Re: Re: Welcome to Ireland’s ugly urban sprawl

Well just take a small, poor, African nation as a good example – one that recently recovered from a Famine perhaps – what if one such small, poor African nation, suddenly had everything it needed – to just build itselves a brand new country?

Just suppose a consortium of billionaires and foreign banks, in the morning, decided to give a small, poor African nation a huge lump of investment – what do you think would happen?

I dunno, maybe, these rich Westerns thought it would be a funny experiment to try out – having gotten drunk in the bar last night.

Well, you can almost imagine it, if you try hard enough.

Some of those African leaders, or chieftains, and the usual few movers n’ shakers in the tribes, would fly around in brand new helicopters mapping out the future.

Then they would fly in loads of designers and planners from Europe or someplace civilised and well-to-do, to come and ‘draw it all up’.

I know, it sounds like a bad recall from a 1960s James Bond movie.

‘Goldfinger’, or ‘Moonraker’, or some similar abomination.

Of course, not a single cent would be spent, on the young Africans and trying to train them up as sufficiently skillful Architects and designers.

Does this sound like the Irish situation – because it really does to me.

Well, maybe not.

But I find it useful just to examine this idea – try to see things from that vantage point perhaps.

I mean, it contrasts with the sorts of viewpoints already presented here on this thread.

I do understand your argument for the ‘existing’ design tradition we have here in Ireland, and I really do respect that.

But, I also think it has strained a bit too much, for what it was, under the current pressure – I feel we could have anticipated that pressure – and acted to deal with it.

It is just too easy now to take the ‘Frank McDonald’ route out, and blame it all on politians without any spatial perception, background or even the most basic training – like these hypothetical tribal leaders riding around in new helicopters.

Brian O’ Hanlon.