A true public space for Dublin on College Green?

Consider the great world cities.  Consider how its people gather together.  London has Trafalgar where major public events are screened, and on which there are St Patrick’s festivities every March.  Time Square, New York; St Mark’s in Venice, Place de la Concorde in Paris and now Tahir Square in Cairo.  The list could go on; though Dublin would not be on it.

Dubliners lack a definitive meeting place.  Protests, concerts, welcome home parties or political rallies have no one gathering place, with the Garden of Remembrance or Merrion Square usually chosen though they are hardly appropriate.  Barack Obama’s visit in May gave us a clue though.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan wants to turn College Green into a pedestrianised plaza with the Bank of Ireland at its centre put to a cultural use.  Bank of Ireland still owns the former government building, but now that the government own Bank of Ireland they want it back. 

Historically the British are blamed (as ever) for the lack of public squares in Dublin as they sought to prevent public gatherings.  Temple Bar Square has been successful on a small scale.  While just south of it, the space in front of the Central Bank is often thronged with people.  It is the closest thing the city has to a decent urban space but it’s it feels like an afterthought.  The Grand Slam homecoming in 2009 was on Dawson Street.  O’Connell Street and the Phoenix Park were used for football though neither was appropriate.  Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama’s pep talks from College Green were different – though even then there was awkwardness with Obama not quite sure where to look.

Proposals drawn up recently suggest a version of Washington DC’s Smithsonian for the Bank of Ireland’s flagship building.  Proposals suggest a “cultural and iconic counterpoint” to the great city squares of the world and a “natural gravitational point”.  The document looks to redesign the space as cultural hub promisinglysaying that “effort should be made to re-imagine the entire quarter.”

Architects and urban designers agree that College Green is the best urban space in the city – and they all agree that its current layout is wrong.  Taking economics and traffic practicalities out of the equation, it ought to be realised that this should be the centre of Dublin – close to the historical city at Christchurch and not to far the shiny new one in the Docklands.  With the trees removed and statues reorganised, Dubliners would be allowed to reclaim the space, tour groups would gather before going to the museum, cafes and art sellers would sprawl from the fringes, crowds would gather to watch big sports matches, and waiting for a friend at the Front Arch would no longer find you clung to the railings of Trinity College as rush hour pushes indignantly by.

Noble visions and bureaucratic realities have a funny way of never coming together in this city however.  The hope remains for now though that Phil Hogan keeps badgering the Bank of Ireland to give the government their building back, and if they do he can then start worrying about the inconvenience of logistics and economics.

Dublin's World Design Capital Bid

When it comes to international design cities, the names that immediately spring to mind would generally be Helsinki, Copenhagen, Zurich and others, though not Dublin. Our capital has never been highly regarded as a design centre by any real stretch.  The proud traditions of international excellence we have achieved in our cultural and literary heritage have never been realised, or rather acknowledged in design fields.  In that regard, however, the change has already begun.

Not being immediately considered one of the great international design cities has not been for a lack of effort and, indeed distinction on the part of designers in Dublin albeit individually.  Now though, a coupling of resources and expertise has thus far proven very successful in Dublin’s bid to be the World Design Capital for 2014.  Dublin was last month selected as one of the final three candidates, along with Bilbao, Spain and Cape Town, South Africa, to succeed Helsinki.  A team of designers called PivotDublin were assembled including architects, graphic designers and other design professionals to coordinate the bid.

Deputy City Architect Owen O’Doherty explains how Dublin had to first acknowledge how it functioned as a design community before a distinct identity could be realised. “We started on this nearly two years ago, but the actual competition only really stated in October of last year.”   A major workshop in March 2012 which got people from across the range of fields established that the fragmented design community didn’t know what each other were doing.   On realising this, they could move forward and build on each other’s collective resources.  “As City Architects – we were conscious that we didn’t know enough about the other design disciplines.  We wanted to learn and get further and further away from our comfort zone.”

The judges were in Dublin in July visiting various sites in the city.  Wary that this is still a competition, creative director of the bid Bob Grey of Red & Grey Design last month said: “We can’t say what we’re doing and what exactly we have lined up for them but it will all based around people, places and stories.  We feel that you can’t do anything big in such a short space of time.  We have to just focus on what the bid focused on.  Our ability as a nation, as a city is being humorous, conversationalist, we are story tellers.  We’re an empathetic nation, an empathetic city and we need to focus on this and highlight these things.”

A successful bid will focus on how design can be used for the betterment of society in the city, and across the country.  According to Owen O’Doherty, the design culture is already here it just needs to grow.  “Design has a visible face on it in Helsinki and Copenhagen, but in Dublin if you look, you see deep design culture, but you have to scratch the surface a little.  We’re working on developing a series of seed projects to help scope out what were going to do in 2014, at moment were working on how we get these started, building partnerships and developing networks within design first and then move on to the other elements of society.”

Winning is the ultimate goal for PivotDublin, but it wasn’t the only one.  “We want to win!” Bob Grey assuredly confirmed but added, “Our goal from the beginning was a change of mind, we wanted to let me people know that design isn’t about a grand statement, it’s about how it can change every day lives.  The bid proves we have the resources to do able to do this.  It’s up to us now to start planting the seeds and to think about the future and how design impacts on our lives.”

The jury will make their decision in August but our fate will not be known until mid-October.  Win or lose, the collaborative effort of the bid team ought to ensure a bright future for Dublin as an international design city.

(for the Social - August 2011)