Re: Re: How much has been spent on Dublin’s redevelopment?

Just be glad we don’t live in Florida or the Carribean, where ‘big weather’ means they need to take pretty tough measures to build at all. Still even in Ireland, and Dublin, I guess an amount of money has gone under the ground, as well as over the ground. Unfortunately, few of us really understand, the stuff under the ground. Dunno if there are any engineers here in the house, but if you care to see how your colleagues over in Florida are building cities, as in the ‘city as designed by the engineers’,…

http://www.clearwater-fl.com/gov/depts/pwa/engin/Production/stddet/index.asp#100series

I reckon they get some pretty ‘big’ weather in Florida, so I guess Civil engineering standards have to be strict. It tells you why, when you have a plot to build upon, why you have to give a certain margin between you and the road – an easement – they call it over in the US. Notice in the link, how in the United States, they have ‘adapted’ the English language, so that everything almost contains an explanation, in the name itself. I overhead a couple of America ladies not too long ago, speaking referring to what we call ‘pedestrian lights’,… as ‘I guess we should cross at a cross-over’. You need the sufficient American ‘twang’ to say that properly too, btw. But funny, how I think, their terminology for Civil Engineering details, contains more or less the exact same ‘user-friendly’ naming scheme. In any case, any of you familiar with terms like rodding eye etc, should contrast it with the American equivalents. I love this ‘Wing Inlet’ Surface Water Manhole, it is like something straight out of Buffey the Vampire Slayer kinds of flics.

http://www.clearwater-fl.com/gov/depts/pwa/engin/Production/stddet/20901.pdf

I was having a quick squint at the storm water hardware installed in O’Connell Street new paved areas this morning, and there is plenty of capacity there for most flood situations I think, which is really good. It is nice how they have managed to integrate their particular likes of drainage channels into the stone landscaping too, while still giving enough capacity for any amount of rainwater. But if you really want extreme, go just down a little bit further south of Florida, to this caribbean disaster mitigation project website.

http://www.oas.org/CDMP/document/codedraw/intro.htm

Where the ‘General Construction Principles’ include, the use of ‘separation’ to improve resistance from tidal waves and hurricanes. 🙂

http://www.oas.org/CDMP/document/codedraw/sectna1.htm

Some of this stuff is exceptionally basic,

http://www.oas.org/CDMP/document/codedraw/images/fig-f-3.gif

But it gives you a clue, how much of a struggle any building at all, is in some parts of the world. It was really during the Glenn Murcutt lecture in 2003, in Bolton Street lecture theatre, where I first began to realise some bit, how basic things are in some places. I think Glenn Murcutt is one architect who amazing decided to operate in these kinds of conditions – albeit with better clients/budgets – and still manages to create architecture that is aesthetically profound, but functional to the n-th degree.

Brian O’ Hanlon.

Pit privies shall preferably be located on the leeward side of a building and shall be ventilated. Privies shall not be used in areas where the water table is within 2 feet of the surface since they will not function well. The precast concrete slab pit privy has been adopted by many health authorities.

There shall be openings at the top of the walls to dissipate odours. For maximum odour control a vent pipe can be installed in the tank to carry odours away from the privy. The vent pipe shall be at least 6.0 inches (150 mm) in diameter, painted black, screened with a wire gauze and located on the sunny side of the latrine so that air inside the pipe will heat up and create an up-draft. The pipe shall extend a minimum of 2 feet above the roof of the privy.

The door should open outwards to minimize the internal floor area.The toilet shall be sufficiently screened to discourage flies. The walls and roof shall be weatherproof, shall provide privacy, exclude vermin and be architecturally compatible in external appearance with the main house.