Epitaph for a Dublin Car Park
Dozens of car parks dominate Dublin, but if we transform our capital city into a place that values people over cars, they could become redundant.
Micheál O’Connell investigates car park dominance and imagines how they could be repurposed as public spaces.
7 min. read
With working from home initiatives allowing families to move to calmer parts of Ireland, and the sudden abandonment of our capital’s high street, Dublin has been handed a unique opportunity in the face of the pandemic. Unfortunately it appears the City Council is failing to seize that opportunity this summer, stalling efforts to roll out toilets or seating and even closing Portobello Plaza, but in the long-term, there is no question that Dublin will transform.
A drift away from traditional high street shopping is a central point in a new vision for our city centre. As office spaces are expected to compress, or even be completely repurposed; we must too think, what can be done with a space that benefited so much from high street shopping; the multi-storey car park?
Changing Cities
“It’s been clear that the function of a city centre has been primarily for people commuting into the city for work, and tourists visiting the city,” says Ciarán Ferrie, urban designer and lecturer at Griffith College. “Both of those have been hit quite significantly, and have meant that the city centre is a much quieter place”.
The city-centre of Dublin now combines up to twenty car parks in the space of a 2-kilometre radius beginning in the Grafton Quarter. Remnants of the brutalist architecture of late-80s capitalism are Dublin's biggest opportunity for a facelift.
The prospect of reducing our reliance on car parks must be understood from several angles. According to Mr Ferrie, there is an acknowledgement of the benefits in pedestrianising areas like South William Street. However, direct access to parking in the area is the major barrier.
View from Stephen’s Green Rooftop Car Park
Our Future With Cars
In some respects, it would be easy to see a future Dublin completely devoid of cars. Dublin’s much maligned Luas system has offered the city centre a great boost in connectivity. The future of Dublin’s roads concentrate much more on active travel. The transfer from cars to e-scooters and bikes will be at the fore of Dublin’s accessibility.
Erika Casey, senior planner with Dublin City Architects, accepts the problematic nature of these spaces, but understands that development, in broad terms, must align with transport: “There’s a recognition that we can’t entirely ban cars from the city, in order for the city to remain competitive in retail terms, however there is less of a need going forward”.
Erika, and Dublin Council, empathise that there is less of a need for car parks in Dublin’s future. There has been an emphasis, on behalf of Dublin City Architects, to redevelop those spaces in the centre, yet traditional barriers remain.
“They are commercial entities rather than public entities.”
What is quite symbolic, perhaps, is these car parks are privately owned. According to Erika; “They are commercial entities rather than public entities, and it’s a difficult thing to get away from. Far beyond the remit of planning”.
Data compiled by Catella notes that multi-storey car parks yielded a total turnover in Europe of €8.58 billion in 2015. There is clearly a great interest from the side of these private owners to maintain the status-quo. Perhaps, this is why we have seen the influx of companies like Euro Car Park, owning over 200 car parks in Ireland.
However, there are countless opportunities from urban gardens to nightlife spaces within these multi-storey car parks that can provide so much, not only in an economic sense, but for our communities and culturally.
One of the most profound experiences I have ever had was in such a space in Berlin. Unlike most places in Berlin, it wasn’t dark or strange. It was one of the lesser-known aspects of Berlin. A sense of community that the Berlin authorities allow for that makes that city so special.
My first time on top of the car park, overlooking Neukolln. Sun setting and talking to people I only ever spoke to in that setting. Klunkerkranich stands as a beacon to what Ireland could hope to achieve. A borderline-hippy commune/nightclub; the place isn’t one that the Berliner would put at the top of their list of nightclubs. However, as a picturesque view, safe-environment and a general amazing tourist attraction that exemplifies the importance of DIY communities; Dublin’s benefits should stand to outweigh the negatives in reimagining the car park.
Klunkerkranich, Berlin
Recapturing Autonomy
“Every effort is made from developers and investors, and anybody with money to essentially do whatever they want in the city” according to Labour Party councillor Kevin O’Donoghue. “This is at the expense of communities” says cllr. O’Donoghue. “I would like the next development plan to be informed from the mistakes we have made over the last ten years”.
This is the kind of plan going forward into the 2022-2028 development plan; a more concerted effort to right the wrongs that led to the urban decline of Dublin.
There seems to be a more direct concentration on our sustainability. This includes, not only our obligations to meet EU standards of greenhouse gas emissions but to recapture a sense of autonomy away from Dublin's rental culture.
According to Dean Brickland, head of TU Dublin’s Environment, Planning and Sustainability Society, a Land Value Tax to pressure people and get this vital land moving for the betterment of capital is essential: “If spaces struggle with people unwilling to change the building or sell them on, a Land Value Tax would be a great solution”, said Mr. Brickland. “It would get a lot of vacant and derelict buildings back into circulation dropping rents for both residential and commercial, which could only benefit society”.
There’s no doubting the frustration people in our creative communities face. Rents too high and an apathetic government have pushed so many of our friends out of the country. We can scroll through Instagram viewing the same images of our friends standing on top of the Drury Street Car park. Would it be too far to say that we can all see the potential for such a space?
A bar on a repurposed Lisbon car park rooftop
A slightly smaller roof, on top of one of the nicest parts of the city, the view from which adds to its understated nature. Again, we can blame the council, the owners or the politicians. But there is a real desire to move away from such spaces. Movements like GiveUsTheNight are pushing more and more for more creativity in our capital, and with their passion, and the desire coming from some government ministers, we could very well be on the cusp of something different.
The countless problems we have all faced in this pandemic have also pushed our nation in a direction towards change. We’ve seen over the past weeks that our pubs and nightclubs will be staying open past the constrictive hours of pre-pandemic times. Like so many things, the pandemic has simply accelerated action that we all knew was necessary for this change. What could happen in Dublin’s future is emblematic of our collective opportunity.
Micheál O’Connell
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