Re: Re: New Court Complex – Infirmary Rd

That is a most pleasing massing of forms and materials with an appropriate scale. Why can’t we have more of this when it comes to urban infill down in the city? Very nice.

@spoil_sport wrote:

These courts, for me have no more presence than the new eircom HQ across the river, or Dundrum shopping centre.

Alas, this sums it up for me too. Chic and attractive, but little of the gravitas one would expect of the preeminent public building of our times in the city, and immediate descendant of the Four Courts. In concept, it has touches of the Elysian in Cork – not that I wish to taint it unduly with such an association – but also of trends in architecture generally of late, where the form of a building is given the same status, indeed if not less, than the materials it is built of. It is akin to the typical Irish homebuilder, where it matters little what the house looks like, as long as ‘expensive’ materials are used in its construction and fit-out.

While the Criminal Courts of Justice unquestionably attempts a bold form, it is let down by too many self-conscious, ‘high quality’ materials, but moreover, a multitude of elements that seem to have been employed to accommodate or showcase them.

I suppose what it comes down to is, should glazing be used to such a dominant degree in a public building in a way that makes it look like every other commercial building in the city? A Custom House constructed of red brick would be quite the spectacle.