Reply To: National Photographic Archive

I think the EBS should have replica facades built too…

I think to do this would be architecturally dishonest. Sure they may look crap; but these buildings are a reflection (no pun intended) of the zeitgeist. I thought contemporary attitudes on conservation had moved on from this way of treating modern infill projects. This issue of replica façadism can easily become shrouded in subjectivity i.e. which facade do you replace it with; a copy of one of its neighbours, the previous building that stood on the site, or the one before if that was of architectural significance etc.

Why make them appear like something they’re not? Dublin City planners ruined many a streetscape in the city centre by forcing pastiche facades on any new-build.
It’s a shame the originals were demolished- but this is in the past, and our energies could be better deployed, rather than trying to recreate a streetscape that has long since passed.
Instead of focusing on one or two streets in the city centre (as prominent as they are), we should try to concentrate more on the quality of design of the hundreds of additional streets being constructed every year i.e. in suburban housing estates full of monotonous repetitive housing units, which is where most of us now live and spent most of our time.