Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council

5.6 Landscape Strategy
The landscape strategy for the area is prescribed by several essential factors.
● Site context:
– Proximity to existing Town Centre
– Proximity to adjoining residential areas of Carlton Court.
– Proximity to Ward River Valley Park.
– Proximity to the adjacent development of Pavilions and associated new
routes and access points.
● Pedestrian comfort and usability
Where the Dublin Road comes in contact with the pedestrian realm, it is
essential that the landscape treatment responds in such a way that the
public space is adapted or treated in a manner that protects the users of the
Cultural Quarter, while avoiding an unnecessary interruption to the
vehicular flow.
S W O R D S M A S T E R P L A N
The general landscape strategy in relation to the Cultural Quarter area is as
follows.
● The Ward River Valley Park will be extended to engage with the Cultural
Quarter and the current car parking use replaced with publicly accessible
landscape around a park fringe development.
● Elements, Materials and Expression:
Artwork – elements such as sculpture, art and paving patterns will be used
at appropriate locations throughout the Cultural Quarter.
● Lighting:
Lighting will be used as an integral design element while also acting as a
functional safety feature. There will be several distinct types of lighting
employed throughout the Cultural Quarter which will form part of the
holistic lighting strategy for Swords Town Centre. These are as follows:
• Pedestrian areas – mix of column mounted lanterns and building
mounted lanterns. Mounting heights will be fully integrated with the
form of the architecture and provide human scale.
• Amenity – additional lighting around the public spaces.
• Architectural – Illuminating building forms can help reinforce the
identity of a place. This form of lighting may be internal or external.
• Landscaping – The lighting of both hard and soft landscaping will be
carefully integrated into the whole landscaping proposal and will extend
to elements within the Ward River Valley Park.
• Event and art – temporary and permanent use of light, particularly in a
dynamic and creative way, will be employed in the Cultural Quarter.
• Security and safety – Any specific lighting for security will be carefully
controlled. Safety lighting will be considered wherever hazards may
occur.
● Vista and Termination:
Particular attention will be paid to the vistas from Cultural Quarter to the
Ward River Valley and St. Columbas Church and Round Tower. It is envisaged
that tree nodes and green areas will form the terminations of views and it is
important that proposed buildings do not obstruct important views.
● Material Continuity:
The continuation of a uniform quality paving material shall provide an
apparent extension and integration of the Cultural Quarter into the Town
Centre as well as the future Pavilions development area.
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