Architecture (in words)

‘Pecha Kucha’ at 7pm this evening in the Sugarclub, is that worth going to, or not?

I don’t like the sounds of a fiver in! not unless it’s some kind of architectural karaoke night.

”We feel it is important for us to highlight our creative culture, develop it and then share it with others”. Nathallie Weadick of the Irish Architecture Foundation.

On the other hand, if it’s as lively as their discussion boards, we could be in for a very restful evening :rolleyes:

😎 http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

Now that I’d pay to see.

A packed house this evening, with the aisles lined with latecomers. Rarely does one encounter such a concentration of young beards and thick-rimmed spectacles – many architects really do live up to the stereotype. The proliferation of 20/30-something women also spoke volumes about how the profession has changed here over the past decade.

Ali Grehan, Dublin City Architect, spoke eloquently as ever about Dublin City Council’s intention to register Dublin in contention for World Design Capital 2014. As distant, and perhaps as far-fetched, as it may sound, I think it is achievable if we got our act together. As the concept dictates:

“A World Design Capital is not a status designator, rather a state of being. It is defined by the commitment that a city has made to use design to reinvent itself. Sustainable results or a commitment to develop the city are visible and a changing attitude is detectable. As such, the World Design Capital designation is awarded to recognise innovative cities that have most effectively and, more importantly, creatively, used design as a tool for progress.“

i.e. it is something that does not necessarily demand large-scale expressions – indeed design on the small scale is almost preferable: tying in with Grehan’s stated vision of ‘excellence in the ordinary’. It would require major leaps however. And realistically, in an area that is very challenging, the very place many cities would probably find the easiest to effect real change from – the local authority.

She also spoke of a variety of community projects. A picture that got one of the biggest responses was a fanned antique granite pavement infilled with tarrnac 😉

From an AAI /UCC lecture “Stasus will be discussing their recent work including Animate Landscapes from the forthcoming Pamphlet Architecture 32: Resilience. The project for an experimental film institute, mediates between a postindustrial site in Warsaw and the Edinburgh studio in which it was developed. By identifying, interrogating and ultimately reinforcing the physical and immaterial conditions of both landscape and studio, the project generates a new space from an attention to remnants, silence and the complex temporality of anachronistic things.”

Translates as:

“Moody, Scottish git without a decent concept is working on a project that falls between two stools.”

ssshhhh you, i’m interrogating silence

If architects become a bit more business-oriented then that’s no bad thing, I reckon.
They have to be able to see how and where the impact of their services brings higher value to their clients if they want to score with those clients.

But the thing I’d like to see the new Prez do – as I’d like all professional bodies do – is to move away from leadership of the profession by the over-50s.
We’re in the 21st century, the epoch characterised not simply by change but rather by the increasingly rapid pace of change. Decisions made – or left unmade – by the old farts within sight of the pension line are the stuff that the younger members must live with for their full careers.
It’s time that all professions reformed the degree of involvement of their full membership (and I think apprentices or students ought be involved here too) in all matters affecting their future working life.
Way I see it, no one at that age of their life has the stomach for major changes.
And those oul fellas with a few professional killings to their name are even more mellow by then.
Yet these are the people charged with getting their profession in tune with the needs of society and the economy into the future . . . Bonkers.

any visuals? have not been able to log in…

We never get any feedback from those architectural discussions/free lunches hosted by the DARC people, does nobody go?

Theme today was politics and architecture with Ciaran Cuffe, formerly of both parishes, in the chair.

Ruairi Quinn is the other duel citizen that comes to mind, here [in an I.T. article of July 1975] he waxes lyrical on the architectural breakthrough that was 10-11 South Leinster Street, recently demolished and replaced by the type of ”fully-glazed” block Quinn was telling us had gone out of style.