Bridgefoot Street Park, work in progress. Image: DCC Parks Division

This week on the blog we have a guest article from our colleagues in DCC Parks on the creation of a new public park on Bridgefoot Street in the Liberties where building materials are being re-used to form landscape. Without further ado:

Those that are following the progress of the Liberties Greening Strategy will be delighted to hear that the new public park at Bridgefoot Street is well under way and due to open early summer 2021. This is the second new public park developed in the Liberties by Dublin City Council since the launch of the strategy in 2015.

This park will provide a badly needed amenity for the northern part of the Liberties and access to the natural environment for all its residents. The designers of this space have taken a very different approach to the construction of the park, inspired by the local communities use of the space as a place for ephemeral art works made from construction waste material and the use of whatever was to hand locally to construct a community garden. The previous vacant site was also an important hub for biodiversity and the community. The new park will incorporate these ideas with the construction of the various landscape elements from materials discovered on site, including seed, or reusable construction material brought from other construction sites in the locality or product that has been produced by processing construction waste. The process has been painstaking, as the decisions about how these materials are fitted together are taken as they arrive on site, it’s a bit like putting together a jigsaw without knowing all the pieces when you start.

Re-used materials in surface. Image: DCC Parks Division

Terrazzo surface (coin for scale). Image: DCC Parks Division

The overall benefit of taking this approach is a new park which will have a lower carbon footprint then typically expected, this is due to the reduction in the required energy needed to produce the materials used, it is a model for future projects that seek to reduce carbon consumption in the construction industry and mitigate climate change and is a first for Dublin.

The Liberties Greening Strategy was undertaken to tackle the chronic under provision of quality open space in the Liberties. An analysis undertaken for the Parks and Open Space Strategy showed this part of the city to have the lowest provision of open space compared with any other parts of the city. The new Bridgefoot Street park along with Weaver Park recently delivered will go a long way towards improving the Liberties as a place to live and work.

Bridgefoot Street Park, work in progress. Image: DCC Parks Division