Re: Re: Utopian visions of Ireland

finite, an extremely cynical second post. (Where are your own suggestions?)
Architects are not the (only) ones responsible here – the shaping of this country has more than just architecture influencing it. What about the state of the planning system? Recently outed, as you are hopefully aware, as the prime example of what NOT to do. See other posts for planning students themselves criticising and admitting that they are given little or no education in architectural and/or design appreciation. I can in fact cite a recent planning application that a friend was involved in that was refused because it was, according to the planners, ‘over-designed’. They insisted on pebble-dash and concrete roof tiles and red brick and bungalow/dormer…
we don’t have a leg to stand on because we are not the ones putting up the cash to pay for said development at the end of the day. Developers, planners, politicians and the general public, who I truly believe have little or no understanding of what architecture really IS (“sure don’t you just draw houses?”) are all also responsible, but more importantly, are the ones who make the real decisions.
(No more than the development of the DIT Grangegorman site, which I believe has been given to a firm without so much as a whiff of a competition being held.)