The Rathcroghan Geopark & Community Farm is a design project that harmonises a prehistoric pastoral landscape between the agricultural community and its visitors. The project was heavily focused on extensive site analysis to create a symbolic architecture that fits among its extraordinary surroundings.
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IntroductionThe project evolved from investigating the existing issues of Rathcroghan, Co. Roscommon, Ireland. Once the sacred capital of Connacht, the tentative UNESCO heritage site has been preserved with thanks to the pastoral activity. With evidence of agriculture on the land exceeding 6,000 years, the farming community are as much a part of the landscapes history as the monuments themselves.
The Rathcroghan Geopark & Community Farm connects the pragmatism of agriculture with the abstract mythological journey. This is achieved through the design of land management and architectural solutions, striving to symbolise the contexts unique significance with great care. |
The brief emerged from the Rathcroghan EIP Project Plan 2018 (Fitzgerald & Maher), which outlines the primary issues which exist in the area today, as seen below. Members of the public have damaged walls to reach monuments, and can find themselves in the dangerous situation of being located in the same field as bulls.
Grazing is a requirement for the preservation of these monuments to interrupt large plant growth, and farming is part of the lands history. This brief strived to resolve these issues by creating a community farm proposal, in which the public get full access to the primary monuments while maintaining the vital agricultural activity. To achieve this, the proposal has two parts: land management (to accommodate the required rotations of livestock), and symbolic architecture (a significant architecture which facilitates the requirements of the farm). |
EIP Project Plan Challanges:
(Fitzgerald & Maher, 2018, p.2)
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