Our public realm is temporarily limited to 2000 metres. This restriction offers the possibility of a new relationship with our local built environment and a changing perspective on our immediate surroundings. Within 2000m is part of Project 20×20 – A Year Like No Other by the Irish Architecture Foundation, which aims to form a new overview of our relationship with architecture and with the communities that architecture serves. Peter Carroll was invited to contribute the following observation:
Rainwater Rills, Stoneybatter – Of the 2,000 or so artisan houses in Stoneybatter, one of the densest areas of Dublin per person per square metre, one can find impressed rainwater rills at every fourth terraced house embossed into the original turn-of-the-century concrete footpaths. A circular indent receives the rainwater from the cast iron downpipe before scoring the footpath and the granite kerb with a 40mm half-round recess, always at a four degree angle to the perpendicular. A small, frequent, treasured delight!
