National Children’s Hospital design

The really important thing was that an urban location was chosen [as belatedly acknowledged by Frank McDonald yesterday], if this project had gone to a green field site somewhere on the periphery of the city on the basis of accessibility from the M50, we might as well have taken all the policy documents and planning strategies and tipped onto the compost heap.

Obviously there are going to be sensitivities to be taken into account in the design – this site is in Kilmainham after all – but that shouldn’t mean that the new building has to be some unlovely ziggurat stepping down on all perimeters to the scale of a terraced house, this is a time for showing some real belief in urbanism and putting together a design strategy that inspires, not compromises itself into a mediocrity based on offending the fewest people to the least degree.

@thebig C wrote:

Listening to the news yesterday, I was surprised how many comentators harped on about height being an important issue. The author of the Dolphin report into the location even stated that he encouraged St James to utilised other parts of their campus to spread the buildings footprint and reduce the height…..possibly preventing the future tri-location of a maternity hospital to the campus! Seriously, height should not be a paramount issue with a development like this……but then I think ABP and An Taisce knew what they were doing with the last application…..they scared the bejesus out out anybody who was even thinking about anything over 6 floors!!

C

I think its more to do with a general lack of understanding of the planning system to be honest. The whole point of planning is that it should be an integral part of the project from the very start…not a tacked on paper exercise at the very end.

The Mater site was so obviously and patently too small, both for the proposed hospital and certainly for the inevitable extensions required in 20-30 years. It was screamingly obvious from the start. The point here is that if good planning had been utilised then this issue would have be recognised early in the process before wads of cash were forked out to design the monstrous building that finally emerged.

Perhaps with this new site, less visually sensitive, and I would argue better connected, we can achieve a more sustainable plan for this facility, without the need to create something that can be seen from Wales.