a: Unit 2 Belleknowes Industrial Estate, Inverkeithing, Fife, KY11 1HY, Scotland
e: bluegreenandco@aol.com
Design
by: John D. O'Leary
Shortlisted entry.
Brief:
Design piece of street furniture
for specified location on Cork City waterfront:
“Only through an understanding of the past obtained from the
study of archaeology, history and cartography can the factors which have
influenced the shape of the city be appreciated.”
Cork is one of the oldest cities in Ireland with a distinctive character
derived mainly from the combination of its plan, topography, built fabric
and its location at a point where the River Lee divides to form a number
of waterways.
The geography of Cork City is unusual. Its centre is built on what was
a series of marshy islands in the tidal estuary of the River Lee. Many
of the main streets were formed in the late 18th & early 19th centuries
when the waterways between the islands were arched over with culverts
carrying the water which still flows under the streets of the city.
"My
design proposal (below left) uses these now forgotten waterways as inspiration
for the creation of a modern urban seating solution."
Design process:
1. Trace current city outline.
2. Superimpose original waterway network onto city layout.
3. Extrude resulting shapes to create striking urban seating.
Although contemporary in form, the meaning and formal references of the
object are strongly rooted in the citys past. Its scale encourages multiple
user interaction, adding an active element to the piece.
Inscribed along the original North/South Main Street axis is text from
Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, (1590) “The spreading
Lee, that like an island fayre, encloseth Corke with his divided flood.”