missarchi

there are still the railings to debate and the little moat but???
to big… or to small.

would it fly the ICBM that is???

wasn’t it used as a sun dial?
every platz needs a circle?
or centre point…

what goes around comes around ready for blast off:)

public transport and urban citizenship….
http://www.policyinstitute.tcd.ie/conference_presentations.php
http://gv2.cs.tcd.ie/ any more images of there work?

Did any one go to these presentations?
I have a feeling there is a new proposal on the horizon…

I like Santa and cole… with a irish twist
I was back in madrid and I admire the street furniture and metallic paint…
what is this so called liberties street invent?

I find it hard to understand how the architects ect are going to communicate when they are muzzled

small but you get the picture

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3129211&newstype=A&sectioncode=453

What were your reference points?

We looked at all the classical spaces in Europe, very detailed studies of different squares.

It seemed to us that there was a style emerging in London. A lot of new space in London is on the back of section 106 agreements, where cheap granite from China is used and all the street furniture is stainless steel with a bit of glass in the signage. There’s a sort of ubiquitous, corporate, commercial quality about it.

We didn’t think it appropriate to put that type of environment into Parliament Square. At the same time, it’s very difficult to put grass in areas that are going to get heavily trafficked.

The square’s also got a function for different events: pedestrian movement, with people going to work, but there are other key events such as state ceremonies. We’ve got to think about routes of ceremonial vehicles. Those carriages can’t really go on a lawn, so we need to put hard surfaces there.

We were looking at greening and softening the space by putting in more trees and choosing the position of trees very carefully. We were maintaining the existing plane trees on the west side of the square, and putting in additional plane trees on the north side.

But Foster’s had concluded that the square needed to be hard paving, so did Halcrow Fox in the seventies. In the 1940s, Gordon Cullen did some fantastic drawings, again showing hard surfaces. Almost every 10 years, there’s another attempt at doing it, and everyone comes to the same conclusion.

I dont even know how you can use a wheelchair in dame street and many more yet alone walk

protected poles is where its at 🙂

great thread worth the trawl

i was amused when I saw this….

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1024/1224715115568.html

Council says car ban needed to unclog city

OLIVIA KELLY

A PERMANENT ban on cars crossing Dublin city centre may have to be introduced to avoid the city grinding to a halt, a new report from Dublin City Council has warned.

Restrictions on cars, which will be put in place within the next two years, to allow the construction of Transport 21 projects such as Metro North and the Luas interconnector line, are expected to be retained to allow the city to function in the future.

Dublin’s road network is at capacity and “there is no room for additional cars on the city’s roads”, the report from the council’s planning department said.

The car ban must be complemented by better development of the city and suburbs, the report said.

Proximity to public transport can no longer be used by developers to justify large scale residential or mixed-use schemes which would swamp transport services, and even small developments must be subject to traffic management analysis, it said.

There was also a need for better coordination by various transport agencies, which up to now had been “piecemeal”, it said.

The planners’ report will be put to councillors next week and used in their review of the current city development plan.

It makes a number of recommendations in relation to ensuring the city’s increasing traffic problems are brought under control.

The increase in car ownership and the growth in numbers commuting into the city centre each day from the current 200,000 to an expected 375,000 by 2020, has made tackling the traffic problem “even more urgent”, the report said.

“A major issue we have to address is how the city’s limited road space can accommodate the spatial needs of public, transport, pedestrians, cyclists and the private car.

“It is likely, having regard to some of the modelling which had been undertaken by the the city council’s roads and traffic department that all through-traffic will have to be removed for the city centre to function in the future.”

Properly functioning and integrated public transport was the key to providing a true alternative to the private car, the report said.

Co-ordination between the various transport agencies was sometimes disjointed and, while this may be addressed by the eventual establishment of the Dublin Transport Authority, certain problems needed to be dressed in the interim, it said.

Areas which needed to be addressed were the poor-quality passenger interchange facilities, difficulties in accessing public transport by foot or bicycle, congestion and restricted capacity at peak times and poor information systems.

Cycling had the potential to “transform the city’s quality of life”, the council said.

However, despite infrastructural improvements, there was a continuing decline in cycling to work or schools and colleges, the report said.

Safety fears explained the decline, the council said.

The planners recommend the provision of kerb-separated bicycle lanes as well as cycle storage at public transport facilities and better cycle-parking facilities.

Removing cars from the city would would allow the council to devote more space to pedestrians.

The potential for road space to be “dramatically reallocated” to pedestrians should be considered, the report said, particularly in the central areas around Westmoreland Street, college green and dame street.

New residential and commercial developments were the biggest contributors to the traffic problems, it said.

Areas with good-quality public transport links could better accommodate development.

However the report said this was ” sometimes used as a justification for very large-scale development adjacent to any form of public transport irrespective of its capacity”. This was “not sustainable” particularly if the developments were car-dependent, it said.

© 2008 The Irish Times