Gagarin Studio


TEL: 01422 300042

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Gagarin Studio is a client-focused, RIBA chartered practice with projects across the North of England. We're a team of experienced architects and designers with a growing reputation for thoughtful, high-quality placemaking across a variety of scales and sectors.

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GAG#122

Cork Footbridge

Morrison's Island International Design Competition

Design for a Footbridge & Public Realm


“the band of braided streams’ and “an intricate channel of narrow channels”

The River Lee - Farrington

River containment isn’t the solution to flooding and alternative approaches were sought in this International Design Competition for Cork. We developed ideas as part of a wider design team to include DP Squared Structural Engineers, Rootstock Landscape Architects and Miriam O’Keefe – a native Corkian, alongside the team here at Gagarin Studio. Competitions are a great way to explore salient issues and test current thinking with creative solutions. We were pleased to have been part of Cork’s future flood-management thinking and look forward to the exhibition of ideas, later this year.

Our scheme addressed the hydrology element of the brief by looking upstream, to reconnect Cork to historic and lost landscapes that traditionally slowed the flow of water down stream. The proposal strengthens connections to Cork’s hinterlands and home to The Geargagh, the only alluvial woodland in Ireland.  The proposal aims to make connections back to The Geargagh and rediscover its characteristics; reinstate the rivers natural flow, course, and reintroduce inlets over time back into Morrisons Island.

Morrison Quay becomes a linear park, quayside bollards are reinstated and river walls repaired: balancing historic conservation, adaptation and contemporary intervention into the urban grain. The scheme aims to recreate habitats from The Geargagh within our scheme, and link them back up the river with cycle paths and imaginative access for all, tracing the history and teaching why these habitats are important for adapting to a changing climate.

We’ve developed a dual bridge crossing; one with a cycle focus and suitable gradient, as well as a shorter crossing. Both picking up desire lines on the bend of the river and strengthening connections across the river. As an enticing addition, we’re also showing a low level level route which links to two existing steps/quays. this includes a stepping stones crossing for low tide. The river bend and channel is also enhanced by new groyn habitat collecting silts, and flora and forna; helping to slow the flow and allow the river to become a place of amenity within the city.