INCHICOREA N A L Y S I S

Historically, the infrastructural centre of

the town grew from 18th century de-

velopment of the junction of Tyrconnell

Road and Emmet Road.

Few buildings existed here in 17th

Century representations of the town,

likely farm buildings, but with the intro-

duction of various skilled professions,

a centre began to emerge through

building at this junction, st Michaels

and Golden Bridge.

I N C H I C O R ETHE EVOLUTIONOF THE STREET

The above diagrams track the progression of development around

the infrastructure. The buildings shown are those from historical

maps of the 17th/18th century which are still existing today.

By studying the town centre, it is easy to guage how the street is used

as a place of interaction. Its generous footpaths and shop front spaces

create common public space that in some areas is being underutilised.

Black Lion Pub/Dry Cleaners/Pharmacy/Ladbrokes////VACANTFoodMarket/VACANTRestaurant////////////River Cammock ////////////TajBistro//VACANTRetail//VACANTRetail///Mizzoni//VACANTRetail////VACANTHairdresser////

As a towncentre, generous public space is one of the important factors

for thriving economy and cultural expression. How can this potential be

maximised in Inchicore?

Black Lion Pub/Dry Cleaners/Pharmacy/Ladbrokes////VACANTFoodMarket/VACANTRestaurant////////////River Cammock ////////////TajBistro//VACANTRetail//VACANTRetail///Mizzoni//VACANTRetail////VACANTHairdresser////

1745

1846

G S W R THE WALL T H E H O U S E

Railway workers in the Great Southern and Western Rail-way would pass through a small arch in the boundary wall to get to the town. Many of their wives complained that this arch was conviently outside the GSWR House pub, and was the cause of many of their husbands un-intentionally going into the

pub as they were passing by. GSWR moved the arch 100 metres further down the boundary wall so the workers could walk to the town with-out passing by the pub! You can still see the stone and brick arch in the wall that was filled up by GSWR, can you find it?

The steam whistle in the railworks would go off every morning and even-ing and at lunch to remind the work-ers about work. The whistle could be heard from the terraces and organised the rail workers daily routine. It acted as a voice for the railway, but recently has stopped sounding.

S T E A M W H I S T L E

THE WORKS TIMELINE

1890

2014

Old Archway

New Archway

GSWR House

A dérive is a form of psy-chogeographical journey which can yield very in-tersting discoveries about places that you know or unknown territories.

The dérive can be achieved in many ways: purely ex-ploratory without a physi-cal map while recording one’s path; following the pattern’s of people’s move-ments; imagining a route

and applying it to a differ-ent landscape, or picking a feature withing a landscape (topography, skyline, etc) and uing this as a naviga-tion tool. The purpose of the journey lies mainly i how it is recorded, either by hand or digital media. Many are executed by hand drawn maps, as shown opposite, but can also be executed with photo or video.

The opposite journey was taken in the early stages of our research into In-chicore. I dismounted my bicycle at the Grand Canal and began navigating the territory by investigating section of the landscape and any open buildings in order to figure out how the

land falls and rises to meet the river, canal and main street.The thick centre line re-cords my main passage and each section relates to accessible routes that have an interesting sec-tion.

W H A T I S A D É R I V E ?

A D É R I V E O F S E C T I O N

TRY YOUR OWN:What you’ll need:A recording device (pa-per/pencil; phone cam-era, video recording de-vice, sound recording device, etc)

A Route: this can be imagined or calculated (‘take two rights then a left for as long as possible’; ‘fol-low a street occupier to their destination’; ‘take a turn at every second junction’; ‘looking only above eyeline, follow the directional pattern of the skyline’)

The most effective exer-cises are often complet-ed in the shortest time so a limit might be neces-sary to yield a high num-ber of studies in a small time.

The Naked City:

A DÉRIVE INI N C H I C O R E

We are part of an architectural thesis group in UCD, entitled ‘Expanded Practice’. We are currently un-dertaking a reading of the landscape of Inchicore, it’s social history, architectural legacy and close rela-tionship to important landscape features such as the Cammock River and the Grand Canal.

Expanded Practice is a methodology of analysis, re-search and design that supplements the traditional design process, exploring modes of reading a place and designing architecture for it, which is associated with a more fluid set of processes and social condi-tions.

The daily methodology of our work involves consulta-tion with resources in both Inchicore and UCD. It is a collaboration, a sharing of information in order to plug this into the design process. It is of the utmost importance to the process that while practicing in an expanded field, the approach to analysis and repre-sentation is equally expanded, or expanding.

We endeavour to use as many varied methods of representation and analysis as possible in order to achieve a more expanded analysis of Inchicore. This methodology is developing as it is being applied, it is a learning and absorbing process that requires test-ing, experimentation and tweaking.

It is our hope that this analysis will contribute to the on-going discussion of how space and resource is used, in Inchicore and in a wider field.

This is a collection of thoughts, drawings, ideas , sug-gestions, interventions and history.

Visit us for a chat and some tea! Give us your thoughts or stories, learn a bit more about Inchicore’s history and development, see some old and current photos of the railway works or propose your own changes in the town.

We will be in:Common Ground, 15 Tyrconnell Road.Monday - Wednesday 10am-5:30pm (24th March - 2nd April)

Inchicore Sport and Social Club, Inchicore Square2-5pm, 5th April

See exhibition boards in Inchicore Public LibraryLibrary opening times, 7th - 17th April

We are a group of five UCD architecture students called Expanded Practice. We are doing a collaborative project with the people of Inchicore. Our goal is to generate a public discussion about how space is used in the area and what could potentially happen there to tap into its potential.

expandedpractice@gmail.com

W H OA R E W E ?

JOIN IN THEDISCUSSION!

C O N T A C T

Tear out this page, draw or write down your ideas or comments and drop them off at :Expanded PracticeCommon Ground, 15 Tyrconnell Road

Pop into our Ideas Exhibition for a chat and some tea and biscuits!

Saturday April 5th 2-5pmInchicore Sports and Social Club(Former CIE Hall)Inchicore Square

SUBMITY O U RIDEAS !