Radical ideas about reshaping the city lie behind the latest draft development plan for Dublin, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Architecture never stands alone; there is always a context and, in the modern era, a planning framework laying down a set of rules about what can and can't be built. This used to be fairly primitive, based on broad-brush zoning - but not any more.
The two-dimensional approach has been replaced sequentially by local area plans, integrated framework plans and now the development of tailor-made plans for "character areas" in collaboration with architects and other professionals.
One of these areas is the northside retail core, centred on Henry Street. This has been the subject of an informal workshop which looked at issues affecting the area as well as urban form, mix of uses and initiatives to improve the public domain.
Ironically, Henry Street is one of those cases where a single building has made all the difference. The new Roches Stores, designed by Newenham Mulligan, has redefined the street - especially in views that combine it with the Spire of Dublin.
Dick Gleeson, Dublin City Council's deputy city planning officer, likens it to "the best Christmas present ever". He sees it as re-energising plans to redevelop the ILAC centre and Moore Street in conjunction with plans for the Carlton site in O'Connell Street.
"If we can get a Milan-type galleria linking in with a covered Moore Street, you can begin to imagine a radically new and interesting environment," Gleeson says.
Most importantly, this "economic engine" would help to re-animate the city's main street.
Though he is cautious about the idea of relocating the Abbey to the Carlton site because a big theatre can be quite dead much of the time, he is keen on the idea of designating and recreating Parnell Square as a "cultural square", as proposed by the Gate's Michael Colgan.
The city council's "three wise men" - architects David Mackay from Barcelona and London-based John Worthington and Richard MacCormac - have taken this a step further by proposing that the remaining three sides of the square should be built up.
The idea would be to create a new public space in the middle, similar to Front Square in Trinity, with a grand arch at its northern end facing the Hugh Lane Gallery, a new Dublin Writers' Museum on its eastern side and an expanded Rotunda on the other side.
The most controversial aspect of this plan is that it would involve replacing the Garden of Remembrance - which is a dead space, if ever there was one. The whole central area of the square - once the Rotunda Pleasure Gardens - is also of little value to the public.
"We have to look at cities like Barcelona and the way they are continually 'doing it' with new initiatives and major projects that treat the city in an integrated way," Gleeson says.
And one of the reasons why Dublin should do this is because it's trying to compete with them.
"We're doing that here now, having started from a very low base. A lot of substantial things are finally coming together and we're responding with tailor-made framework plans, in the context of one big idea - generating a sense of urban structure in the city."
Areas like Rathmines offered a model of that kind of structure, with a real sense of place, but we lost it somewhere along the way. Now, the city planners want to recreate that model, to the extent that they can, around some of the formless shopping centres in the suburbs.
A lot of architectural tourists are visiting Dublin because it is seen as an urban laboratory. "Though we control very little land, we're trying to aim very high, doing it through framework plans, working with architects and giving developers a fair shot but saying we want something back from them."
But he concedes that there is "a difference between talking really eloquently about urbanism and actually going out and doing it". As he colourfully put it, "urbanism lends itself to talk, but when you get out there and start playing the game, jaze you're still without a hurley".
What Gleeson would like to see is more diversity in the architectural response compared to, say, the relative uniformity of phase two of the IFSC.
"The next step is to persuade developers and the architects themselves to allow a greater involvement of partnerships in design."
Jim Keogan, the planner in charge of drawing up the new city plan, says its main aim is to consolidate the gains made by urban renewal over the past 10 years or so by ensuring that "critical mass" is maintained and making it more attractive to live and work in Dublin. As he says, earlier estimates of the capacity of the inner city to accommodate more people turned out to be hugely pessimistic.
The integrated plan for the area around Heuston should yield 2,500 residential units, according to Dick Gleeson, who says the same can be delivered on the South Bank.
This is the planners' new name for the Poolbeg peninsula, which he admits is pretty devoid of transportation at present.
But he points out that it's only two miles from the city centre and that "makes it a lot more sustainable than, say, Mullingar" - or any of Dublin's other satellites.
Gleeson would favour moving the industrial port out of Dublin Bay altogether, leaving it for just passenger ferries and cruise liners, as was proposed in the late 1980s by ESBI, the electricity board's consultancy subsidiary. "It may be a 20-year plan, but we should be saying that."
Transportation is seen by the planners as the key to developing the city, though they are realistic enough to accept that the Dublin Transportation Office's highly-ambitious "Platform for Change"strategy is unlikely to be realised in all of its aspects - not least because of its cost.
Some elements will happen, they believe. "We're going to get a link between the airport, the city centre and somewhere else," Gleeson says. "We're also going to get a connection between (Luas) Line A and Line B in some shape or form - I'd like to see it going through College Green."
With plans already being drawn up to extend Luas through Docklands to the Point, he says more lines should be possible - preferably including a line on the southside running parallel with Line A, via Christchurch, to link up with Line B in St Stephen's Green or go to the Grand Canal Docks.
As for one of the more controversial aspects of the draft plan - to de-list several hundred buildings from the register of protected structures - Jim Keogan said there had to be some distinction made between, say, the Bank of Ireland in College Green and an ordinary Victorian house in Dublin 4.
The draft Dublin City Development Plan is currently on public exhibition in the Civic Offices at Wood Quay and other locations. The deadline for submissions on any aspect of it is April 15th.
IFSC 2 wins prestigious planning award
Terry Durney, who has just parted company with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, is entitled to see last week's Royal Town Planning Institute award for phase two of the IFSC as an endorsement of his cautious approach.
As the DDDA's director of planning, it was Durney who laid down the ground rules governing how the 12-acre extension to the IFSC would be developed - and he took a fairly rigid line on height, which explains why it looks so, well, flat.
According to the RTPI, the project "demonstrates how the application of key planning principles in terms of land use, density, scale and urban design can result in a high-quality, modern urban environment that is attractive, lively and safe."
Giving it the "Planning for Central Areas" award, the institute's jury said the IFSC had made "an outstanding contribution to the economic development of Dublin" and - in an odd phrase - "helped to put the smile on the face of the Celtic Tiger".
And we all thought the IFSC was the swaggering symbol of that particular animal, even though its first phase was largely completed before the boom.
As for "lively", people can judge for themselves by walking down Mayor Street at night. IFSC2 was chosen from 16 finalists, including projects or planning initiatives in Bristol, Coventry, Littlehampton, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Staines, Stratford-upon-Avon, Westminster, Wolverhampton and Lisburn, Co Antrim.
Accepting the award in London, Peter Coyne, the DDDA's chief executive, said it was "a real tribute to the rigorous attention to quality in design and planning by the various parties involved" - headed by master planner Terry Durney.
Durney also designed the two pavilions on the campshire at the end of Excise Walk and jointly holds the credit, with Margaret Coyle, for the promenade along the Liffey that has been widely acknowledged as an outstanding facility. Having held the post of director of planning for the DDDA and its predecessor for more than 15 years, Terry Durney has returned to the private sector by joining Fergal MacCabe's Fitzwilliam Square planning consultancy as a partner.
