Ireland
The dramatic lighting columns with their pole-top
braziers are unusually high for the width of the
open space. This emphasises their drama and the
restrained detail of the hard surfacing provides
a horizontal foil for the imposing verticality. The
braziers are the symbolic feature of the site and
design articles written since the millennium have
extensively used them as an image of the devel-
oping European urban form of Dublin. They were
once a skyline feature of this area and provided a
recognisable symbol of the area’s regeneration, but
the multi-storey residential development which pro-
vides their new backdrop somewhat reduces their
impact, as there is now the visual distraction of high
levels of detail in the background.
The creation of hard-surfaced landscape schemes
requires systematic maintenance input to maintain
the integrity of the design as implemented and it
is recognised that this has not been of sufficiently
high quality, as shown, for example, by the failures
in the replacement policy.
Nevertheless, the apparent design simplicity and
restrained use of materials, coupled with the dra-
matic use of lighting, has given the site an impor-
tant role in the regeneration of the locality and the
development of urban public space design in the
Republic of Ireland.
