Riverside II, Dublin Docklands

The Riverside II Courtyard is located within the Dublin Docklands Development Authority planning scheme for the south side of the River Liffey and the Grand Canal Basin. The courtyard, 40m x 25m, is enclosed by eight stories of development, on the northwest by the Headquarters Office of Beauchamps Solicitors and on the southeast by residential apartments.

The landscape architects were appointed to design a courtyard space for a diverse range of users in the newly developing docklands area. The design called for facilities for office users and residential users. In addition, the development included 20% social and affordable housing ensuring that the 'end-user' population was as diverse as possible. The site was contaminated and the technical constraints due to the contamination and finished floor levels presented difficulties which had to be overcome through design and attention to detail.

The courtyard was designed as an abstract composition which would be viewed from above, but which would also function as an open space for office and residential users at different times of the day and week. A series of 'horizontal' elements were designed to 'float' over the ground plane of granite paving. The apparent 'flatness' of these elements is critical to the spatial composition. Because of the scale of the buildings it was important to ensure that the courtyard would read as one space while at the same time incorporate a variety of functions and a diversity of experience. The three main elements forming the composition in plan are a playground, a lawn and a 'forest' of palms, 150, 300, and 450mm above paving level respectively. The colour of the playground was chosen to compliment the colours of the lawn, planting, canopies and outdoor office furniture.

The upstands for each element are finished on all sides with continuous cantilevered timber benches. Other elements include corten steel planters, stainless steel planters along the residential sides of the courtyards to ensure privacy at ground floor level and a 15m long pool of reflective water. The lighting was designed to ensure that no vertical pole or bollard elements were required and consists of asymmetrically composed strip down-lighters under benches, flush recessed lighters in stainless steel, uplighters to trees and buried LEDs in the playground.

Many technical constraints were overcome, including the fact that the finished floor level is only 150mm above the level of the podium slab and the requirement to facilitate the movement of cherry-pickers for window cleaning and maintenance. DFLA detailed all aspects of the scheme, including the steel works, pool, joinery, levels, drainage and irrigation.

Wind, gusts, shade, salt air, shallow planting depths and drought were considered during plant selection and specification. Large trees are not sustainable under these conditions and were not selected. Olive trees were selected to withstand potential drought and root restriction. The courtyard receives direct sunlight during the summer growing season and this is absorbed and retained within the steel upstands, maximising the growth of the olives. Bamboos were used in the shaded north facing side of the courtyard to provide privacy to ground floor residents. A mass planting of Trachycarpus fortunei with Fascicularia bicolor as groundcover is located at the east end of the space to provide a vertical element which will change the nature of the space over time as it extends upwards. The planting composition is comprised of species which are exotic to Ireland, but appropriate to the new urban docklands condition.