Play Park, Ballyfermot
The Wild Place: Skating, wild play, and biodiversity in Le Fanu Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin.
Location: Le Fanu Park, Ballyfermot, Dublin
Year: 2016
Client: Irish Architecture Foundation
Team: Daryl Mulvihill, João Pedro Faria, Reem Saouma
Collaborators: Openfabric, Ramp Riders, Maser
Size: 5,000m²
Budget: €500,000
Result: Competition 2nd Place
The Lawns are a significant green space at the centre of Ballyfermot — large meadows, prominent trees, existing sports fields. But like many parks in communities like this one, the range of what you can do there is thin. The Irish Architecture Foundation ran a competition for BMX and skate facilities alongside play for the wider community. This was the studio's proposal: a new play park for the northeast corner of the Lawns, designed to act as a catalyst for the whole park's development.
The proposal thinks at two scales. At park scale, three layers structure the whole Lawns area: an outer Green Belt for biodiversity, an inner Sports Core retaining and improving the existing football fields, and a Green Mile recreational loop connecting the Play Park to the wider park. The play park is the starting point for a longer transformation.
Before finalising our entry, we spent two days in Ballyfermot meeting the people who use Le Fanu Park every day. Community meetings with Ballyfermot Youth Service, local BMX Club members, and the children of St. Ultan's School gave us a picture of what the Lawns mean to the neighbourhood, what was missing, and what the community actually wanted from a new play and skate facility. Community engagement at competition stage is rare; getting it here shaped the design in concrete ways, particularly the three-zone structure of the Play Plazas and the range of ages and skill levels the skate park needed to accommodate.
Within the Play Park, three Play Plazas each serve a different group and a different kind of play. The Skating and BMX Plaza takes the south of the plan: 800m² of interlocking bowls designed for all ages and skill levels, developed in close collaboration with Ramp Riders. The surrounding walls of the sports pavilion and climbing wall are covered in murals by Dublin artist Maser, made in collaboration with local residents. To the north, the Family Play Space provides climbing frames, sandpits, swings, and slides for younger children. Between them, the Wild Play Area sits under the existing trees: bamboo mazes, willow huts, and natural play elements that change through the seasons.
Three plazas, three ages, three types of play — held together by the green spaces between them, each with its own planting character. An open-ended proposal for a park that will grow together with its community over time.
