear set about just that, with the results dis-played opposite and on the following pages. (All works carried out came to a cost of no more than £1000 each). We would hope to adopt a similar if not slightly enlarged budget to account for the higher cost of materials form Irish suppliers.

We believe adopting a similar process but sub-stituting the student element with community in-volvement could provide a vibrant serve park go-ers.

We want to engage the many available resources within the town and make the project accessible to all who which to take part. Design would look to involve leaving cert Art students and or Transition year students for their reactions to site and pos-sible concepts. Feedback and guidance from the local authorities. Critical analysis from the vibrant local offices of architectural and engineering firms.

WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR LOCAL AU-THORITY FUNDING TO CARRY OUT THESE WORKS. Integral to he project would be the fun-draising carried out by volunteers and the spon-sorship gained from local enterprise. as would the construction works. Saying that id any assistance were to be offered we would be more than grateful.

We are not looking for anything from the local au-thorities of the Town and County Council other than the opportunity to try something.

CRUX:AOIFE O’DONNELL@ BOTANIC GARDENS DUNDEE