Reply To: 32-floor building planned for Dublin

Yeah, I really like the connection between medieval war fare, movement of troops etc and Beaux Arts architectural master plans, which was so great an influence on Louis Kahn.

Kahn is one of these very problematic, poetic kind of guys to get into – so most people just do a very large detour.

But my biggest problem with architectural ideas and the way they can be presented in education etc – is that poetic ideas, do not necessarily have to be understood in poetic ways – you can always use some kind of lever to ‘get you into the groove first’, and then just embellish it as much as you like then.

I like the notion of medieval total war game – because it presents in a very no-bs fashion – an idea about space and architectural design I have grappled with for a while.

That small tiny individual people, negotiate the environment around them, on foot, through both space and time – that give the necessary time, energy levels and direction – you can move people around quite a lot.

I am thinking about books by Edmund Bacon here, who tried to deal with Medieval urban planning etc. But the problem is, that when most students hear about ‘Medieval urban planning’ they go ‘what a bore’.

Fin has illuminated the topic quite well too.

I mean, take this argument that architects constantly use – that cities are designed by vehicular traffic engineers – it just begs the question of ‘where were the pedestrian traffic engineers’.

Hiding behind a bush, I have no doubt.