Abbey Theatre, Dublin

[noeljmoran]

What is unusual about the construction of the current Abbey Theatre in Dublin?

[rinkytink]

 

It floats !

 

Taken from the Abbey We site:

 

" The new Abbey Theatre, 26 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, which opened its doors to the public on Monday 18th July 1966 heralded the beginning of a new era for the National Theatre of Ireland. The building was designed by Michael Scott and Partners. Due to the location of the building next to the Liffey river, the structure �floats� on a concrete raft. Containing two theatres, the main auditorium which is the Abbey Theatre, and the studio space called the Peacock Theatre, the building is four stories high, with the main roof being forty-seven feet above street level. "

[Sludge]

The word "float" should not be taken literally. It is a figure of speech between civil engineers. The ground under the Theatre is of very poor bearing capacity. To build walls upon it with conventional strip foundations would require very (impossibly) deep foundations, or piling if a bearing strata could be found at an economic depth. The third solution is to spread (reduce) the load by covering the site all over with a thickness of reinforced concrete (much thicker and stronger than a normal floor) and building the walls off that. This is called a raft by civil engineers, and floating means that the raft is not supported by piling. All unsupported rafts are designed to settle (sink) in a level condition into the poor ground (by several centimetres and even up to a metre or more over 2 or three years is quite customary) and it is this designed settlement (sinking) of a raft on top of which sits a Theatre which is unusual.