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Mar 10, 2016
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban LandBrendan Feeney
page 2Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
We are part of the whole – we are not just
the whole. Our being here is really the most
transitory aspects of the planet. It is trees, it is
climate, it is the earth, the water, the rocks and
the landscape which is real. When we fail to
see ourselves belonging to and as part of that
we become unreal. It is so much easier just
to demolish and destroy it all, because it is in
the nature of man to go ahead and demolish
it, whereas, as far as I am concerned, it is our
duty to act as custodians for one of the most
remarkable landscapes.
Glenn Murcutt, Touch this Earth Lightly
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
CONTENTS
BEGINNINGS
Introduction
Thinking
A School of Thought
Project 1 : Linen Hall Annex, DIT
Critique
Project 2 : The Urban Organic Yard
Testing Ground: Selecting a suitable site
Understanding Broombridge
Investigation of Architecture & Groundwork
Programme
Critique
POSITION PAPER
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
THESIS
Prologue
Concept
Programme & Design
Critique 1
Developing the structure through making
Occupying the Scheme
Critique 2
Programming the landscape
Critique 3
Final Presentation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
BEGINNINGS
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INTRODUCTION
Under Tomorrow’s Sky was an exhibition that explored the possibilities of a
fictional future city.
Young (2012) states that ‘It is a city of extraordinary technology but at
first glance appears indistinguishable from nature. It is an artificial reef
that grows and decays and grows again as the city becomes a cyclic
ecosystem.’
Of the many images of this city of tomorrow, ‘Tomorrow’s World’ is the
most evocative. A new city of immersion is presented to the viewer, a fresh
urbanity where land and building environments cross-pollinate and the
edges are blurred between the natural landscape and the organic man-
made forms. Both a dense human population and a native topography and
vegetation are evident in this incredible land of the future. A visceral idea
of harmonic symbiosis is accomplished.
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THINKING
THINKING THROUGH MAKING
In an early attempt to clarify the architectural position of
the thesis, an image based presentation was produced
without successfully clarifying a concise and collected
stance. It was felt that the strength of the oral presentation
should be represented in model form in so that new
thoughts and ideas might reveal themselves in the
process.
The models pictured are the end result of this study.
A second presentation was drafted up to focus upon
the educational aspiration of this thesis and to question
the qualities that define the realm of education within the
context of this thesis.
Already ideas were emerging about the landscape,
topography and engagement with local environment.
It was felt at this point in the process that education
occurred through two primary human instincts: those of
skill imitation and user-specific adaption.
This practice can also be understood as learning from and
reacting to the active environment around us.
interwoven topography and building the landscape as a natural framework for
guided learningcross-pollination of routes, ideas and people
opening and defining spatial edges situation as abstract foundation condensing the focus
the unknown horizon environment filtration creating space throun occupation
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SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
imitation of man
adaptation to a specific situation
rethinking assembly rules
architecture adopting nature
Ecstacity by Nigel Coates - ‘A healthy city, or a city you want to be in, is always changing; it’s an organism’
Above:
Mountains Outside Mountains
Inside -by Johan van der Keuken
Framing, connecting and
understanding landscape
through human behaviour
‘We never educate directly, but indirectly by means of the environment.’
John Dewey
Modelling the ideas of what it is that defines education, some traits of
active learning and transfer emerged much more apparent and coherent
than others. Two core fundamental elements of learning were strongly
identified through this process – those of imitation and adaptation.
It is argued here that the initial stage of all early learning is through the
process of imitation – copying the movements and methods of others. To
learn the basics of walking, talking, reading and writing is to learn how to
imitate. Early childhood is spent repeating and replicating words, sounds,
letters and movements in order to acquire these primary skills; the building
blocks of communication and a means to further learning.
In time, as acquired techniques are mastered and applied, an individual
begins to evaluate and question these methods within the context of their
needs and environment. This can sometimes result in altering aspects of
a method and adapting the approach to best suit their requirements. This
allows for the growth, development and possible abandonment of the
practices that have gone before.
These dual aspects of learning are most evident in any curriculum applied
in the natural environment. Engaging with and learning from others and
our surroundings is the foundation of man’s schooling and the cornerstone
from which all further learning emerges.
The education framework that defines this thesis is based on the idea that
through engagement with our land and neighbours, we can collectively
teach and learn from one another, improve our wellbeing via connection
with the environment and through shaping and maintaining the land we
can reap the rewards of self actualisation and fulfilment.
PROJECT 1
LINEN HALL ANNEX, DIT
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Concept
Following the initial school of thought process, the proposed annex
was conceived of as a new platform to engage with a man-made
landscape in the dense urban environment of the city.
The new structure was conceived of as bridging device, a new
element that would bring together the natural and the built
environments. This new unifying element was intended to fuse
both the identities of the School of Architecture and the School of
Construction within the existing building and merge both into a
single identity that hinged around the annex.
The project was envisioned as a new circulatory spine that would
feed into various social and terraced landscapes on each of the
floors. The structure was devised as a series of tiered verandas that
could produce and supply food to the restaurant and cafés within
both the Linen Hall and the Bolton Street buildings of DIT.
Site Plan NTS
Cap
el S
t
Bolto
n S
t
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Site Location
Early 3D of Courtyard and Annex
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Ground Floor_not to scale
First Floor_not to scale
Second Floor_not to scale
Third Floor_not to scale
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Section a-a_not to scale
Annex Circulation SpineProposed Door Handle Detail_not to scale
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Final 3D of Proposed Courtyard and Annex
Proposed Roof Allotments
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Photos of model demonstrating the internal circulation core and terraced internal social zones
and external landscaped zones
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Thesis:
a creation of an artificial landscape, bringing a natural environment into the
consciousness of the inner city, integrating building and topography and
growing food at source.
Antithesis:
- Is there enough for the apple trees in the courtyard? The stairs are nice
but not a testing point for your idea.
- You seem to want to make a new typology. Be careful as guerrilla
gardening can get dismissed as greening without a strong architecture.
- After the wall fell in Berlin, lots of squatted land became farms and places
of education. This happened in unused places of the city, where land was
not in commercial demand.
- Green city projects seem flabby because they ignore pressures inherent
in the city. There are two ideas in the project but they are disconnected.
- The architecture doesn’t back up the idea of the allotments on the roof.
The circulation should allow the two routes to happen – the students and
gardeners. You shouldn’t have to go inside to get to the allotments. The
architecture should support both environments.
Synthesis:
The focus shifts to one concerned with investigating the ground and
education outside the commercial demands of the urban city core.
How can the ground be maniplated archtecturally?
The critique left many questions to be answered about how architecture
can challenge the land strategy of the modern day city. How can a
building adopt an attitude to the ground, what form can this take and what
location is suitable for such a building within the urban grid?3D Render of Annex
CRITIQUE
PROJECT 2
THE URBAN ORGANIC YARD
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SITE #1
Bolands Mill, Grand Canal Dock
This site is a self contained urban block within the south inner city. Note the
internal street pattern and proximity to the Grand Canal.
This site has access to open outdoor space, vacant large buildings and
the water.
From the uppermost floors of the store buildings, views to the Wicklow
Mountains over the city and views to the water below create a sense of
connection with nature and the world at large.
The city can be thus observed and engaged with through the site.
TESTING GROUND: SELECTING A SUITABLE SITE
The Linen Hall design had determined a strong interest in landscape within
the city.
Conflicting ideas regarding the natural landscape of the rural countryside
versus the hard landscape of the urban yard are clearly reflected in the
search for a suitable site for further exploration.
Two sites of very different natures were chosen within Dublin for a closer
investigation.
Site Plan_not to scale
Bird’s Eye View of Site
View of Wicklow Moutains to the South
Site Location
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SITE #2
Broombridge - Liffey Junction, Cabra
This site is a wedge of undeveloped land in the northern suburbs of
Dublin. Enclosed by industrial and residential estates, it has been all but
forgotten by the city and its inhabitants.
This location boasts 15 acres of open land and has direct access to a train
station, the Royal Canal and an existing pedestrian and cycle path.
The primary restraints within the site are the estates that define its edge.
However, there is direct access to the suburbs that define the north of the
city and an opportunity for further connection to the city at larger through
the existing infrastructure that penetrates the site.
Here, the remants of a rural topography and unoccupied territory provides
an exciting opportunity for rethinking landscape within the city and its
suburbs.
After much consideration, it was decided that the Broombridge Site
provided a much richer opportunity for reconsidering the role of landscape
within the city.
It is argued that as it sits outside the land hungry demands of the urban
core, this uninterrupted land can become a testing ground for the city of
the future.
Site Location
Aerial Photo of Site (site = green)
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UNDERSTANDING BROOMBRIDGEBroombridge is a suburban interchange, bordered to the north by Dublin
Industrial Estate and to the south by the residential developments of the
1940s. The site is divided in two by the Royal Canal that runs through the
land. This canal connects the land to the inner city’s docklands and the
mouth of the River Liffey.
There has been no previous occupation on the Broombridge site save for a
dismantled railway platform. It is primarilly a green field site that is locked
between suburban estates and forgotten by the city.
A train line also passes along the northern edge of the site and provides
another connection to Connolly Station and Dublin’s city centre.
Broombridge is a veritable wildscape that exists outside the
consciousness of the city and its suburban hinterland.
Parks & Gardens in close proximity to Broombridge
Green Spaces & Urban Clusters in proximity of Broombridge
Broombridge Rail Platform
Site Grain
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Map of Building Uses
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Map of Vacant (grey) & Food Related (green) Buildings
Indoor market that currently takes place in the Dublin Industiral Estate to the north of the site
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Weekend Uses in the Dublin Industrial Estate
Church services, the food market and
driving classes dominant the estate
during this time
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Topographical Map of Broombridge
Images demonstrating the various topographies of the area
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Redevelopment of Unimetal Site_ Dominique Perrault
The objective of this project was to identify the assets and potentialities
of the site and from this, to define what the future might hold. There was
no desire for a new layout or a new town but rather a ‘savage desire to
connect and reconnect nature and architecture’.
The project attempts to give the varied locations within the site a defined
identity and to establish an interplay between them and the surrounding
town.
Near the river, a planted avenue is placed alongside the town, a man-
made natural boundary between the built and unbuilt. The valley the
plateau and the ridge
The flat plateau holds traces of former factory facilities and these are used
as guides that help set up an interweave between countryside and the
urbanisation of the town.
At head of the valley, an old road that partially crossed the site is
connected back to the town, reconnecting neighbourhoods at either end.
Perrault’s methods here thread lightly through the site. He wishes to do
that which is only essential. To gently re-establish identities and mark out a
framework for the future.
INVESTIGATION OF ARCHITECTURE & GROUNDWORK
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Above: The concept drawing depicting the earth
breaking up and becoming the built programme.
Left: plan and section of the Baths shows the
project sitting into the land
Right: The narrow shafts of light reinforce the idea
of being submerged deep into the land.
Below: The facade that projects out of the site
frames the views of the area and connects views
back to the local landscape and references.
The Baths at Val_ Peter Zumthor
‘Mountain, stone, water, building in stone, building into the mountain,
building out of the mountain…’
Zumthor has created a powerful connection between site and environment,
land and building with the baths at Val. Partially sunken into the hillside,
this spa complex is built of monolithic layered stone, sourced from a
nearby quarry.
Entering the baths is akin to entering the earth: visitors leave a cave-like
reception and proceed down a dark hallway into the bowels of the earth.
Everything about this structure emphasises its half buried nature – the
tactile stone walls, the reverberating acoustics bouncing off water and
stone and the deep, narrow light openings that allow thin shafts of light to
penetrate the bathing spaces below.
The darkest spaces of all are those nearest the earth, the place where
building and land merge into one.
This project constantly reinforces the idea of building into the land, out of
the land and using the land.
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Above & Left: The successive planting stages will create a varied density
of trees at different stages of maturity; marking time and change in the city
Bordeaux’s Right Bank_Michel Desvigne
The right bank of the Garonne River is hollowing out as the old industries of
the area are closing up and relocating away from the centre of Bordeaux.
Large tracts of vacant land are posing a real threat to the vitality of the city
core and Desvigne is proposing a radical solution: a new city centre park.
Bordeaux has few parks within the city walls so this proposal was
welcomed by the city. A three stage successive planting programme has
been drawn up based on the time it takes the city to buy back the various
lots along the river bank. A forest of varied density and growth and will
appear over time on the water’s edge.
This new landscape determines shapes of future building islands without
setting down the contours in an absurdly strict manner. Building up the
forest in stages, this land will bear the mark of time and change in the city.
The landscape projects are a permanent construction site, allowing for
change and acknowledging it.
‘A stand of young trees is already the image of a possible future’
Above: The park plan provides a framework for future building patterns in the quarter
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Above: The processional route leading to the main burial area
Igualada Cemetery_Enric Miralles
Built into an old quarry site, the Igualada Cemetery challenges the
traditional notions of a burial place. From the entrance gate, visitors
descend a winding processional route down into the earth, down to the
main burial area at the opposite end of the site.
The tiered concrete landscape unfolds into the natural landscape beyond
and the gabion walls and embedded railroad ties echo the rough terrain of
the surrounding hills.
This sunken earthwork’s palette of earthy materials (concrete, stone and
wood) blends the scheme into the land as though it were a natural part of
the environment. Deep and silent, this burial site is a quite sanctuary of
reflection, memories and connection.
The use of local materials and the manipulation of the existing topography
all come together to anchor this project firmly in its location. It feels as
though this space has always existed here. This is a project that sits
seamlessly in its context.
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Model Exploration of Architecture & Groundwork Archery Range, Barcelona_Enric Miralles
This structure services the surface along its front, its placement and shape
defined by the earthen embankment into which it sits.
The structure emerges from the embankment and sinks back into the land
further along its length. Its back wall acts as a retainer, holding back the
land from the flat surface into which the building faces.
The folding roof creates an almost linear edge in plan but from the ground
this space reads as an undulating roof, a series of rhythmic spaces that
move and morph along the border of the site. It is an exciting and dynamic
strip of sheds and shelters.
To fully explore the qualities of these roofs, I decided to create some model
replicas of the structure in an attempt to learn more about their form and
structural possibilities.
Conceptual models exploring possible roof arrangementsSite Plan
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Archery roof sinking into embankment
Folding Roof
Conceptual model exploring possible arrangements of a series of roofs on an embankment in BroombridgeRoof Structural Detail
Model exploring two different roof structural compositions
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PROGRAMME
Following the investigation into architecture and the ground, it felt
appropriate that any proposed programme for Broombridge should reflect
this desire for contact with the ground.
In bringing together the idea of groundworks and a landscape related
brief, the author aspired to explore the possibility of open land in the
suburbs and an architecture that could bridge landscape and city in a new
and stimulating form.
It was thus decided that the most suitable brief was an organic outdoor
education centre.
This centre was to offer the opportunity for physical activity and
engagement with the immediate surrounds through exercises such as
climbing, kayaking, cycling, hiking, skiing, zip lining, outdoor survival skills,
surfing, free diving, swimming, first aid, water skiing, etc
A second element of the brief was harvesting of the land for food
and providing locally sourced and produced fruit and vegetables for
the community. On site facilities such as ‘Grow Your Own’ classes, a
community vegetable project, organic cookery school and market space
would encourage and stimulate physical interaction with the ground and
her produce.
Reflecting the earlier ethos discussed as part of the author’s school of
thought, these programmatic activities were drawn up to provide an
opportunity for a hands-on manipulation of the landscape and an active
engagement with the immediate surrounds.
Initial Brief_Stage One
Library
Public Yard/Market Space
Seminar Space
3 x Classrooms/ Workshops
Café
Exhibition/Rental Space
Harvest Shop
3 x Store Rooms
4 x Offices
2 x Conference Rooms
Reception
Final Brief_Stage Two
Indoor Activity Centre
Boat House
Bike Workshop
Hostel
Gardening Workshop
Cooking & Preserves
Workshop
Irish Soil & Geology
Exhibition
Media Room
DIY Gardening Exhibition
Space
Retail Unit
Reception
Café
concept model of an urban man made ground
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1. Library
2. Seminar Space
3. Classroom Workshop
4. Barn Store
5. Café
6. Exhibition/Rental Space
7. Retail
8. Store
9. Office
10. Conference
11. Reception
Design Stage One
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Ground Floor Plan_not to scale
Structural 3D of Exhibition Space
Map Showing Access Routes to Building
Massing Model
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Section BB
Section CC
Section AA
A
A
B
B
C
C
page 33Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Ground Floor Plan
1. Activity Centre
2. Boat House
3. Bike Workshop
4. Hostel
5. Gardening Workshop
6. Cooking & Preserves Workshop
7. Irish Soil & Geology Exhibition
8. Media Room
9. DIY Gardening Showroom
10. Retail
11. Reception
12. CaféFront Elevation
Section a-a
Unlocking the unused land Crop Rows along railway edgeRehabilitating Vacant Plots
Design Stage Two
1
2
3
4
5
6
7 8
9
10
11
12
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Land StrategyThe following pages present the ground strategy intended for design stage
two of this project. Planting the land and harvesting its produce was a key
component within the programme of the proposed building design.
The Produce & Related Strutures
1. Apple & Pear Orchard
With a North - South orientation these tress can achieve maximum sunlight
penetration. Once the trees are
fully mature after15 years they will bear an average of 120kg of fruit per
season.
*Trees shade the soil, providing a cooler surface which absorbs rainwater
more easily. Their leaf litter changes the chemical properties of the soil as
it provides nutrients that in turn enrich the land.
2. Grain and Fruit Barn
Harvested crops stored here are kept at a cool, temperate environment out
of direct sunlight.
3. Glasshouses
These spaces enable the rgowing season to start in Decemember and
protect seedling from the dangers of frost in the late Winter months. These
glasshouses also house the more exotic foods that require a warmer
climate
4. Walled Kitchen Garden
This garden provided the foods for the neighbouring cookery school. As
an existing walled property, it closely aligns an axis of NE-SW, which is the
optimum orientation for maximum heat retention in Ireland.
Conference Pear Ecklinville Cairn Russet Irish Peach Apple Kerry Pippin Lady’s Finger
5. Crop Rows
With an optimum orientation of East-West as required in Ireland, these crop
rows provide a modest food supply to be sold to the local market. This
in turn covers the maintenance costs incurred in growing and harvesting
the crops as the majority of the work completed is part of the school
cirriculum.
6. Allotments
This small number of plots are available to the oublic who do not have ac-
cess to a garden or who wish to grow vegetables outside of their property
grounds.
7. Existing Water Tank
Provides access to brown water for planting and cleaning needs within
close proximity to the structure.
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page
Site Strategy_not to scale
35
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CRITIQUEThesis:
The suburban landscape generates a programme that feeds and supports
itself, creating a user intensive occupation of the land and a raison d’être
for an open landscape within the area.
Antithesis:
- Why are there not more models?
- Points of threshold between the city and space
- Consider a critique of the proposed luas lines
- Great site with a lot of good work done
- Value the Industrial/Light Engineering tradition
- What is your intention architecturally with the buildings?
- The Garden City Movement is an important intellectual background - the
Garden City Utopian ideas are relevant
- The positioning of the buildings is critical – they occupy planting space
- Is there a contradiction in an urban yard and intensifying the suburban
ground?
- Perhaps the buildings can occupy and spread out and take ownership?
- All agreed to take the site on for the thesis project.
Synthesis:
Some quick decisions were made during the reviews as they were obvious
issues that could be addressed directly. The proposed luas terminal that
the council have planned for part of the site has not yet happened so this
should not be considered as a current limitation within the land.
The architectural intention of the design while still somewhere unclear,
already demonstrates a certain regard for the industrial context. This
needs further exploration in order to clarify how this language expresses
itself in my design. Spreading the buildings out across the site would help
take ownership of the landscape and is worth additional study.
There is still some confusion about the thesis position with regards to
an urban yard versus an intensive suburban ground. This project has
developed a stronger desire to purse the qualities of the suburban
landscape and so I feel at this point that this is the direction the thesis will
take.
POSITION PAPER
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Introduction
‘It is a city of extraordinary technology but at first glance
appears indistinguishable from nature. It is an artificial
reef that grows and decays and grows again as the city
becomes a cyclic ecosystem. A city as a geological
formation of caves and grottos covered by a thick layer of
soil and slime, a biological soup of human and non-human
inhabitants. The city and us are one, a symbiotic life form.’
Liam Young of ‘Tomorrows Thoughts Today’ assembled a
think tank of scientists, technologists, futurists, illustrators,
science fiction authors and special effects artists to
collectively develop this imaginary place, the city of
Tomorrow. Across the course of the exhibition invited
guests work with the city as a stage set to develop
a collection of narratives, films and illustrations. The
exhibition invites you to wander through this near future
world and explore the possibilities and consequences of
today’s emerging biological and technological research.
The exhibition opened for Dutch design week on October
20th, 2012 and inviting images were posted online in the
months preceding the opening.
The image that defines this exhibition is the computer
generated illustration of the city at dusk. Here, the future
city is conceived of as both an organic and technological
construct, an artificial reality and yet one in sync with its
environment and landscape. The dense city rises vertically
among the rocky outcrops of its environs, responding
to the intensive demands on the ground below and yet
still accommodates the needs and inhabitants of this
extraordinary place.
There is a strong sense of transience in this city; the
organic constructions appear sufficient as shelters yet
exceedingly temporary, as though likely to become vacant
at any moment. And should the citizens vacate the city
overnight there is the impression that this place would
quickly wither and fade, disappearing back into the
surrounds from which it emerged.
There is a certain attitude toward the topography of the
land also. Gone is the present day approach cutting
into the ground, clearing the way for construction and
blasting out those rocky outcrops for a simpler and more
accessible cityscape. Respect for the geography of place
and a concept of touching lightly upon the ground that
hosts the city is robustly evident here.
The future city is one of intensive symbioses, respect and
a strong regard for the natural environment.
Right: Fig 1: Under Tomorrow’s Sky
Aim of the Research
This photograph (right) was presented as one of a series
of thoughts set out in September 2012 at the start of the
thesis journey. Lingering and evocative, it is its black and
white palette that every much defines a connection that
would have been obscured in a coloured image. Drawn
to this photo throughout the first semester, it was difficult
to fully express in words what meaning was attached to
it. The photograph followed alongside the initial stages of
design and investigation and slowly its meaning became
apparent.
The primary focus of the image is the framed mountain
beyond, removed and viewed from the snug bed of
the photographer. A relationship between the distant
landscape and the secure dwelling has been established.
The light inside directs the gaze onto the peaks and
valleys in the bed clothes, a micro landscape, shaped and
formed by the viewer in bed. A connection forms in the
mind. Mountains inside, mountains outside; the man-made
‘mountains’ mimic the landscape outside, but they are
produced solely by the movements of the occupier of the
bed.
There is another underlying theme in this image – the
notion of disconnection. The fact that the camera is
viewing the landscape through a frame outside of its own
suggests a separation and disengagement from the land
beyond the realm of man’s constructed reality.
This thesis therefore aims to investigate man’s adaptation
of landscape within the realm of greatest disconnection -
the city.
Above: Fig 2: Mountains Inside, Mountains Outside
Context of the Research
Born and raised in rural north-east Galway, issues of land
utility and productive treatment of the ground have always
been foremost in the mind of the author. Living between
two quarries for all of his childhood, there is a strong
appreciation that land is seen only as infinite commodity
by those who exploit her resources. Rural planning policies
or lack thereof, the trend toward ribbon housing and ad-
hoc celtic tiger ballooning of small rural villages all confirm
an attitude of disregard and planning ignorance when it
comes to issues of appropiate levels of intensive land use.
A strong desire to present an alternative view of land use,
production intensity and occupation density all combine to
drive this research forward.
Methodology
Evidence of these types of productive landscapes is
the main source by which this exploration is conducted.
Starting with the initial image of ‘Mountains Outside,
Mountain Inside’, being an expansion of the ideas of
landscape outlined in ‘Under Tomorrow’s Sky’, a further
exploration is made through investigation of other projects
and sites of a similar condition.
1. Nature Park, Sudgelande, Berlin
Fifty years of natural succession have converted a derelict
station at the centre of Berlin into an extremely diverse
pocket of natural landscape within the city. The nature
park Sudgelande is situated on part of a formerly much
larger freight railway yard that was built at the end of the
19th Century. After World War II the train service was
discontinued and the Sudgelande was chiefly abandoned.
On most of the site, natural succession began to take hold.
The political situation in Berlin after the war resulted in
the Sudgelande falling under the jurisdiction of East
Berlin authorities even though the rail yard was located in
West Berlin. The site was also surrounded by a guarded
fence and heavily used roads so that the land was
almost completely inaccessible to the local city dwellers.
Consequently, the site became completely disconnected
from the city which allowed for uninterrupted growth and
ecological development.
At the end of the 1970s, the site came to the attention of
the city once more when the authorities wanted to re-
establish a shunting station on the land. Pressure was put
on the government by local citizens’ groups who wanted
the site to become a nature park and an ecological
assessment was carried out on the area. Sudgelande was
shown to be one of the most valuable ecological areas in
the city because of its immense diversity of flora and
fauna. As a result of this, the idea of putting a shunting
station on the land was scrapped.
The nature park was not established for some time
however as again the history of Berlin had a role to play.
After the reunification of Germany, the German railway
company finally transferred ownership of the site to the
state in 1996 as ecological compensation. Ecological
compensation is a system in Germany whereby any
unavoidable negative effects developments have on the
environment must be offset by the implementation of
nature conservation and landscape management. The
park was finally opened in May 2000.
With regards to strategies and landscape management on
site, the nature park had to address two challenges from
the beginning: how to open the site without endangering
the rich flora and fauna present and how to decide if the
natural vegetation dynamic should be managed or not.
Results of two previous vegetation studies demonstrated
that in a 10 year period the percentage of woodland had
doubled. Ongoing succession would have resulted in the
compete reforestation of the site in a short period of time.
Therefore a decision was made to combine both natural
dynamics and controlled processes to ensure a rich
variety of vegetation remained on the land.
The following three principles were adopted as the guiding
framework for the park’s development:
1. The land was zoned into three space typologies:
clearings, groves (lightly forested) and woodlands.
2. A path system within the park was developed
based on the structure of the old rail yard and followed the
routes of some of the old train tracks.
3. Natural and cultural elements were persevered
were possible. This included such features as railway
signals, watercranes, the old turntable and a water tower.
This project demonstrates the possibilities of designing
wilderness and making it accessible to the public.
Contrasting nature with fabricated elements highlights
both nature and culture. Compared with other large
parks that turn their backs on the city, the Nature Park
Sudgelande is closely connected to the city, a natural
urban phenomenon.
Fig 3 – Sudgelande Nature Park
Below: Figs 4 & 5 – Sudgelande Nature Park.
Below: Fig 6 – Sudgelande Aerial Photo
2. Havanna, Cuba
With a population of 11.22 million inhabitants, 75% of
which live in cities, Cuba’s agriculture and foods supply
were heavily dependent on imports in the 1980’s. These
dependencies were such that the nation imported 100%
of its wheat, 90% of its beans and 57% of all calories
consumed. The collapse of the Eastern Europe block in
the early 1990s with which Cuba had conducted 80% of its
trade resulted in massive economic turmoil. At the same
time, the strengthening of the US economic, financial and
political sanctions combined with the aforementioned
collapse severely affected food supply within Cuba.
It is estimated that there was a 67% reduction of food
availability in 1994.
The major challenge was how to generate effective
mechanisms to meet food needs within the country. Many
governmental, trade and market reforms were put in place
and a National Alternative Agricultural Model (NAAM) was
put in effect in 1990. One important aspect of this model
was the replacement of high levels of imported agricultural
inputs with indigenously developed methods for pest
and disease control, soil fertility and other issues. Other
features of this model included the restructuring of the land
property of large state-owned farms into smaller units with
co-operative property and the introduction of a free market
for foodstuffs.
The crisis had generated the immediate individual
response of many groups and citizens to start growing
vegetables and in parallel encouragement was given by
the city government to other inhabitants and co-operatives
in urban areas to also become vegetable producers.
Exploitation of the open spaces within the urban frame
and available areas within productive, educational,
recreational and healthcare facilities were all used for the
production of food. Vegetables were even planted in the
front of the Ministry of Agriculture and in the backyard of
the state council building. A massive breeding of pigs in
these areas was illegally extended to central urban areas
including houses and flats.
An important feature in Cuba’s ability to rapidly respond
with an alternative model has been its success in
mobilising science and technology and the social
investment in education. Many of the new technologies
had been actively researched for a decade or so in
Cuba before the circumstances arose that made their
implementation necessary. There are strong links here
between research and organisations and consequently
a very short time delay between research innovation and
application of research results.
In Cuba today urban agriculture is seen as a way to
bring producers and consumers closer together in
order to achieve a steady supply of fresh, healthy, and
varied products directly from the production site to the
consumers. The advantage of the dense urban population
is that agriculture is intensively implemented to maximise
the productive potential of the land within each territory.
Diversification of crops and animals guarantees a phased
performance all year round.
Havana’s organic urban agriculture is extraordinarily
successful, such that fresh produce offered at the farm
gate is cheaper than that brought from the countryside into
city’s markets. While the focus of urban agriculture outside
of Havana has been the creation of jobs, in the city itself
its primary function is in the reduction in prices for food
related products. The most recent master plan for Havana
now covers urban agriculture as a permanent urban
function of the city. High school students even have the
option to study urban agriculture as part of their curriculum
if they so wish. Today urban agriculture is now a way of
life in Havana, it has become integrated into every facet of
urban life in the city.
Top R-L: Figs 7 & 8 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture
Bottom Left: Fig 9 – Vegetable Plots
Bottom Right: Fig 10 – Cultivating the Lan
Parc de la Villette - OMA Competition Entry
The Parc de la Villette site was the typical metropolitan
condition of Europe: a large tract of vacant land
sandwiched between the historical city and the individual
cells of suburbia. It was a cleared space of emptiness with
infinite potential. In the competition entry, the architects
were free to propose a whole new quarter, a fragment
of the new city of the future. Offered the opportunity
to imagine an ideal instalment of late 20th century life,
OMA’s proposed project is not for a definitive park but for
a method that - combining programmatic instability with
architectural specificity - would eventually generate a park.
OMA found it difficult to reconcile architecture and
landscape within the context of the city and this was
reflected in statements such as ‘The permanence of even
the most frivolous item of architecture and the instability
of the metropolis are incompatible.’ In this conflicted
sates, OMA reasoned that the city is always the winner
as architecture is reduced to the status of throwaway
structure.
OMA decided that La Villette could be more radical
by suppressing the three-dimensional aspect almost
completely and proposing pure program instead,
unencumbered by any containment. In this analogy, the
bands across the site were like the floors of a building,
each program different and autonomous, but modified and
affected through the proximity of all others. Their order was
somewhat insecure as the only stability offered was by the
natural elements such as the rows of trees and the round
forest; and the instability of these was ensured simply
through growth.
Their proposal comprised of five primary moves:
1. The programmatic elements are distributed in horizontal
bands across the site, allowing for a continuous identity
in its length and rapid change in experience across the
bands.
2. Some facilities - kiosks, playgrounds, barbecue spots,
etc are located mathematically according to different point
grids.
3. The addition of a “round forest” as an architectural
feature.
4. Connections
5. Superimpositions
What OMA finally suggested for the park was the intensive
use of the landscape: density without architecture, a
culture of “invisible” congestion.
Productive Landscape in the City
Productive landscape is defined as an ‘open urban
space planted and managed in such a way as to be
environmentally and economically productive, for example,
providing food from urban agriculture, pollution absorption,
the cooling effect of trees or increased biodiversity from
wildlife corridors.’ (Viljoen, 2005) It is important to note
here that the term ‘urban’ is used in this paper as an
umbrella term for the city in its entirety, including both the
urban centre and its suburban fringes.
Authors such as Borcke (2002) make a strong argument
for value of landscape in the city, an idea that the
presence of nature is not just to make places look greener
but also to influence the form of city development. There
is one fundamental ideal within the author’s work however
that jars with the focus of this paper. Borcke puts forward
the notion that the man-made city is added to the natural
environment and should respond to the land rather than
the other way around. She envisions the city and natural
landscape as an integrated system of green spaces and
development with an uninterrupted natural topography as
its base.
Borcke’s idea has over-simplified the relationship between
man, the city and the natural environment. As the city is a
man-made construct, it responds first to the needs of man
before the needs or sensitivities of the local topography.
The docklands of Dublin is a perfect example of this. Since
the 17th century the city has encroached ever more toward
the water’s edge using the land hungry technologies
of setting revetments and backfilling which allowed for
the reclaiming of land from both the Irish Sea and the
River Liffey (McCullough, 2007). The river bank today is
delineated by a series of man-made quays that define
the river’s edge, a clear demonstration of the commercial
needs of man superseding any concern for the once
natural topographical junction of land and water.
Indeed, in many cities, to simply adopt such a landscape
attitude would be impossible as all remnants of the past
topography and natural environs have all but vanished
completely. Besides, as more and more rural landscape is
cultivated by man and primarily used for the sole purpose
of supplying urban markets (Viljoen, 2005), the availability
of a truly natural and untouched environment rapidly
diminishes. In today’s reality, it is time to investigate the
value of an artificial naturalness – a managed landscape
Above: Figs 11, 12 & 13 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette.
Fig 14 – ‘Landscape as Ground’ Diagram
that brings with it all the values and traits of the natural
terrain but within the conditions and demands of man.
For many people, landscape in the city is conceived
of as green spaces and parklands, beautiful and open
spaces but ultimately underused and unoccupied. This is
difficult to resolve and protect within the demands of the
land hungry city; the question often becomes one of open
space versus construction intensive occupation. Certainly
building on the land provides a greater return for man – the
open plot is now occupied and utilised far more rigorously
than it would have done as an often vacant ‘green’ space.
But there is an alternative and third option that is rarely
considered: that of landscape intensification.
Landscape intensification can be defined as the layering
of inter-dependent and co-existing plant and animal life
to maximise the land’s potential. This idea was clearly
demonstrated in OMA’s proposal for the Parc de la
Villette with its bands of activity and varied use across
the site in Paris. This layering can incorporate economic,
social, environmental and agricultural uses which would
encourage a concentrated and thorough use of the soil
and add value to the land that far outweighs the concept
of the empty green belt or parklands of the city as we
understand them today. It is also worth noting that a plot
can be intensified along both horizontal and vertical
planes. Horizontal intensification being the most common
option in the past and present, allows for the layering of
various uses across the land as described previously.
Vertical intensification on the other hand can be achieved
by the construction of a building or series of platforms
on-site, allowing more space for agricultural, vegetation or
social use.
Testing the Theory
The opportunity to explore the design of an intervention
for the newly formed Dublin School of Architecture and
Construction provided an occasion to explore the thoughts
and case studies previously covered in this paper. The
brief called for an installation that could provide a new
single identity for what is at present two physically divided
schools located in Linen Hall, a building owned and
occupied by Dublin Institute of Technology and located at
the end of Yarnhall Street.
The proposal put forward was an early attempt to explore
the possibility of productive landscape in the city centre
and also to address the physical division within the
building. The annex design that was submitted embodied
both of these ideas and aimed to instil a new raison d’être
for the Linen Hall building. The annex accommodated a
new central stair core with social spaces that were stacked
vertically upwards along the spine of this circulation core.
This relocation of existing services freed up space on the
ground floor of the existing building which allowed for the
creation of a communal gathering space with exhibition,
social and lecturing uses.
Externally, the stacked annex housed a tiered landscape
that ascended from the planted courtyard to the allotment
gardens on the flat roof of the existing school. This new
landscape was created with the intention of supplying
herbs and vegetables for the school canteen while the
roof allotments were to be shared with the residents of the
social housing block that sits adjacent to the grounds of
the Linen Hall. The annex was envisioned as a crossover
space between nearby residents, students and tutors;
a communal hub of investigation, communication and
cultivation.
After much discussion and reflection, it was agreed that
while this early intervention held promise for a productive
landscape within the city, this site was simply not suitable
to fully explore the extent and possibilities of this thesis.
Strong commercial demands within the urban centre of
Dublin meant that the city centre would no doubt prove
itself a difficult canvas on which to apply any significant
landscape moves. Furthermore, the scale at which
such a move would be made could not realistically be
accommodated within the already development intense
core of the city. Linen Hall’s proposed annex was viewed
more as an act of guerrilla gardening than a productive
landscape and therefore it was essential to explore the
extended city for a stronger staring point from which to test
the thesis subject.
Fig 15 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette.Proposed Allotments on Roof of Existing Building
Section of Annex showing tiered planted terraces
Right: Image of proposed courtyard
Below: Internal 3D of new circulation core
Intensifying Suburbia
The move away from the Dublin’s urban core allowed for
a wider frame of thought and an opportunity to consider
the implications of landscape within the city’s suburbs.
Here, in the outer reaches of the city, the idea of city
living and value of the land become distorted through
the lens of what Le Corbusier termed ‘a sterile isolation
of the individual’ (Viljoen, 2005). The suburbs propagate
the great illusion of the individual home away from the
collective intensity of the city core. This focus on the
individual in the suburbs marks the dilution in city density
as low lying housing, industrial and business estates
scatter outward into the open hinterland of the city’s
fringes. This sprawl is the anti-thesis of the city, an act of
de-urbanisation and a dislocation from both the city and
the countryside. It is a place neither within nor outside the
dense urban realm.
In the coming decades, the city is likely to see population
surge and city sprawl can only grow so far before it
consumes the land that feeds it. There exists a symbiotic
balance between urban and agricultural land that needs
to be upheld for the survival of the city and its inhabitants.
This provides a strong argument now to intensify the land
use of suburbia, to introduce the density and variety of
the urban core and to demand more production and value
from the lands that we so willingly build upon and then
forget.
Choosing a site for further study proved quite a challenge
as the location had to provide opportunity for renewal
without the need of removing any existing development
or infrastructure within the immediate environs. Like the
urban agriculture model in Cuba, it was essential that any
landscape intervention would have to occur in an existing
open space in the city’s suburbs. Ultimately a site of 15
The Broombridge site is a suburban interchange, bordered
to the north by Dublin Industrial Estate and to the south
by the residential developments of the 1940s; it has a
condition reminiscent of the site for the Parc de la Villette
in Paris. Like the canals of La Villette, Broombridge
also has a canal that runs through the site and splits it
in two. This canal (the Royal Canal) connects the land
back to the inner city’s docklands. There has been no
previous occupation on the Broombridge site except for a
dismantled railway platform. It is a green field site that is
land locked between developments and forgotten by the
city in much the same manner as the Sudgelande site was
in Berlin. A train line also passes along the northern edge
of the site and provides another connection to Connolly
Station and Dublin’s city centre. Some small scale urban
agriculture occurs here already as locals have managed to
gain access to the fenced off land and are grazing a small
number of horses on the grasslands at present.
In comparing the earlier case studies discussed, a pattern
of comparable approaches and attitudes emerge. All
three typologies adopt an idea of thorough and extensive
land use, from the intensive urban agriculture of Havana,
to the managed forest densities of Sudgelande and
even the programmatically dense proposals for the Parc
de la Villette. It seems that a rigorous use of landscape
and programme produces richness within the city that
can be achieved beyond the realm of construction
and development. There is a collective idea of the
importance of the ground and the many functions and
uses it can sustain. Applying such an approach to the
land at Broombridge would no doubt produce an exciting
programme and an intensively used site beyond anything
that the suburb currently yields.
These case studies also share another key quality of
interest: an immediacy of connection within the city.
The Sudgelande Park with its wide ecological variety
is a veritable zoo of flora and fauna on the doorstep
of the centre of Berlin while the easy access to food
markets, open space and research in Havana ensured
the early success of urban agriculture in the city. OMA’s
proposals focused on the notion of varied programmes
that lay in close proximity to each other, encouraging
cross-pollination and multiplicity within the city park. All
three projects act as a guiding light for a programme at
Broombridge, a communal landscape that will enable new
opportunities, connections and the convenience of the
land in the suburbs.
deemed particularly suitable for such an investigation. This
site bordered the area of Broombridge in North Cabra, one
of the older suburban estates in the city (OS Map, 1944).
Broombridge Site
Site Location within the City
Photograph of Broombridge Sign on Train Platform
Reflection
As discussed by Flanagan (2012), in the times before
industrialisation the city walls defined the boundary
between urban and rural - the city remained directly
related to what it ingested and so man and earth had a
dependence on each other and an conscious awareness
of their symbiotic relationship. The city cannot survive
without the agricultural hinterland that supports and feeds
it.
Intensifying suburban land has an undeniable validity
today if the city is to re-evaluate its relationship with
the land. Rather than the endless development and
consumption of ground on the urban fringes, the city
must consider the possibilities of densifying its suburban
land use if the metropolis is to remain sustainable.
Intensifying the land can be achieved without the density
of architecture as confirmed by OMA in their proposition
for the Parc de la Villette. The earth and her soil is in finite
supply, yet this has been forgotten in the frenzied growth
of the recent past. An intense cultivation of the land is a
call for a collective consciousness and a balanced value
system with regards to the future co-dependency of city
and land.
As argued by Desvigne (2009), this attitude to the land
does not include a fascination with today’s prevailing
subject of sustainable development and it is not a
response to the general panic over the need to save the
planet. This paper is a focus on the reality of resources
within the city, its finite supply and how we can move
forward with respect and consideration for that which
sustains us.
This study wishes to pursue the importance of land
intensification and agricultural patterns in generating a
productive landscape for the future city. The negotiation
of architecture and landscape with regard to the conflict
between agriculture and suburban culture are important
questions to be addressed.
Sustainability and cultivation will be interrogated through
the lens of suburban disconnection and segregation with
respect to generating an architecture that can affirm the
potential of the land and the city.
Architecture is a product of man’s manipulations of his
environment; a frame through which he perceives and
understands the world at large. We have shaped and
constructed our man-made world, now we must strive to
sustain and maintain it.
Fig 16 – Allegory of Good Government.
Bibliography
Basdevant, M et al (2009) ‘Intermediate Natures - The Landscapes of
Michel Desvigne’ Berlin: Birkhäuser Verlag AG
Flanagan, A. (2012) ‘The performing wall : Derryarkin linen mill’
Architecture Thesis. Dublin Institute of Technology
Jorgensen A, & Keenan, R (2012). Urban Wildscapes. Abingdon:
Routledge. P.152-159
OMA Architects (1982) Parc de la Villette, France, Paris, 1982.
Available at: http://oma.eu/projects/1982/parc-de-la-villette
McCullough, N (2007). Dublin An Urban History. 2nd ed. Dublin:
Anne Street Press. p41.
Viljoen, A (2005). Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.
Burlington, Massachusetts: Architectural Press. p4-131 & p135-145
Further Reading
Chittenden, M, 2009, ‘Lettuce Reign Over You’, The Sunday Times, 14
June.
Available from http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/food/
article173199.ece Lettuce Reign Over You [14 June 2009]
Dewey, J (1916). Democracy and Education. Boston: IndyPublish
Glancey, J (1999). Nigel Coates : body buildings and city scapes.
London: Thames & Hudson
Hardingham, S & Rattenbury, K (2012). Supercrit #4 Bernard Tschumi
Parc de la Villette. Abingdon: Routledge
llich, I (1971). Deschooling Society. London: Marion Boyars
Publishers Ltd.
Nolan, B (2006) Phoenix Park: A History and Guidebook. Dublin: The
Liffey Press
Ranciere, J (1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in
Intellectual Emancipation. Stanford. Stanford University Press.
Thomas, R (2003).Sustainable Urban Design – An Environmental
Approach. Abingdon: Spon Press
Woods, L (1997). Radical Reconstruction. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press
Zabalbeascoa, A (1996). Igualada Cemetery – Enric Miralles and
Carme Pinos. London: Phaidon Press Ltd
Image Sources
Fig 1 - Under Tomorrow’s Sky. Available from: http://
undertomorrowssky.liamyoung.org/
Fig 2 – Mountains Outside, Mountains Inside. Available from: http://
www.anothermag.com/loves/view/12976/mountains_outside_
mountains_inside
Fig 3 – Sudgelande Nature Park. Available from: http://www.
panoramio.com/photo/2291004
Figs 4 & 5 – Sudgelande Nature Park. Available from: http://
landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.ie/2010/04/urban-wilderness-poetics-
of-industrial.html
Fig 6 – Sudgelande Aerial Photo. Available from: http://maps.bing.
com
Figs 7 & 8 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture. Available from: http://
kingmaker65.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/cultivosorganoponicos.jpg
Fig 9 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture. Available from: http://
thegoldenspiral.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/cuba-urban-
agriculture2.jpg
Fig 10 – Havana’s Urban Agriculture. Available from: http://inhabitat.
com/urban-farming-movement-sweeps-across-havana-cuba-
providing-50-of-fresh-food/havanaurbanfarm/
Figs 11, 12 & 13 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette.
Available from: http://oma.eu/projects/1982/parc-de-la-villette
Fig 14 – Landscape as ground. Available from: Sustainable Urban
Design – An Environmental Approach. (p.33)
Fig 15 – OMA’s Competition Entry for Parc de la Villette. Available
from: http://stationsurbanremote.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/parc-de-
la-villette/
Fig 16 – Allegory of Good Government. Available from: http://
espacelab.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/city-of-good-government/
THESIS
PROJECT 3
THESIS
page 48Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
PROLOGUE‘Architecture is bound to situation, the site of a building is more than a mere ingredient in its conception. It is its physical and metaphysical foundation.’
Steven Holl, Anchoring
‘‘Urban wildscape’ both as a term and landscape condition can potentially appropriate…any area, space, or building where the city’s normal forces of control have not shaped how we
perceive, use and occupy them.’
Dougal Sheridan, Urban Wildscapes
page 49Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
‘If on arriving at Trude I had not read the city’s name written in big letters,
I would have thought I was landing at the same airport from which I had
taken off. The suburbs they drove me through were no different from the
others, with the same little greenish and yellowish houses. Following the
same signs we swung around the same flower beds in the same squares.
The downtown streets displayed goods, packages, signs that had not
changed at all’
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
There is a sameness about suburbia that dulls the senses and disorientates the mind. They lack the variety of the rural countryside. The low
hills and hollows, the rush-filled swamp, the cluster of firs, the lonely oak tree in the meadow or the ringfort that sits guarded by the hawthorn
bushes. The smell of wild flowers, the varied textures of the grasses, the grainy touch of a tree bark; all of these things speak of a place, a
location, a belonging. The suburbs knows none of this.
page 50Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
CONCEPT
‘A building has one site. In this one situation, its intentions are
collected’ Steven Holl, Anchoring (1991)
We come to see the world around us in our own terms, through our
own interventions. Pattern, form and ideas are taken from our natural
environment and used to alter our reality. We have imitated and
adapted the world so much that what is real, untouched and natural is
no longer clear to us all.
Earlier design work has thrown up questions about the need to build-
ing on the land and how to appropriately occupy the ground. A new
approach is needed.
The built programme is conceived of as a new stratum that responds
to and respects the land that supports it. The concept is a floating
series of spaces, an occupied roof, a counter landscape.
page 51Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
The concept for the school plan is a series of boxes that define spaces and voids within the building. These boxes
serve the more intimate needs of the brief while their order and arrangement define the more open and public
spaces within.
The floor plate is an important element in this idea also. Between the boxes, the floor moves up and down, defining
the use of space and the land underneath. The floor light meets the land at one point of contact and allows entry
here into internal programme of the building above. In places, the floor disappears completely and voids are
created within the plan.
These voids pierce up through the structure, up to the sky above. They allow penetration of the elements down
through the building, down to the landscape below. Wind, rain and sun all pass through the structure and kiss the
land underneath.
The concept can thus be described as a series of boxes and void that sit on an undulating floor plane.
page 52Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Villa Vpro_ MVRDV
The interest with this typology was the
geological form of the floor, the creation of
an artificial landscape and the reconciliation
between an artifical landscape and built
programme.
Greenery that existed where the building now
stands is replaced by a raised grass covered
roof under which lies a stratified series of
different floors. Conceptually, it seem that this
building is an extruded piece of earth.
Expo 2000 Pavilion_ MVRDV
Expo 2000 was the first World Expo in Germany
under the motto of Man, nature and technology.
This fascinating structure examines six different
ways of being of the landscape and how man
might shape his environment to suit his needs
in the future.
The exciting space here is the forested
landscape, the very idea that a real forest could
grow and thrive under a raised building is a
fantastic proposal and feeds into my earlier
concept sketches.
Inspiration
page 53Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Metropol Parasol
This mushroom-like structure
is located in the city of Seville,
Spain.
It has an approximate height
of 26 metre and towers over
the central market space on
ground level. The world’s
largest wooden structure, the
roofscape can be accessed
by the public and acts as a
viewing platform over the city.
The appeal of this structure
is that it acts as a marker in
the landscape, a building of
clear civic use and intention.
The occupied roof gives the
building somewhat sculptural
presence in the city and lacks
the heavy footprint of a more
conventional market hall.
Furthermore, the open nature
of the ground levels allows the
natural elements to penetrate
the site but still provided suf-
ficient shelter in times of poor
weather. This building is very
much in tune with my concept
set out previously.
page 54Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Agadir, OMA
This building can be read as two parts – a roof and a landscape.
A convention centre located on the beachfront, it is a generated landscape that runs underneath with its concave and convex domes,
the ‘forest’ of columns and its shafts of light.
The floor and the ceiling of the veranda are formed by concrete ‘shells’, using the sand dunes as a concept for the formwork. The
upper shell is supported by columns, which are different in height, thickness, and spacing. The locally sourced stone that adorns the
façade gives the building a rock-like appearance and connects it back to the land and its context.
This structure reflects many ideas that cross over with my thesis concept. Again, the idea of a building that sits above the land and
allows movement through the landscape underneath. The difference here is that there is programme that occurs underneath this
landscape and pierces through the artificial land. I feel that this clashes with the thoughts I have of my building’s relationship to the
land and what the natural landscape can offer.
page 55Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Structural Exploration
PROGRAMME & DESIGN
The Organic School
GROUND FLOOR
Market Space
FIRST FLOOR
Reception
Café
Library
Study Room
Reading Room
Garden Workshops
Cooking Workshop
Theory based Classrooms
Community/Performance Space
Social spaces
Administration Office
Toilets
Hydroponics House
Greenhouse Space
Lab Space
Offices
Toilets
Live & Work Incubation Units
4 x one bed residential units
1 x two bed residential unit
Polytunnels
Storage Sheds
Irish Rail Ticket Shelter
Bicycle Shop
page 56Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Designing Through Modelling Exploring the roof form and piercing the surface
page 57Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Designing Through Modelling
_exploring the possibility of occupying the roof
_Introducting an orthogonal grid in plan
_extrapolating the grid into a more complex roof support system
_using structure to define spaces
_consideration of materials used
_occupying the market place underneath the roof
page 58Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Designing Through Modelling
_exploring the possibility of defining spaces uses through lighting
-considering the various social groups and activties that could occur under the roof
_using roof undercroft as a light landscape
_using polygonal cells as sources of artifical light as well as daylight
_using building as a light post for evening social events
_a lighthouse in the landscape
page 59Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Land Strategy
Far left:
Sketches exploring various
aspects of the startegy:
_built programme
_plot grains
_landscape circulation
_land use types
Left:
_Proposed location of buildings
on site
_Land use map
_Land type and area map
page 60Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Site Map of Building Location
Note: trees and raised embankments provide shelter from
the winds in the open air market space
Roof Pattern with rain water paths
page 61Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Drawings of Propsed Structure
Top Left: Ground Floor Plan_not to scale
Top Right: First Floor Plan_not to scale
Left: Section through the building_not to scale
page 62Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
CRITIQUE 1 Thesis:
The community building is the focus of the presentation as it is the largest
structure proposed for the site and is intended as an anchor for the
developing scheme. The solid and void concept can be seen clearly in the
plans. The building is a porous floating entity that allows penetration of the
elements to the ground below.
The early landscape strategy is examining the possibility of using the land
and tress to shelter the exposed space of the ground floor market space.
Antithesis:
- Clear span - what should the space feel like and what should the roof
do? What height should the building be?
- Educational aspect of your brief would work best above the market
- Land strategy needs clarification
- Look at Enric Miralles’ market building in Barcelona
Does the roof have an aesthetic similiar to that of the Hanover Exhibition
Centre?
- Consider how you access the upper level
- A more even spread of light is needed for basketball court on the ground
floor
- Fruit market & Iveagh market – they are semi controlled on ground floor.
You can screen off some areas of the ground floor in a similiar manner.
- Structure can be simplified and reduced. Structural regularity hidden in
roundness – look at Richard Mier’s columns on his 2.7m grid plans
- Try playing with the floor level more in section
Synthesis:
The educational element of my brief will be placed above the market
space as it too large a space to use solely as a community centre.
I am coming to terms with programming the landscape and one of the next
stages is considering how the landscape and the building meet. This will
help establish access to the upper floor and to create semi-defined market
zones on the ground floor.
The next priority is clarifying the structural system that supports the upper
floor and roof.
page 63Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
DEVELOPING THE STRUCTURE THROUGH MAKING
Exploring Structure of Education Centre
_16 m grid
_alternate peaks on portal frames establish a dynamic roof system
_roof form is tested
_structure accommodates solid and void plan concept
page 64Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Exploring Portal Frame Forms
page 65Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Exploring Structure of Education Centre #2
_16 m x 8m grid
_developing the portal frame form
_roof pattern is tested further
_inhabiting the structure
page 66Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Exploring Structure of the Hydro & Residential Blocks
_16 m x 8m grid
_adopting the same portal frame system as the education centre
_junction of void and structure is tested
_height of structures is varied
page 67Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
1:50 Model of Single Bay
_16 m x 8m grid
_exploring the junctions between the glazed
voids, roof and floor plane
_invesitagting the panning options for the
floor plane
_exploring how the timber polygonal celled
roof sits inside the concrete frame work
page 68Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
1:100 Model of Education Centre
_investigation of complete structural system
and how this is resolved with progammatic
planning
page 69Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
OCCUPYING THE SCHEME
Inhabiting the Organic Hall
The Organic Hall houses the market space on the ground floor and an organic school on the upper floor.
Constructed of a series of portal frames, these precast concrete elements will be assembled on site and provide the form and framework that defines the order of the spaces housed
within. Occupying the space above the landscape, the school notes the significance of the land and the potential of the landscape above which it sits. On ground level, the open air
market hall provides a direct connection to the environs that feed it as local harvests ebb and flow through the shelter of this trading space.
The roof of the school is conceived of as a secondary landscape, an undulating series of polygonal cells that provide openings through the roof to the sky above. There are a number
of primary large rectangular voids that pierce this roof and the floor plane below, allowing light and the natural elements down through the building to the market hall underneath the
building.
page 70Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
A B C
A B C
1
2
3
4
86
7
1
9
10
8
11
12
13
14
15
13
Ground Floor Plan_not to scale First Floor Plan_not to scale
South Elevation_not to scale
page 71Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Section A_A
Section B_B
Section C_C
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Corridor overlooking the Central Void
Performance Space
Library
3D Renders
page 73Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Modelling the Programme
Elevation of 1:100 model
Roof Structural SystemRoof Finish
page 74Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Portal Frame System and interconnecting concrete crossbeams Relationship of the building to the rolling landscape underneath
page 75Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Occupying the Model
View into the library View from central void into reception area View the cafe kitchen into the central void
View into the performance space View of north end of library
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page
Site Strategy_not to scale
Woodlands
Orchard
Wild ParkAllotments
Enterprise
76
page 77Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
CRITIQUE 2 Thesis:
The organic hall has adapted a definite position to the landscape that
hosts it. Rising above and ramping down to lightly touch the ground, the
land is permitted to continue uninterrupted underneath the location of the
building. The portal frame system acknowledges the industrial context of
the site while developing an aesthetic that respects the land and gives it
centre stage.
Antithesis:
- Relationships to site and landscape?
- How productive is the landscape?
- Have you played with the landscape enough – does it have a narrative,
can it ground the pieces? What happens the landscape beneath the
building
- Undercrofts - do they work in Ireland? Will it just be dirt as opposed to
grass?
- Buildings relationship to the community? Where is the communal space
and identity?
- Is there a focal point for the public? What about a hierarchy across the
site, similar to 19 century gardens?
- Space underneath needs to be fully explained – what is the quality of the
market space here?
- Can the use of the portal frames be more subtle?
- Boxes can drop down and occupy spaces – this also allows access to
boxes roof space
- How appropriate is this language for the other buildings on the site? Do
you need to design them?
- Access the building, surely the ramp can be a bigger gesture
- Landscape strategy is a priority now.
Synthesis:
I found I could not defend the landscape strategy I presented as it felt
very underdeveloped and lacked any clear narrative. The idea of a viable
landscape under the building can still happen but it can take the form
of hard landscape with occasional planting to avoid any dead grassless
area. The floor plane and boxes an move somewhat to try and meet the
landscape underneath.
The school doesn’t operate under the traditional syllabus and so other
community aspects are included within the building. The market place, the
performance space, the café and the library are all new civic aspects that
can support and enhance the lives of the local surbanites.
A hierarchy across the site is not appropriate here as there are many entry
points into the grounds. What seems more suitable here is a series of
structures or follies that can guide and intrigue visitors into the park and
different zones within the scheme. In this manner, the ground becomes an
active plane where the architecture emerges as an improbable, fluctuating
figure. I do need to consider further the connection between the building
and the landscape, how the existing ramp can become more generous
and inviting than it appears at present.
At this time it seems unnecessary to design the smaller buildings on site
but rather to focus energies into fully resolving the Organic Hall and her
landscape strategy.
page 78Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
PROGRAMMING THE LANDSCAPE
The concept for the landscape is twofold - that of cellular organisation and organic fluidity.
The notion of organizing the various land uses into strict zones of use and occupation
relates the nature of these spaces, wetlands and allotments can mix for they each require
two different environments and land conditions. Segregation ensures stable and individual
micro-systems can emerge within each zone while their very separation serves to highlight
the differences to passersby and students alike.
The idea of a fluid circulation system stems from the amoeba-like form of the land
organization. Movement around the various micro landscapes allows access to all while a
secondary path system that pierces the cells allows for a full immersion in each landscape.
page 79Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
There is a notion that a composition of reference
points and location markers can be located
across the proposed landscape to allow interplay
between the land and the built environment.
The axes that the paths set up through the site
could hinge, terminate or frame views across the
site that will guide, reveal or disorientate the eye
for the purpose of the scheme.
In this way, the ground becomes an active
component with the variable architectural
elements across the site.
page 80Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
InspirationLafayette Greens
These raised beds were installed
on the site of the former Lafayette
building in Detroit. The public
nature of the project with its open
circulation off the streets provides
a real platform for an organic
education in the city. The raised
beds provide a container for soil
above the existing ground line.
These containers hold soil sourced
off site which eliminates the need
for treatment of the existing soil on
site.
The strong appeal with this project
is its close proximity to the urban
dwellers and their daily activities.
Here, in the heart of Detroit, the
raised beds literally provided a
platform for questioning, rethinking
and enquiring about productive
land in the city.
Shenyang Campus
This university demonstrates how agricultural landscape
can become part of the urbanized environment and
how cultural identity can be created through an ordinary
productive landscape.
The design of the campus is a response to the
overwhelming urbanization of China and its
encroachment upon much arable land.
What draws me to this project is its big idea combined
with a humble design. Producing rice for the locality
and engaging students in activities outside of their
normal academic curriculum also serves to further
connect people with the land.
page 81Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Union Street Orchard,
London
During the London
Festival of Architecture,
Bankside Open Spaces
Trust created a place for
exchange between local
residents and visitors to
the Festival. Central to the
design of the orchard was
a plant exchange: people
contributed hundreds of
plants from their homes to
creating an ever-evolving
garden that was truly built
by the community. A series
of workshops and activities
took place in the Orchard
over the few months it was
open.
The interesting aspect of this short lived project was again its immediacy to the local community. The plant
exchange concept encouraged active participation within the ground and on street notice boards informed all who
passed about the goings-on behind the fence. The proximity of the project to the rail line also reinforced the idea
that productive landscape can occur without issue on the edge of infrastructural networks.
Tulip Fields
The tulip fields in Holland
are a feast for the senses.
The striking colours and
the scent filled air prove
a stimulating experience
for all who cycle through
these productive
landscapes.
Here, the canals service
the fields in terms of
transport access and
water supply, while paths
and roads allows for
hours of endless rambling
through this multi-coloured
landscape.
The most exciting part of
these landscapes is the
productivity and order of
the land, the hand of man
is clearly visible yet there
exists only natural and
native elements. This is
truly landscape on man’s
terms.
page 82Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Summer Park, Governors Island
Within this matrix of parkland, forested areas of varying density
are defined, accommodating solid areas and voids, but also the
many buildings and sports and leisure facilities that will be built on
Governors Island. This grid is not applied in a strict
visual way, since ultimately its contours are destined to blur, even to
disappear.
Summer Park is an attempt to link the rhythms of urban life to those
of nature through a landscape structure that is directly inspired by
agricultural vocabulary and processes.
The appeal of this project is its potential to break down density on a
fringe landscape where there is a lack of transition from one dense
development type to another. Here, the landscape offers the potential
for a new suburban quality – that of quality rather than extensive
density and utilisation. Landscape can be consumed in a manner
more befitting the scale of man and the land, an idea of worth over
exploitation.
page 83Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Site Visit: The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co. Leitrim As my interest lay in providing an organic school
on the Broombridge site in Cabra, I was eager
to see how such a service might be provided
within an Irish context. To this end, I paid a visit
to the Organic Centre in County Leitrim, one of
the most established and successful organic
centres in the country. Here, varied educational
programmes range from one day courses to a
FETAC approved Horticultural course that runs
over the course of a year.
Despite its rural location, the centre has thrived
and attracts many visitors from around the
country. The centre caters for the training of
individuals and small groups and is a popular
location for visiting classes from local primary
and secondary schools.
The facilities on site include gardens, a play
area, polytunnels, an orchard, willow nursery,
compost area, wetlands, crop rows and
vegetable gardens. The Organic Centre itself
houses a café, shop and a series of classrooms
and offices. The aesthetics of the building
mirrors that of a green ethos with its grass roof
and timber clad façade.
Interestingly, the layout of the grounds
establishes a clear edge and separation
between the various gardens and lands uses.
I found that this order made each plot easy to
navigate and study closely. While crop rotation
is encourages within the vegetable and crop
gardens, soil areas that contain the orchard,
wetlands and willow beds do not have the same
nutrient requirement for relocation. Polytunnels
provided shelter over an ever changing indoor
landscape and so these can remain in position
as new and used soils and plants are moved by
hand as required.
The Organic Centre The Apple Orchard Inside the FETAC Tunnel
Inside the ‘Garden’ Tunnel The Willow Nursery Geodesic Greenhouse
The Herb Garden The freshly planted crop rows
Right: The Organic Centre Grounds
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page
Site Strategy_not to scale
84
page 85Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Exploring the Landscape Cells
The Flower Field
Area: 6300 sqm
Varieties:
Michelmas Daisies and
Delphinium flower in the
Autumn, Daffodils and
Primula in the Winter and
Spring and Asters, Phlox
and Stock in the Summer.
Cosmos keep flowering
throughout the year
Predicted Yield:
200 -350 stems per
square metre
The Cotton Field
Area: 3545 sqm
Variety:
Narrow Row Cotton
Predicted Yield: 1
00 grams per square
metre
200 -350 stems per
square metre
Aquaponics
Open Area: 6390 sqm
Varieties: Lettuce,
radishes, sinach, yale
Predicted Yield: 5 times
the normal field yield
Polytunnel Area: 832 sqm
Use: Tomato growing and
Propagation Space
Predicted Tomato Yield:
40 kg per square metre
Water Surface Area:
1386 sqm
Fish Variety: Trout
Predicted Fish Yield:
3 kg per cubic metre
Grass Gardens
Area: 2205 sqm
‘Scientists estimate that
grasses make up 20
per cent of the Earth’s
vegetation’
Varieties:
sugar cane, corn, wheat,
rushes, barley, oats, rye.
Flower Fields 1:50
page 86Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
The Fruit Orchards
Area: 5935 sqm
Fruit Tree Area: 3582 sqm
Apple Tree Varieties:
Cairn Russet, Kerry
Pippin, Lady’s Finger,
Ecklineville
Fruit Tree Varieties:
Strawberry, Wild Cherry,
Juniper, Irish Peach, Pear
Wetlands
Area: 6045 sqm
‘Wetlands are among
the most productive
ecosystems in the world,
comparable to rain
forests and coral reefs’
Reedbed
Area: 788 sqm
Filter and re-use of
Organic Hall’s brown
water output
Allotments
Area: 17095 sqm
Allotment Types:
# 1 - 80 sqm: weekend
growing
# 2 - 160 sqm: single
person/couple
# 3 - 240 sqm: family
(4/5 persons)
# 4 - 320 sqm: family
(6/8 persons)
# 5 - 400 sqm: extensive
use
Orchard Path 1:50
page 87Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
The Organic Hall as seen from Bannow Road, partially obscured by the orchard
page 88Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
CRITIQUE 3 Thesis:
The landscape is presented as a series of cellular zones that define,
organise and direct movement through the site. A gentle undulating
surface that flows out from the Organic Hall and into the corners of the
suburbs that surround it.
The porous nature of the rigid school plan is reflected in the permeable
landscape islands that colonise the ground.
The symbiotic relationship of building and landscape allow each to be
exist independently and as part of a whole.
Antithesis:
- Sketches of cells very nice – your research comes across well.
- How do you link into suburban south and industrial north? Are existing
barriers good or bad – what’s your opinion on this? How do you change the
topography? By penetrating and encouraging engagement?
- How do you decide on the building’s position? Is there not a chance to
critique the industrial sheds?
Think about pushing/developing that porous nature and passage that is
in the building through the site. Don’t forget that you are also designing a
route.
- Be more aggressive – attack the urban. Find nodes in the city – create
tentacles. Make the park more porous –maybe demolish houses – your
scheme is giving back to the city.
- Your scheme is about education and reshaping lives, back gardens etc –
what do the locals get?
- Your structure and section – think a little deeper – is there something to
define market space?
- How do you rise up in the building? Make a more generous gesture.
Make the landscape meet the building.
- Again how landscape meets building is the most important thing. I’m not
sure its floating in the right place at the moment.
- Map and look at the landscape of the city to strengthen thesis.
Synthesis:
I agreed that I had neglected to fully explore the relationship between
the city and the landscape as I had been occupied with resolving the
relationship between the landscape and building. I need to clarify and
fully the connection between the landscape and the building and the
landscape’s relationship to the city.
The ramp and landscape connection into the building needs more
attention to fully resolve the entrance into the school. I believe the building
is located in the correct place, located at the heart of the landscape and
aligned with the midday sun. The fact that the building does not sit parallel
to the existing road and industrial buildings is a critique in the orientation
and ethos of such practices.
FINAL PRESENTATION
page 90Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Satellite Image - Dublin 2013
Orange Box denotes limits of 1853 Map
Site in its Present State
Griffith Valuation Map of Dublin 1853
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page
Site Scheme 1:2000
91
page 92Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
WetlandsTunnelsOrchard Wild Park
Grass GardensFloral LaneAquaponicsAllotments
a walk through the gardens...
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page 93
Site Strategy_not to scale
Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land page 94
THE ORGANIC HALL
The hall houses an organic school that floats above an open-air market space underneath.
The concrete portal frame suspends the enclosed programme above the land, sandwiched
between a shifting floor plane and polygonal celled timer roof.
Schedule of Accommodation
GROUND LEVEL
Market Space
FIRST LEVEL
Reception
Café
Library
Study Room
Garden Workshops
Cookery Classroom
Theory based Classrooms
Community/Performance Hall
Social Spaces /Pockets
Administration Office
Toilets & Showers
SECOND LEVEL
Reading Space
Gym
Recreational Zone
Performance Fly Space
Elevation & Landscape Section 1:400
Concept
The building was conceived as an occupied plane that floats
above the land.
Man’s needs are accommodated above the ground while
the landscape and her programme continue uninterrupted
underneath this floating space.
Vertical voids cut through the building and an open base allow
for the penetration of the elements and a reconnection between
land and sky.
page 95Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
THE ORGANIC HALL SITTING IN ITS GARDENS
page 96Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Ground Level 1:200
a b
a b
cc
Market Space
Stair
Core
Fire Stairs
Level One 1:200a b
a b
cc
Stage
Cookery Room
Café
Kitchen
Staff
Room
Study Room
Admin
Office
Workshop
Workshop
Library
Classroom
Store
Reception
Hall
Classroom
page 97Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Level Two 1:200
a b
a b
cc
Reading Space
Gym
Fly Space
Recreation
Inverted Ceiling Plan
page 98Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Section CC_NTS
page 99Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Section BB_NTS
Section AA_NTS
page 100Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
Market Space
Looking down over the entrance rampPerformance SpaceCafé
Recreational Zone
Overlooking the Main Entrnce Ramp
3D Images of Organic Hall
page 101Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
1:50 Sectional Model
page 102Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
View of Ramped Entrance Ramped Acces to Social Space above Cookery Classroom View of Reception Area with Library in Background
Social Space under Polygonal Celled Roof Library with Mesh Covered Glazing System Open Air Market Space underneath the Organic School
page 103Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
The Final Presentation
page 104Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
The Final CritiqueThesis:
For the final presentation, the thesis position was put forward and together
with the school of thought it explained the origins of the programme for the
building and landscape.
The concepts for both the landscape and the building were put forward
and their interrelationship was explained briefly. The cellular organisation
of the landscape was explained as a series of connected but singular cells
that accommodates soil, water and ecological requirements specific to
each cell’s individual use.
It was made clear that the aim of this project was to bring food cultivation
back into the consciousness of the city and initiate an agricultural dialogue
within the Dublin metropolis.
Antithesis:
- School of Thought well explained and this is a timely project.
- How did your brief develop such an un-organic cell like building?
- Brilliant site. How is balance achieved between the productive landscape
and the suburban landscape?
- Your objective seems quite clear; it’s really interesting – the rational of
control of nature.
- It is a zoo like building and this has given your great freedom – not for the
landscape but for the city.
- Powerful project, really interesting work.
Synthesis:
The final model did not make it clear that natural light does not penetrate
through all the polygonal cells as the roof membrane was removed to
expose the structure. The building itself developed as a cell-like structure
through working in models and exploring structural solutions for the
roofscape. The landscape scheme was always going to have a gentle,
undulating and soft flow to it and a rigid structure was intended as a stark
contrast to this; the solid habitat of man versus the fluid nature of the land.
Had more time allowed, further work could have been done to fully resolve
the meeting of the building and the ground. The entrance ramp at present
is somewhat underdeveloped and the market space underneath the
buildings needs some refining.
Productive landscape and suburban landscape are understood by the
author as two very different states of being. Suburban land collectively
is underused in terms of its out potential and so the call for a more
productive landscape seems appropriate within an ever growing city.
The proposed landscape at Broombridge is conceived of as a public
space that will educate and promote food production and growth at many
scales within the suburbs. It is hoped that this space would encourage
individuals and local bottom up initiatives across the expanse of private
suburbia to demand more output from their underused lands. Areas such
as back gardens and shared green spaces could be reimagined as new
agricultural resources within the city. In this way, a new landscape balance
can be established and defined by suburban citizens themselves.
page 105Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
CONCLUSIONAs the suburbs continue to surge outwards, more and more of Dublin’s
hinterland is consumed by land hungry housing and business estates.
Here, on the edge of the city, land is more affordable and widely available;
here the urban demands of the city core are weakened and dilute. In this
suburban sparsity, the city is mostly infrastructure and service zone, an
inactive in-between that is underutilised and under intensified.
The concern for Dublin today is the economic value placed on land within
reach of the city limits. In fact, the principle issue is the fact that this land
holds ONLY a commercial value within the urban consciousness. It is clear
that there no longer exists an awareness of the agricultural value of land
within the urban conscious.
In spite of this, there exists opportunities within the city to initiate an
agricultural intervention and reconnect the city with the land. Pockets of
forgotten ground or ‘wildscapes’ are evident across the city at present.
Wildscapes can be defined as landscapes whose function and form have
been shaped outside the normal forces of city control. These wildscapes
offer the chance for a new urban agricultural dialogue and the possibility of
re-establishing the relationship between the earth and the city.
The land at Broombridge is one of the key wildscapes identified within
Dublin City. This 19 acre site provides an unused landscape less than
4 kilometres from the city centre. The multifaceted landscape strategy
proposed for the site offers a variety of crops, land uses and cultivation
practices that co-exist independently within the scheme. These agricultural
gardens offer the opportunity to engage and observe agricultural practices
to both the casual city observer and the keen green fingered student. The
cellular layout presents a smorgasbord of produce and uses that range in
intensity from exhaustive aquaponics to a gently managed ‘wild’ parkland.
This collection of agricultural gardens offers various slices of productive
land uses with the city environment.
On an urban level, the landscape strategy knits together the diverse
suburban estates that border the site and connects for the first time
the various zones of work, leisure and domesticity. Day trippers, train
passengers, residents, workers, students, people at leisure and market
goers all share common circulation routes through this new landscape that
ties together the varied identities of this suburban matrix.
In conclusion, the position of this thesis is that the city cannot survive
without the agricultural hinterland that sustains it. A cultivation of the land
within the urban context is a call for a renewed collective awareness with
regards to the future co-dependency of city and land.
The Organic Hall at the heart of this proposed landscape strategy affirms
the potential of the land by rising above the ground and allowing land
related use and occupancy underneath the building. Uninterrupted by
walls or enclosed spaces, the ground becomes an active, constructed
plane where the architecture emerges as a fluctuating, floating figure.
Direct work upon the land is conceived of as work upon a manipulated
architecturalised void.
This proposal is conceived of as a starting point for the introduction of
agriculture within the city limits. Other wildscapes identified within Dublin
are ripe for similar cultivation and agricultural interventions. Each site can
in turn create a local awareness of land potential and production and
thus encourage bottom up projects and back yard farming at a smaller
yet wider scale. These projects and schemes will thereby generate a new
productive landscape for the future city.
THE FUNDAMENTAL AIM OF THIS THESIS IS TO INITIATE
AN AGRICULTURAL CONVERSATION WITHIN THE CITY’S
CONSCIOUSNESS.
‘Wildscapes’ Locations across Dublin
page 106Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Illich, I. (1971) Deschooling Society. London: Marion Boyars
Publishers Ltd.
- Young, L.(2012) Under Tomorrows Sky. Available at: http://
undertomorrowssky.liamyoung.org/filter
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page 107Intensifying Broombridge: Productive Suburban Land
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to say a very sincere thanks to my family and close friends.
Without their constant support I don’t think I have could have ever
completed this degree.
I would like to take the chance to especially thank the following people:
- Mum and Dad – thank you so much for bank rolling my never ending
education. Is it ok if I pass on my debt to NAMA?
- My siblings Laura and Paul. Thanks Laura for all the dinners, lifts and
distractions, it was great to experience life outside the world of architecture
from time to time. Paul, you are too funny, I think you were made for the
stage! You make me laugh no end. You are a true tonic and I hope that
never changes.
-To all my architectural buddies, thanks for the laughs, freak outs and
general craziness that only a studio environment can nurture. It’s been fun.
-To all my non-architect friends both near and far, thank you for your calls,
emails, company and encouragement along the way. I’m looking forward
to more of this during the coming months and years!
-A special thanks to Laura (again), Irene, Jess, Clare, Celine, Naomi and
Caroline. All of your generous contributions made my thesis presentations
all the better thanks to your helping hands.
- And finally a big thank you to all the fifth year staff. A special mention
to my two mentors Dominic Stevens and Andrew Griffin, I could not have
asked for better tutors or sounder advice. Thank you both so much.
I have lived and learned so much during my time in DIT. It’s time now for
the next chapter of my life to begin…