Cork Institute of Technology: de Blacam + Meagher
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Hav’nt posted much lately but feel compelled to now have just received issue 226 of Architecture Journal of the RIAI. It features de Blacam + Meagher’s Cork Institute of Technology.
Lou Kahn will never be dead as long as de Blacam and Meagher are in practice but the buildings are stunning……pared, rigorous , strong and beautifully detailed. We could not produce a building like that in Scotland, the commitment is not yet in place or vision, intergrity and strength of purpose required and doubt if it could be done in the UK.
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well thank goodness you responded Paul, thought it was going to drift off the forum without comment..
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I agree it’s one of very few landmark buildings in Cork. I’m glad there is a new Cork thread. There are plenty of people who don’t contribute but enjoy reading all your comments.:)
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hell CasaNova, one of very few…..how many more have you got like that then?
Remarkable Peter, gives you the impression it will last 100 years and then some.
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Looks promising, but I’ve yet to see it in the flesh.
One (slightly negative) comment hits me, though, from viewing the images on the linked page above- is the whole thing built using running (stretcher) bond in the brickwork? The only variation I can see is the soldier courses at some parapets. If so, a pity and a missed opportunity, though the brickwork is leagues ahead of, say, the eyesore at the bottom of Henrietta Street in Dublin.
I wonder how the interiors will look once they become festooned with the usual five layers of Union posters and sellotape scars?
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the stretcher bond used helps to give it its monumentality. i fear if other bond patterns were used it would have lost its integrity for sure
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Looks like Mountjoy.
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One worry I would have is that the limestone coping is flush with the brickwork and the coping’s horizontal surface is not slanted either back towards the roof or to the outside face of the building. In future years the college will have to keep the brickwork clean as algae will grow on the surface as the rainwater will not be shed properly.
I understand that the roof is drained by 100mm pipes run within the cavity wall, I would imagine that the cavity will be bridged in many places leading to staining of the inner surfaces etc.
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I really don’t get it.
Maybe this is part of the problem between planners and architects (me planner).
It looks just about ok to me – not spectacular, not particularly attractive – maybe questionable functionality?
Maybe Art but not to my taste. Maybe Modern Art (I know what I like …etc.)
Not exciting for me – the Gherkin is exciting. La Defence is. New Lansdowne Stadium is.
I agree with Archipig.:(
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I stumbled across some pictures of this last week and was puzzled that we’d heard nothing about it till fairly recently – what a creation!
I think its appeal stems from being both chaste and daring, while also being comfortingly familar in use of materials and some aspects of design approch. It also surely comes from the fact that it looks like a hand-crafted building; indeed part of its monumentality is derived from appearing as if it took an eternity to build, being comprised of tiny elements struggling to create something great. And because there is a human touch to it in that sense, it moves away from the processed, machined facades we’re so used to nowadays. It looks like a very tactile, warm place. The corridors and larger public spaces are stunning.
One concern though is brick’s tendency to wear rather badly in interiors, developing that horrible grimey, glossy band running waist height around rooms and along corridors. It’s something that’s always made me queasy to look at – there’s just something so repulsive about worn, shiny brick. Not sure how it can be avoided…
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Terrific building. For some reason, it brings to mind this gem of a church off O’Connell Street
http://www.archeire.com/buildings_ireland/dublin/northcity/cathal_brugha_street/stthomas.html
Also, I’m sure de Blacam + Meagher took inspiration from the Tate Modern in London. -
A few more pictures:
The circular court:
More medieval references: a cloister leading to the circular court
Finally, the older, library building
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At the risk of being unpopular, I have to say I really don’t get this project, I have seen it in the “flesh”, and I liked the library a lot, but I find the whole thing very strange… a bit forced. In particular the great circular court feels like its trying too hard to be .:MONUMENTAL:. While the unity of thought and singular vision is admirable, and certinally it has character, which is a lot more than can be said for most campus additions (serial offenders Murray O’Laoire + RKD in UCD comes to mind) it becomes somewhat overpowering and feels all too heavy handed.(?)
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