Antony Gormley Sculpture for Dublin Docklands permitted

The Antony Gormley Sculpture for the Dublin docklands has been giving permission by the Dublin City Council as noted in the Sunday Times.

The Dublin docklands has jumped on the big name fad but I think Gormley work like the Blind Light installation (where you can't tell the difference between people and sculpture among the smoke) and the pieces like the Quantum Cloud are exceptional and you can seen the engineering and craftwork much easier then in something like the bland Spire.

I like his description of it as a ‘like a charcoal drawing against the sky, changing as your position changes in relation to it’ as it will covered in black matt paint and think the use of complex angles to create something that the eye has to fill in itself is very clever.

View Orientation,structure and base plans

The sculpture is being made by the Advanced Geometry Unit of Arup Engineers, London. The science behind the sculpture which is based on TCD Weire-Phelan geometries of the bubble matrix!
to create and see through but sturdy lattice. It the same formula used for the Beijing Olympic swimming pool Other examples of his use of engineering on Body Space Frame and Quantum Cloud construction The right placement?

Quantum Cloud

Placement planning map

Its been placed on the south bank of the Liffey 12 metres from the quay and 30 metres down on seaward side of the Sean O'Casey bridge. It will be 46 metres high 12 metres its widest take eight months to erect and will cost €1.6m.

Some nearby residents objected the idea of towering over them and were They were on Liveline on Monday raising their concerns.

Embedded from RTE.IE

The DDDA say "The authority could have located the statue, which is 80% the height of Liberty Hall, in an area where it needed no planning permission, but chose to site it at City Quay on the seaward side of the Sean O’Casey bridge, to allow for public input."

Lombard and City qauy resident objections

The East Wall Residents' Association said it planned to object to the project because there had been no public consultation. Indo 07 I'm sure DDA would say they has been full public consultation and opportunities to object,a number of locations were listed for the sculpture in the EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) but the DDDA chose it and stuck with it. The main consideration was it not getting the way of boat traffic.

I think it could have been put further down the bay. I don't know why they had to put it next to the few remaining old residential houses on the docks. They should have put if further out. The 'Quantum Matrix' above seems to be more in open industrial space, rather then among the new city. Although there are the old warehouse of the CHQ and the Georges Dock Iron contraption it may have been more suited to where there is still some industrial activity. As pointed out in the objections there a number of other sculptures nearby to lives lost at sea and the linesman on the quay and the sculptural shape of the Sean O'Casey bridge itself but this overshadows them. Although this statue is much more light weight other submissions have compared its height to the Statue of Liberty or Christ figure in Rio which are in far more open spaces. I think the artist wanted it near people but somewhere nearer Grand Canal dock would have been just as busy.An Taisce submission preferring another location.

The decision mentions the request for it to be put in more open area(page 13,pg.2) but rejects it without really giving a good overriding reason.

"It is positioned at a point between the old and new development areas of Dublin City and on a prominent site when viewed along the Liffey Corridor and along one of the main thoroughfares down to the River Liffey. It is also at a location where north/south and east/west pedestrian movements intersect.

"In addition, the proposed site allows the sculpture to be viewed against the skyline within an area of Dublin that has low rise buildings on both sides of the river and it does not interfere with navigation on the river Liffey"

DDDA may use these sculptures to distract from thing like their plan for buildings on stilts jutting out into the Liffey with a canal (an open grey system) behind it(Archiseek). And the deliberate dereliction and speculation that the docklands redevelopment is based on.

DDDA Updates
Non Techincal Sumamry of the EIS
Full EIS
Planning searchReference code 0430/97
planning submission
View Orientation,structure and base plans
Irish Times interview with Antony Gormley

ps I don't think the money could be spent elsewhere for the homeless or the hospitals I just don't think they come from the same budget.

ps Why did the DDDA with all this derelict docklands space, only allow 7 story buildings, if you going to blame anybody for lack of high rise in Dublin don't blame nimbys or an Taisce blame the DDDA.