Tir na nOg — Emerald Park
Rockwork, themed façades and painting for the Tir na nOg entryway and the land around it, built to read as weathered Irish stone.
- Site
- Emerald Park, Ireland
- Scope
- Rockwork, façades, painting
- Signature
- Carved entry portal
- Constraint
- Atlantic weather during finishing
The diary
The rock exists in steel long before it exists in stone. 01Phase 1Setting out and steelwork
The entry portal is set out first: its armature carries the whole silhouette of the land, so it is surveyed and welded before anything else goes up.
Shotcrete is sprayed and shaped in the same movement. 02Phase 2Shotcrete
Our nozzlemen spray the shell in continuous passes, following the modelled surfaces. Thickness, reinforcement and drainage are controlled as the shape grows.
Texture is cut by hand, against the clock of the setting concrete. 03Phase 3Carving, wet
Strata are carved shallow and wide, closer to the local weathered stone than to dramatic cliff faces.
Buildings grow out of the rock, not in front of it. 04Phase 4Façades and details
Themed buildings, timber, plaster and ironwork are built into the same surface, so the architecture and the rock read as one set rather than as decor placed against a backdrop.
Water is tested full-scale before a single coat of paint. 05Phase 5Water, planting and integration
Basins, waterfalls and submerged structures are tested and adjusted, then planting is threaded into pockets left in the rock so vegetation and stone age together.
The last layer is the one that decides whether it looks real. 06Phase 6Painting and handover
Painting is planned around Atlantic weather windows, working from cool shadow tones outward to mossy greens.
