Ever peered through the gates at the decaying sawmill on Kyrl’s Quay?

While normal activity has all but ceased in the city centre in the past 12 months, this is one historic Cork site that has been buzzing with promise lately… and all will be revealed to the public this summer.

Having taken an interest in the vacant site and its dilapidated industrial buildings and unused limestone public loos (near the Bridewell Garda station), a group led by artist Aoife Desmond and architect Ailbhe Cunningham approached Cork City Council for permission to occupy and transform the ‘island’ site and make it accessible to the public.

Now an exciting project titled TEST SITE will see the group create a temporary outdoor community space for city residents.

Thanks to Arts Council Architecture Funding and the Arts in Context Award from Cork City Council, three months of seminar discussions, workshops and events around the topics of biodiversity, urban planning and architectural heritage are planned, alongside a short series of live performance events and film screenings.

Here are three cool things already confirmed as part of TEST SITE:

1. A temporary pavilion

A temporary pavilion, designed by Ailbhe Cunningham in collaboration with ARUP Engineers and Silva Build, will be constructed using sustainable materials and used throughout the summer. In the lead into autumn, the pavilion will be dismantled and rebuilt in another location in the community.

TEST SITE is also working with community boatyard Meitheal Mara on the building of a modern interpretation of the noted Belfast Truss – a key feature of the pavilion design. The riverside locations of Meitheal Mara at Crosses Green and TEST SITE on Kyrl’s Quay are historically linked by the timber yards which previously existed in those areas.

A workshop to contextualise the significance of the Belfast truss and a film artistically documenting the process are also anticipated.

2. A ‘woodland habitat’ in the city

Planting has begun on Test Site’s Coill Bheag, a ‘small, dense, biodiverse native woodland habitat’ which will be introduced to the island site at Kyrl’s Quay this spring. ‘An Choill Bheag’ is being designed and delivered in collaboration with Hometree and An Taisce’s LEAF programme.

“As the emergent ecology of Kyrl’s Quay comes into full summer blossom, the native Irish trees will be cared for onsite and their buds will develop and open up to form a lush and varied canopy of native species leaves,” says Ailbhe Cunningham.

With the public’s help, the group hope to find permanent homes for these trees across the city.

Planting has begun – our Coill Bheag or ‘small, dense, biodiverse native woodland habitat’ will be introduced to the island site at Kyrl’s Quay later this Spring. ‘An Choill Bheag’ is being designed and delivered in collaboration with Hometree and An Taisce’s LEAF programme. pic.twitter.com/1vscPAgNMD

— TEST SITE (@TESTSITEproject) March 17, 2021

3. A 16mm experimental documentary

“Responding to the Kyrl’s Quay sites through film is a kind of physical and embodied knowledge,” says Aoife Desmond, who is working on a film entitled Mná & Sons.

“Observing the changes in light, in weather, in season. Observing the plants, the birds, the residues of human activity. The filmmaker becomes enmeshed with the site and the camera is a kind of go-between or conduit.

“For ‘Mná & Sons’ I share this process with other cinematographers as I also step in front of the camera to take this embodiment further and perform with and on-site.

You can find out more on the TEST SITE website designed by Deirdre Breen or pick up a TEST SITE zine (€5) at Myo coffee shop on Pope’s Quay.