Re: Re: Heuston framework plan

@layo wrote:

Above mock up actually looks quite nice. It’s reminiscent of a toned down Friedenreich Hundertwasser in my opinion. Don’t know if any one else agrees?

I suspect Hundertwasser would be turning in his urn if he thought a corporate office block was claiming any of his engaging, chaotic, odd-ball heritage!
Personally I think we’re clutching at straws in ascribing the influence of any significant architectural/artistic antecedents to this.

Hundertwasser doing his two-dimentional Gaudi thing in Vienna, and the former NMB building in Amsterdam.

I’ve tried hard to see a bit of the organic architecture of Alberts & Van Huut (NMB building, Amsterdam, 1979 – 87) in this, but apart from the heavy pile build-up, a bit of grass on the roof, and a general shapelessness, it’s hard enough to even make this connection.

I agree that we need to look at moving on from the slick sheen of corporate architecture today, but this doesn’t do that, it mixes bronze facade panelling with a load-bearing aesthetic and, to me, it looks much more like a square footage grab than an architectural statement.

My biggest problem with this proposal is the chaotic relationship with the RHK and the formal gardens. That diagonal ‘sight line’ to the Phoenix Park Infirmary (see Devin’s model pics) is driving me mad. Because of this protected sight line, the new ‘urban’ square within the scheme is squashed and dark, while a wasteful, triangular, nothing space is created between the three westernmost blocks and the wall of the formal gardens! This is daft IMO, as is the insipid hotch-potch of an elevation that they’ll be presenting to the gardens, which they’ve kept low, circa 4 storeys, as if we won’t be able to see all the 11 storey stuff behind!

I know nobody else agrees with me, but a strong, punctuated, urban edge right on top of the wall (OK 5m back or whatever) would be far more deferential to the formal gardens than this splayed half-assed setback.