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Landform Observatory, The Burren, Ireland

Part 2 Project 2003
Barbara Griffin
University of Lincoln Lincoln | UK
On the west coast of Ireland a perpetual limestone landscape stretches towards the Atlantic. This piece of landscape architecture provides a sensual and explorative journey through a mysterious landscape gradually exposing the views of rock, earth and water. The carved path offers a safe route and sheltered dwellings to those exploring ‘The Burren’. The essence of the project was to allow the frequently changing weather conditions to inhabit the form as a fundamental and transient influence to the experience of the traveller. The form is a combination of excavated voids, paths, pools and habitable space cocooned within an undulating roof form. Conceptually, the challenge was to combine two languages. One taken from rock formations, the perpetual, and the other from film studies of the transient weather conditions.


Barbara is a student with a great capacity to work through the banal to revel layers of quality and an unending stream of ideas. Her thesis was derived from such a source. A piece of string fluttering in the breeze. The design she developed from this starting point became an exercise in the meticulous application of methodology and the rigorous pursuit of a very defined set of objectives. The resulting design became an enticing special exploration into the possibilities of a single drop of water rippling, shattering and changing the architectonic and sensory perceptions of a designed space.

2003
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