LiD Architecture Wins Dublin’s Parlour Design Competition

Dublin City Council and Point Village Limited recently announced that the winner of Dublin’s Parlour Design Competition is LiD Architecture. The Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) ran the single stage competition on behalf of the competition promoters, Point Village Limited. The competition was open to architects, urban designers, landscape architects and other disciplines, with the objective to design a new public civic space for Dublin.

“The Parlour” will have strong social, cultural and environmental character and a countrywide profile for holding an intense and varied program of music and other outdoor events including markets and monster céilís. All of the events held in the Parlour will be free to the public.

The winning submission’s simple, strong, clear idea effortlessly addressed the brief. The central concept is to use shipping containers as basic building blocks, which will be configured in creative ways to address challenges of containment, movement, art, lighting and art performance. The jury felt that that the winning submission displayed high levels of flexibility, adaptability and toughness in use. The design resonates powerfully with the docklands and embraces the temporary nature of the challenge.

The basic modular block of the container can be configured endlessly, demonstrating variations for solid and void, for dramatic and lighting purposes and for the integration of varied art forms. The creative use of this cheap and available unit facilitates a flexible architecture explored in the stage, containing walls and vertical features. The refinement of the idea should allow the full potential of the project to emerge in terms of color linings and lighting.

The full team that worked on the project included Ryan Ward, Jenny Montgomery, James Donaghy, Dougal Sheridan, and Deirdre McMenamin. LiD were assisted in their submission by Coyle Doherty & Co. Quantity Surveyors and Robert Barry Consulting Engineers.

A design is currently being prepared for submission for planning permission.