new Liffey bridge
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Seeing that there are many other bridges that have been built over the last couple of hundred years or morej, I am sure that when the designing of the “older” bridges at that time caused as much fuss if not more as the new Liffey bridge is causing.
Does no one think that with all the wonderful booming building structures going on that to see something wonderfully refreshing as a new bridge develop more astonishing.
Sure, everyone knows how bricks, cemente and precasts are developed into houses, apartments, shoping centres, but to see a bridge being built before your every eyes, I just think that we should look on at this development and say to our families in years to come that we all witnessed the development of this new bridge.
The Millenium Bridge wasn’t built before our eyes, it was cast in Carlow and hauled up to dublin on a big old lorry, then the precast, prefabricated, ready-to-go truss was slotted into place
What makes the building of this structure so great when compared with prefabricated, blah, blah, blah and so on and so forth….?
When did architecture become so boring?
One of the most inspiring bridges i have ever
seen , is Future Systems pontoon bridge @ Canary Wharf, London.
This bridge was entirely prefabricated,and also transported to site on a lorry in two pieces and floated into place.The only work that needed to be done on site was the droping of concrete slabs to anchor it.
Just because it was prefabricated doesn`t detract from the beauty to the structure,if anything it adds to it.
And along with many of the other projects(Lords media center, Pembrokshire house) which embrace prefabrication technology, is an architecture that is about as far from boring as you can get!!Pre-fabrication.
New Inland Revenue, SAGA HQ building and Portcullis House all by Michael Hopkins and Partners. Great architecture.People, people, I was not poo-pooing prefabrication. I was just trying to explain to the chap above that it “…wasn’t built before your every eyes…” [see the sentimental comments above]
Infact I do not really see how the words prefabrication and technology [in this instance only] can be used together in the same sentence. The fitting of the truss was practically neanderthal … all those lovely little ashcon boys banging away[for hours and hours], trying to coax the truss to ‘slip’ into the fins on both quays. It was reminiscent of the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Oddyssey [and indeed an episode of the Simpsons].
Technology, I don’t think so.
Indeed Mrs Lister, the Future Systems Bridge is an absolutley beautifully structured bridge.
Good Afternoon!
Having seen this type of prefabricated construction going up in London, I eventually coined a term for it: “Bodge-tech”. Or as an architect friend explained when I asked him how one of his buildings was going to fit together: “It’ll be a lot of fat men hitting it and swearing”.
In other words, precision isn’t in it. Medieval master masons, with their millimetre-thin joints, were more high-tech than today’s steel fabricators and erectors.
Fogive me if i say that maybe its not the fault of the building,or the method. The people involved have lost touch, instead of the expert masterbuilder,the buildings are being put together by the aforementioned ” Fat swearing men”. And being designed by people who probally care less about the effect on it environs and users.
Hmmm…
I wonder if they’ve ever even heard of Brunelleschi.
It’s sad to think of all the great intellectual struggles and triumphs over the last 1000 or so years – forgotten and replaced with pvc and morons.
Groan…
I think that to state that the bridge designers as morons in perhaps a little unfair…
Take Brunelleschi’s loggia to the foundling hospital, base units of 12 etc fantastically well ordered when you study it
Or take the abutments of the bridge for example- both dimensionally different to fit against the quay walls but cast off the same toroidal mould. Less visible maths behind it.
Then there is the truss that without the existance of Oil rig welding technology would not have been possible to fabricate!
All these parts made in Carlow, Banagher, London, Belfast, Cornwall and Dublin came together with a 2mm tolerence on site!
I am sure Brunelleschi, Alberti, Archimedes would have liked to have done that, and got it right first time!!
After looking at the bridge yesterday, I am now of the opinion that those who said it would ruin the Ha’penny Bridge were wrong, very wrong. If anything the bridge is too subtle. Looking at it from the Ha’penny Bridge it just merges with the background.
Oops… there I go sounding too general again! I didn’t mean the bridge builders were necessarily morons. If an architect got somebody to draw his design on a computer 600 years ago and then saw the measurements and formulae calculated before his eyes I’m sure he would be delighted.
But then, I don’t know anything really abbout modern architectural design processes – I must read up on it.
The bridge is open from today:
From RTE:
Dublin’s newest bridge was officially opened today by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Mary Freehill. It is sited between the city’s other pedestrian crossing, the Ha’penny Bridge, and Capel Street bridge. The bridge was built at a cost of £1.6 million as part of the Millennium celebrations.
Real Video report
I crossed the bridge this morning and have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It offers a wonderfull view of the Ha’penny and O’Connell bridges and seems elegant, clean and natural.
It feels almost flat and is a lot less effort to cross than the Ha’penny. There is a lot more room too.Actually after crossing it yesterday, I have to say that it is a complete non-event. Its devoid of features while crossing, its banality creating no sense of arrival as one crosses the river. I also thought that the decking feels odd under the feet, feeling neither solid nor re-assuring.
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