Re: Re: Dublin skyline

Some very interesting points and comparisons raised. The greatest ‘fear’ that there seems to be about building tall in Dublin is that you are automatically stripping the city of its identity rather than adding to it, as high-rise buildings are an international phenomenon; by definition you are globalising, internationalising Dublin.

Frankly Dublin city does not have much to play on as a collective whole – it has neither an impressive semi-universal style of architecture nor a distinctive layout. But what it DOES have is a low-rise urban form. This above all is the strongest element (if not the only element) that holds the city together, that makes it distinctive, both for us living here, and on an international level.
One may argue that this makes the city nondescript – it doesn’t, it makes it unique, and increasingly more so with the ever-growing development pressures on Eastern European cities in particular.

It is a great shame that not even the low-rise character of the immediate city centre is being protected, with George’s Quay having gone up, and Tara St proposed (even if now dead). The fact that not even the Custom House/Matt Talbot Bridge line can be respected by planning authorities in what is a crucial area, whilst scandalously low-rise development is promoted for an area entirely suited to high density and in the process endangering the social and aesthetic heath of the city at large into the future is deeply unsettling and unfortunate.

As for the workability of tall buildings as a concept, I have no experience of them so cannot comment, with the exception of London which on an aesthetic level is most certainly not a route to be taken.