New Appartment Blocks
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After been abroad for a few years it was great to return home to Dublin to live and work.To find accomadation and a place to live I decided to rent an appartment which was only newly built.There are so many springing up everywhere transforming the place.However after finding a convenient place, I was astounded to see the shoddy quality of nearly all the appartment schemes I viewed including the one I’ve settled with. Firstly the miniscule size of these complexes is unbelievable.Two little port hole like windows, two dog kennel bedrooms, a larder of a kitchen, a bathroom and toilet the size of a shower and a bedsit sized living room and dining area…..and all for the princely sum of £140,000 to buy.It’s incredible to see that the overall design of such schemes are non-existant and the detailing is shoddy and cheap.I’ve heard reports too of all sorts of complications with such appartments including dampness, plumbing and wiring problems , cracks appearing in walls and lack of natural light. Who are these architects and gerry-builders? Is there no watchdog body is monitor the building of such schemes.
I agree. Small, sub-standard accomodation, which people are queuing up to buy. We grumble about property prices, but there is little public discussion about the quality of housing. Builders are allowed squeeze as many badly constructed matchboxes as possible into a few acres, without any thought given to quality of life. Have we not learned from past mistakes? Soulless, isolated, and overcrowded housing estates breed social problems. Unfortunately, demand for more housing will mean poorer quality.
I know of a scheme where the view from the a window is the blank gable wall of another block. Also is’nt is sad to see these complexes full of high quality cars indicating the wealth of the occupiers; but too bad the appartment quality is seriously lacking and not worth the price. After all it is unfair to the people who have to pay astronomical prices; if people are willing to pay they deserve the quality.
The nouveaux riche deserve what they get.It just shows how stupid they are in the first place to buy the likes. Superficial ignorant air-heads,knowing nothing but whatever is the latest and trendiest fads. If these people did’nt buy the shoddy kips in the first place builders would have to improve the standards.
Duck Soup……The birds come to roost!
KMarx,
Nouveau Riche is a term used in a class snobbery system, it is not an indication of stupidity.
The ‘nouveau riche’ deserve all the credit in the world from making it in the world when they once had nothing.
People need to live, and they need apartments to live in.
Would you rather live in an apartment and pay rent, or live in an apartment & pay the morgage, they both cost the same.
Bad housing represents the socio-economic crisis of our times, need outstrips demand, it does not represent stupidity. Stupid people do not have money to buy expensive but badly built apartments. The people who can afford apartments KNOW THE VALUE OF THEIR MONEY, and see the investment worth it.Way, Way over priced.
Far, Far to Flimsy.Myself and many of my peers in their
twenties are setting our sights abroad
or have already gone, not willing to
put up with the way this coutry has gone.There might have been something done
only for the fact that there are the folks
in the 30’s and above who don’t care about
the way the situation has gone because of
their own assets are worth more.It’ll be the ruin of the country,
There is nothing that special really
anymore that makes it worth having
sub-standard living just to be in Ireland.It is the superficial foney needs of such people for the superficial foney appartments that have hiked the prices in the first place……and the builders just keep getting richer.
It’s funny to think that Bono and a few other celebs were interested in paying £1 million pounds for a penthouse appartment at Charlotte Quay……a penthouse appartment with panoramic views……….of what! Okay London maybe, Paris, Rome, New York, Sydney or where ever…but the Dublin docks…no way! There is SFA of interest to see down there.
Nouveaux Riche with money to squander.Money to squander on cheap little appartments, cheap little restaurants, cheap food and wines…. thinking they are living a life of style, oppulence and finesse and yet not knowing basically good from bad quality.
Again you you nouveau riche as a term to describe these people. If you are in the market to buy property in Dublin, maybe you would realises that everyone needs a home, nouveau riche, gentry, working classes, proleteriets,artists, intellectuals, etc.etc, blah, blah.
It is naieve to condescend on one portion of society when we are all to blame.
Is jealousy the source of this grudge. Realise that people who earn money from nothing are far more accomplished than those whinging about them. New money, so what, maybe they lack ‘taste’, but they dont lack hard work and determination.
They problem lies with the developers, architects & planners. Dont blame the product on the consumer. I have spent many years in dindgy flats, but it was all I could get.
The same applies today. Prices are too high for any reasonable quality. Let us not question the lifestyles of others here. The issues are with the people who build the apartments, not those who buy them.
When a person buys a car and it turns out faulty, do you blame the consumer?, no, the manufacturer or the vendor? yes.
Wise up a little eh![This message has been edited by MK (edited 06 October 2000).]
Ah tut, tut. There is a difference is there not with having money with style and having money without style. People can be complacent accepting anything of substandard quality. There is always a market for anything, no matter what, so long as the public is willing to buy it…. and that goes for everything, the food you eat,the clothes you wear, the music you listen to,the TV you watch…The advertizements you succumb to. In fact, I could describe myself as ‘Nouveaux Riche’ too but maybe I have a keener eye for quality and taste….. and good for me you say.
This forum isnt about you and your tastes, its about sub-standard buildings in Ireland.
The use of th term’nouveau riche’ implicitly implies lack of taste!
To discuss this topic rationally, we must broaden our perspective views, as Spinoza said, the best perspective is from eternity.
One more thing, KMarx was a socialist, classifying people was completely at odds to his ideals.I think ‘TurnOnMyHeel’ raised a good point or at least one I totally agree with:
>It’ll be the ruin of the country,
I am also of the opinion that the current housing market/developments will be the downfall of our economic success. These badly built box apartments schemes will not suit the needs of there current inhabitants in the years to come. The height of the glass ceiling above them to anything habitable will make them take their skills abroad.
‘Nouveaux Riche’ with its old school authoritive implications of taste/aesthetics is counter creative, less you forget KMarc, Daddy wouldn’t have been able to upgrade his yacht last year without the contribution that the ‘Nouveaux Riche’ have made to our economy
At least in the future when all these shoddy schemes become uninhabitable ther will be plenty of work for architects when rebuilding them. At the moment architects they do not have any involvement in designing these schemes, so you can put all the blame onto the developers and the planners.
“TurnOnMyHeel” is right about the
potential the to ruin the country.I don’t think though that the blame
lies with the New rich.A stroll through most European cities
bring you past and into many apartment
schemes that have well kept open spaces
that are shared with the apartment owners
and the general public alike. All apartments
built to a good level.Here though we have Dublin slipping back
into norman times with it’s spaces
enclosed behind large gates with your
standad 24hr Sentry on guard.It’s the regulations that don’t give
people long term leases on apartments,
tenants tending then to be transient.
This in turn makes the apartments more
easily a short term investment for the
buyers. And therefore the owner non-
ocupier won’t care much for the quality
of the building when it’s only a short-
term investmnet to make a few quid.Well as a consolation there will always be the potential of rebuilding for the better in the future. Most appartments schemes today won’t last even 50 years due to the shoddy workmanship. They’re merely space fillers for the derelict sites. Think of the schemes today as a forerunner for better things to come. All these neo-georgian fallacies that we have must be replaced. Hopefully in time we will have our act together too with a more urban minded society. Remember too it it not that long ago that we the natives were inhabiting the bogs.
I agree, these apartments are merely a temporary infill.
The housing being built now corresponds to the baby boom of the lata 60s, early 70s.
As this demand for housing drops, & it will, the demand for these shoddily built apartments will diminish and a new better quality regeneration will supply the housing to those who no longer want low quality.
This turnaround is even becoming apparant today, so dont fret, you dont have to buy property if you dont want to.In relation to the debate about apartment quality. Would people be willing to accept the possibility of never owning a house/apartment throughout their lives. Does this horrify/scare people that after 30 to 40 years they will not possess a property to call their own. The major advantage in ownership , I suppose is security, however does a mortgage guarantee security? Short term leases are the biggest impediment to people’s acceptance of full time rental of property as a viable alternative to home ownership. What do people think about this.
p.s. I realise this is somewhat tangential to the theme of the post, but it does relate generally.On the point that we are just out of the bogs…….To view the big picture of our society and the architecture we have produced – the shoddy appartment complexes, the skullduggery associated with the building business, the twisted planning laws and rampant political corruption over the years…….but what can one expect when you think of a substantial aspect of the public were out en masse to object to divorce, condoms,(which we casually accept now as the country has’nt fallen asunder)the heated almost racist debates over refugees and foreign nationals;and to remember were at one time only recently moved by moving statues and consistantly voted for a particular political party that had caused the general malaise of the country – and what a pseudo religious semi communist state that was…………………..What a backward lot!…sigh!
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