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