Smash hit

Schwartz trained as a printmaker but, inspired by earthworks artists such as Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer, soon enrolled to study landscape architecture.

“I was following those big artwork guys who were treating the landscape like an enormous canvas, but I wanted to make big art in the city,” Schwartz says. “I found that the trick is to call yourself a landscape architect. Then they’ll give you opportunities they wouldn’t give environmental artists, because artists are not to be trusted.”

Schwartz has rescued problem spaces such as Grand Canal Square before. In Washington, she transformed the space in front of Marcel Breuer’s 30-year-old Department of Housing and Urban Development by introducing a cluster of giant, plastic, “mechanical trees”. Conceived as a riot of colour, Schwartz’s concept proved too much for the client, who demanded a white-only version.

“Many people are phobic about colour,” she says, “although women are more open to its use than men. It’s just not seen as sophisticated. Even artists have strong views: some colours are retro, some are new, others are out.

“But colour is hardwired into our brains. It generates an emotional response in us. We are ruled more by what we feel than what we think. And it’s important that what we build has an emotional relationship to the people who will use it,” she says.

As urban space becomes increasingly theatrical and programmed for leisure, Schwartz is about to create Ireland’s first 21st-century destination square. It will be unlike anything we have seen.

Her strategy was simple: she more than doubled the size of the square by redesigning the traffic flow. Vehicles no longer have access to the quayside; a single-lane carriageway serves the hotel. Giant glass shards conceal the exit stairs from the car park.

Crucially, the design knits the theatre into its surroundings. “It is such a powerful building, like a 600lb canary that can sing any song it wants,” says Schwartz. “We wanted to make it more at home, to go with the flow. So we interpreted its angular, cracked, skewed aesthetic and applied it to the ground plane. Now, it’s no longer just a building sitting on a square: it spreads out and makes its way all the way to the water.”

The glittering, flush-red carpet laid across the square from the theatre lobby to the quayside and beyond, holds out exotic promise. The unusual material is Crystal Paving, a patented macadam of recycled glass and solvent-free acrylic resin that can, if required, be both translucent and backlit.

Construction will begin in the coming weeks and should be completed in three phases over the next 18 months. First, the original square will be replaced and extended out to the water’s edge. Later, when the hotel and theatre are built, the edges of the square will be completed.

But the crucial extension into the dock will be possible only if Waterways Ireland, whose statutory remit is to manage, develop and restore the inland navigable waterways principally for recreational purposes, approves. It previously sanctioned the construction of extensive marina berths in the dock and its basin, so there is reason for hope. As Libeskind says, there’s a lot at stake here.

www.marthaschwartz.com
www.daniel-libeskind.com