New Urbanism.
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All I will say, is that the RIAI Housing book was divided up into Inner City, Inner Suburban and Outer Suburban territories. It also included lastly a section about small towns outside of Dublin. But basically, it tried to suggest good ways to develop for each of those environments. I can ensure you, those different territories aren’t imaginary either. whether it is Inner or outer suburban type of development. I mean if you look at the kinds of 3DS VIZ images that make their way onto places like http://www.cgarchitect.com you tend to imagine places like Consilla, or Foxs and Geese, or some really suburban place, with lots and lots of space around the building. Because in America where most 3DS VIZ images are done, you have large suburban types of car-oriented cities.
A lot of inner suburban dublin and inner city Dublin is much more packed than most American cities are. It is nice to just be able to look at a design, and instantly know what it is, based on actually experience of what suburban environments are like, what inner city environments are like. It does make a huge difference – they face different challenges. It is nice to have this thought at the back of your mind, when designing anything. I.e. That you don’t try to design something, which would be suitable in Grafton Street, out in Walkinstown or somewhere. So, I would suggest that RIAI book on housing is a book you should study carefully. Each chapter has an ‘experts opinion’ bit, by someone who is experienced in designing in each of those different environments.
Fin that is an interesting way of looking at things, would you ever consider hiring someone to do that sort of thing for you? What I mean is would you ever get a sociologist or another social scientist to look at a site for you and to give their views?
firstly, gareththe ace…i might scrummage around for that book, i am sure we have it here somewhere. thanks. and the building has to suit the setting. basic learning for architecture, i believe anyway.
and phil. as i am interested in it, but by no means an expert, and consider it necessary for architect’s it should be given it’s due in college. to answer ur question i would consider it strongly for large scale developments where my simplistict approach just wouldn’t do but smaller ones then it would have to be up to the architect as i presume the client might think u crazy if you wanted to bring in a sociologist as a consultant. to hire one in a office! can’t say that i would really. consultant yes, paid staff member no. unless i was doing large urban scale dev.’s or competitions all the time then it might pay alright.
and phil. as i am interested in it, but by no means an expert, and consider it necessary for architect’s it should be given it’s due in college. to answer ur question i would consider it strongly for large scale developments where my simplistict approach just wouldn’t do but smaller ones then it would have to be up to the architect as i presume the client might think u crazy if you wanted to bring in a sociologist as a consultant.
Well I think that is why E-Learning should be a part of architectural education nowadays. There should be appointed staff in DIT and places to accomodate that – after all, after a one year’s worth of interaction at Archiseek on various matters to do with the built environment, one could scarsely hope to ‘dis-improve’ as a potential young design skilled person. Anyhow, just to let you all in on a little bit of info – I was a fly on the wall, at a recent DIT forum about IT and education, held at Angier Street during June 2003. I overheard the ‘big-wigs’ talking about the concept of e-learning for DIT. I never heard such a bunch of old nannies talking in my life.
Basically, nearly all the people present seemed to dismiss e-learning as something that could ultimately become ‘invaded’ by (insert Miss Crabs voice) people who would disrupt the online community etc, etc. Body snatchers, etc, etc. I learned a great deal about online interactive learning from the IT community who are constantly in a daily fight with their job every day, to stay abreast of late-breaking technology news and events, which affect their own job too. They really seem to have embraced it and employed it for their own means and ends. Perhaps our universities should take a leaf out of their book.
the big-wigs are just scared of a new form of learning. it’s pathetic really. they should be embracing it with open arms.they should be listening to the people on the ground. as usual too many chiefs, and not enough indians.
The big-wigs have enough problems grappling with the bigger problems of inefficient, top-heavy institutions of education, costing way too much, and squeezing down too much what the student gets as an end-product.
Than to worry about fancy new ideas like e-learning. Solve the bigger stuff first, like the plethora of buildings DIT has to manage and run around Dublin, and then some of the other things will ‘happen’ as more funds and people/talent, man-hours and energy in Kilo Joules, of their existing workforce come on stream and available to actually do something.
I think DIT work very hard, to keep their system running at maximum efficiency – it is just the underlying structure which is so terrible to squeeze anything more out of – time to throw it out and upgrade the structure.
I could understand the structure of DIT, if it were say, a huge multi-national organisation like DELL with distribution and manufacturing branches world wide and billions of dollars in revenue to spend annually. But we are talking about a small educational institution, having to cope with a small number of students in the one small part of the one city!
And yet, it seems to need and consumer with gusto, the financing, facilities, structuring and regulations of a huge multinational organisation! Without even presenting the end user with a decent product that works? Please refer to American automotive industry versus the Japanesse one.
sounds like experience so i will believe you as i have no idea of the structure. would e-learning cut the need for so many buildings?
e-learning could be just as crap as any other form of learning, believe me. What would probably happen if DIT went into e-learning is that some €20,000 a year poor chap on a 1-year contract might be asked to ‘put something together’ with some other young chap a mile down the road in another building, with no real communication, and who could care less. Eventually it would probably all break out in some corridor scuffle and that would be the end of that, while the dust settled for the next 10 years.
I mean, you don’t want to ‘take on’ the might of the DIT politburo – it has been more efficient than KGB at its height, in putting many a good agent into an early grave. 🙂
LIke I say, fine individuals have managed to keep the whole thing running longer than it perhaps should have – the underlying structure – is unsuitable to the educational needs of any modern first world country. But in times before economic boom, noone spent a great deal of time questioning things – it was mostly about survival – like Dispora said about housing developments on motorways.
Nice inner suburban housing scheme here, designed in Aus somewhere.
http://www.cgarchitect.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=4;t=000461;go=older
But this is more typical of the development in United States, where land values obviously must not be that high.
http://www.cgarchitect.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=4;t=000432;go=newer
Now here is one that I picked out, which isn’t inner city, inner suburban, but may be outer suburban, but is more lightly to be in Galway. Apart from the design, which is daft – I think the sizing and simple statement of the volume is appealing. But most of all, to notice the idea of siting any building at all, on this site, is interesting and pleasant in some ‘folly’ sort of way.
http://www.cgarchitect.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=5;t=000456;go=newer
Just click the link and image will pop up. Steven Holl is one of the few guys who could pull off a site strategy like this effectively today I think.
i like the two..1 in aus and the other in us… the third..i agree with u..it’s daft but from only a render i will say that it may work…some derivation of the design and it could be workable. depends on the site. if it was sloped then u may get away with it…
Have a lot at some of the little houses designed by Meier in the 1970s and 1980s – he could manage to build in such as setting. But it takes confidence and design ability to do so.
Little Britain
30 minutes from London city centre – but like a different world – an area that just ‘happened’ around some old disused gravel pits. Land which ‘might’ some day become valuable for development – but at the moment, is just the space between factories, shopping centres and transport infrastructure.
Did anyone see the piece about ‘Little Britain’ and edgedom’s in the BBC last night? The opposite to the ‘planned environments’ in Britain like Milton Keynes.
I mean, here in Britain and Ireland we don’t have any policy to edgedoms, other than to ‘control them’ just because we like to control things. In Finland especially, i did notice a slightly different attitude to these marginal zones, where it is neither country nor city.
the point was made too – that building types and fauna can exist in ‘edgedom’ which couldn’t exist in typical rural farming subsidised environments – where the cows are ‘paid’ to chew everything to death.
Whereas, to take the urban slant, these places mostly get fenced off, or simply become pitch and putt courses – i.e. brought into the city in some kind of acceptable way.
I guess, that was the approach taken when Bolton Street done some Dublin Docklands projects a few years ago now. Pity no publication or online resource was ever made available from that – i.e. like Fluid Space thing in UCD.
BTW too, on ‘Fifth Gear’ there was a segment about road rage – the antidote to road rage seemed to be walking around a pedestrian area of town – and asking road rage sufferers, why they do not get as angry when a pedestrian cuts them off etc.
Apparently the psychologist said, that the car in modern society is the number one murder weapon and that has indeed affected how we behave.
I really don’t know about using Dublin city pedestrian walking to relieve rage though. 🙂
i am a definate canditate for road rage..i even get path rage…when ever someone is slow or cuts in front of me walking i mutter something very polite at them!
Odd good rendering here Fin,
Notice just how much involved with nature, houses seem to get in different climates to the oceanic temperate one we live in.
that’s very true. being the fact that u don’t get pissed on every time you go outside the door there it’s much easier to have lots of pretty plants near instead of the dull evergreens we get plagueing houses here.
nice rendering alright.typical one of wilderness development, driven by having cars, and lots of home entertainment, web access etc, in the USA.
If I get any more extreme rural developments, I will post them. I think some of these may work as retreat type places, like the ancient Cistercian monastery etc, but as new residential developments…. ?
Some things like this, have integrated well into places like Rathgar Road etc,I think.
Perhaps not pretty in some peoples’ eyes, but definitely sustainable as development I think, on smaller available plots.
I dunno, how to calculate densities on FARs for this but, I think you get the idea.
And another attempt at density.
I think that Wright was very good at doing this sort of thing here.
Perhaps suitable for a number of smaller apartments nowadays on suitable site, circa Rathmines or similar? Certainly would be contextual anyhow.
Another kind of place,
Cross of ancient and modern at high densities. Kahn who first started trend in this.
Goind even further denser in FAR;
We certainly haven’t built like this in Ireland since the times of the Eucharistic congress!
This type of development, is attractive, as it actually manages to create a strong definition of a street I think.
Pastiche probably,but still good amount of accomodation packed in.
The sort of thing which drove Temle Bar development style.
Which, I believe was new at the time here in Ireland.
Docklands? Notice how elements like that bridge in the background, are important perceptual landmarks in such a place.
A good example of where geographers and architects might combine?
http://www.cgarchitect.com/gallery/image_spotlight.asp?galleryID=12673
Normally this kind of density is reserved for bad hotel developments here in Ireland. Which american firms of architects designed and had fine tuned down to the very last quarter of an inch. A quarter of an inch over size = less profit in other words.
But why do cities like paris, berlin, barcelona, amsterdam, london, helsinki etc manage these densities and we never can?
Top Ten Planning Issues of 2003 as per Planetizen online magazine.
California biased perhaps, where the magazine is located.
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