loopline thesis

Darrell O' Donoghue

The thesis proposal takes the entire rail bridge between Connolly and Pearse St Stations and examines how such a piece of transport infrastructure can redefine its role as a stimulant of development within the context oof the city fabric. The thesiLooking f the city fabric. The thesis looks at each site along the route (which is capable of supporting development) and exposes its particular conditions with positive urban intent.

The loop line defines the formal structure of the city it passes through. The new layers provide numerous examples of how to use transportation corridors as generators of urban form.

An examination of the very different conditions north and south of the river locates a number of sites where the llwhere the lnumber of sites where the loopline has disrupted the block sufficiently and provides space for habitation, the potential it possesses has the opportunity to spread outwards and re-activate the latent energy of the surroundings.

Generally conditions south of the river allow for a aaa more intricate mixture of open space and built/ programmed areas along the corridor.

The line's potential role as a connective tissue between the various sites are exposed by its reclamation for pedestrian, commercial and residential use of an otherwise dead zone of space above and below the length of the structure. Areas in the vicinity of stations act as collecting points or hubs of activity. Office blocks inhabit the space directly above the line while apartment buildings are always arranged at tangents. All other accommodation is within the folds of a membrane.

By establishing the platform level as a datum line and extending it over sites which could accommodate it, as a membrane, it is possible to organize activities in an abovvvve and below condition. This undulating membrane would first of all provide a seamless link between the platform level and the ground plane, while also linking all the various elements on site and helping to relate the boundaries of the sites at different levels. This proposal of a sloping plane not only resolves the problem of the steep topography but also generates the communal spaces required.

Where the datum membrane is allowed to move off the line it is accompanied by the elements of this developmennnnt : apartment buildings, public parkland, limited parking and certain sub membrane retail units. This system is allowed to function by a secondary system of ramps relating to specific uses and cores which link both offices and apartments to each level of activity.

Darrell O' Donoghue is an architect and is currently working with Hassett Ducatez Architects