The new design for the Royal Canal Linear Park features spectacular floating gardens, pavilions, new bridges and sporting facilities for the area stretching from North Strand Road to the River Liffey.

The park, designed by Paris-based architects, Agence Ter, will provide a visually striking public amenity green space covering six hectares in the North Lotts area of the Docklands. Agence Ter’s design blurs the separation between bank and canal, and considers the body of the park as a whole, treating it as a single space.

It incorporates a series of gardens for a variety of native and exotic plants and trees suited to either wet or dry conditions interspersed with areas for activities - a skate park, a children’s playground, a kayak centre, and multi-sport platforms, and for contemplation/relaxation such as seating areas, water basins and café pavilions.

One of the main features of the amenity will be the floating gardens. While they will be moored to the canal banks, the gardens can vary in placement, arrangement or density according to the seasons.

Night time view of the park

This flexibility will allow the project to adapt to changing urban requirements. Another significant element will be the Park’s pavilions, which will be semi-transparent boxes that change in opacity or transparency according to the shifting position of the viewer.

From the exterior, passers-by will be able to get a feel for the atmosphere inside, while those in the interior can view the gardens.

“The Royal Canal Linear Park will be a major asset in the North Lotts area of (the) Docklands. It will create a new space for the city that will be modern, innovative and highly user-friendly,” said John McLaughlin, Director of Architecture, Docklands Authority.

Other design team members include Coup d’Eclat lighting designers, Arup civil and structural engineers, Delap and Waller services engineers and Healy Kelly Turner Townsend quantity surveyors. Construction of phase one of the Park is planned to begin at the end of this year and be completed by mid-2010.

Related projects currently on site include the construction of new storm defences and a sea-lock at the mouth of the canal, the construction of a new bridge over the canal at Mayor Street to carry the Luas – designed by Future Systems Architects and Arup Engineers, and restoration of the canal walls at Spencer Dock.