Trinity College Dublin

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http://dublinsketchers.blogspot.com/2010/08/few-more-from-trinity.html

Those universal-accessibility granite paths are going in across the front square at the moment without too much drama.

One interesting revelation is the survival [just below the surface] of the foundations of earlier blocks including the brick-over-stone walls of this secondary cross block that joined up with the old chapel.

Has anyone identified the exact location of the original tower/spire, the predecessor to the 18th century domed structure that re-fronted the replacement 17th century chapel? Dineley shows it off to the north-east.

If the location isn’t built over, it’s excavation would make an interesting addition to the layers of history on site.

I think the introduction of granite paving across the front square has been a success. It has improved invalid accessibility dramatically and it hasn’t diminished the visual quality of the old random cobbled surface . . .

. . . but now somebody with obvious obsessive/compulsive tendencies has decided that the little roundy stones all need to face the same way and be marshalled into neat little rows.

Now I might be only an amateur clinical psychiatrist, but even I can tell that this is a cry for help.

There’s about four acres of cobbles down there and somebody is going to go into meltdown before he reaches the Dining Hall steps, if he doesn’t get the professional help he needs.

I don’t want to be reading about another college-campus-mini-digger-rampage before finals week comes around.

Overall though, I feel this has been an immensely successful engineering project that unfortunately exhibits little design input or imagination. One would have expected, at the very least, with all of the mighty weight of historic precedent of craft, masonry tradition and design continuity on its shoulders, not to mention the eyes of the little conservation bubble in Ireland on its workings, that something a little more stimulating than precision cuts of a handsaw and an accompanying CAD drawing would be evident on the ground.

The junctions of the paths are thoroughly boring and border on slapdash in places. They in no way accord with the creative flair of the street surface tradition of Dublin of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The angular path outside the Old Library is a case in point. Two different joint details are used in two different places to manage the same angle. This is a wide shot.

Aside from the obvious clutter of using unduly small pieces, this junction ends like this…

…while this junction a metre a way ends like this.

Both of which are hamfisted. A sharp point is the obvious solution to both scenarios.

The contrast with the striking concentrically laid rows of historic setts right next to it addressing the entrance to the Library couldn’t be more stark.

Likewise, many of the junctions of pathways, including this important one outside the Library, are dressed with a manhole.

Not only does the pattern of stone not acknowledge the importance of junctions, it’s actually downgraded to host of service cover! Unbelievable.

Likewise, the most important junction of all, the crossroads slap bang in the middle of the square, goes completely unacknowledged and is virtually insulted by a jarring ‘almost but not quite’ alignment of joints. Crude stuff.

The same can be seen at the critical entrance to the square proper from the College Green pathway. Now this isn’t yet finished, as the path will eventually run right up to the entrance, but already you can see a crudely unaligned junction will emerge here.

This may be viewed as nitpicky, but as the trend-setting, flagship adaptation of an historic urban surface treatment in Ireland with centuries of precedent behind it, one would at least expect to see evidence of somebody sitting down and working these details out with a bit of passion and creative flair.

Anyway, they’ve a challenge on thei hands to get this lot finished before Herself arrives! At least red carpet covers up a multitude of sins.

I think it has on the whole been successful with the caveats Graham H has given. I was particularly disappointed that the granite path hasn’t been edged by square setts, the portions that have square sett edging fortuitously, look fabulous.

I wonder what will happen to the old cobbles and setts, they are currently piled up beside Luce Hall. It would be nice to extend the cobbling and granite paths.

I always think the area where the prefab is now between Physics and Botany would be great for a sunken ampitheatre.

The ‘Long Room Hub’ gets the Raymond Ryan treatment in the current Architecture Ireland

For its size, this is a building full of aspirations and complexities that are difficult to put into words . . . . . but not for Raymond Ryan;

‘This latest addition to Trinity’s extensive library system stretches between the Old Library and the 18th century Examination Hall like a thick curtain or inhabited backdrop. It may also suggest a ship, its flanks eroded by floor-to-ceiling openings, its roof punctuated by cubic boxes that function as light chimneys. It succeeds as both fabric and object.’

‘. . . it appears less as a Rationalist pavilion [equanimous on all sides]. more as a sliver of built matter ancillary to Thomas Burgh’s great linear library, to the Berkeley Library across Fellows Square and the Arts and Social Science Building, also by ABK, rising in stepped section to the south.’

‘You approach through the zigzag porch of the Arts Building and discover the Long Room Hub slipping into view like a prosthesis to the 1978 ABK structure . . . .’

‘It’s playful and elegant, this stereometric sponge with erosions in all directions.’ ‘It feels like a vertical V.I.P. lounge for the mind, complete with collegial sofas and attractive meeting areas . . . . It feels more like a club, a honeycomb in which to write, sift, discuss, interact.’

So there you have it; It’s a thick curtain, an inhabited backdrop, an eroded ship, a sliver of built matter, a wooden leg, a stereometric sponge, a vertical V.I.P lounge and a honeycomb.

Charades with this man, will not be over quickly.

Raymond Ryan, formerly of this parish and now curator of the Heinz Architectural Centre in Pittsburgh, doesn’t mention the term monumentality at all, which I would have thought should have been in the mix somewhere, but then Raymond Ryan has form when it comes to Trinity and monumental blocks, witness a School of Botany thesis, in full post-modern power-house mode, from 1981

I must say I had misgivings about the plan to replace some of the cobbles on Front Square with pavements but now that virtually all the work has been completed and they have begun to settle into the fabric of Trinity they certainly are not the calamity one would have expected. If anything they have added to the character of Front Square by emphasising sight-lines and the beauty of the cobblestones by providing a contrast. They also have made Front Square a busier place by making it easier and more inviting for cyclists, women and the disabled to use it. Overall, the project has been a success.

The current project in Trinity is the cleaning of the Museum Building. Scaffolding had stood next to the place for so long that I thought it was going to become a permanent feature (especially when it didn’t look as if any activity was taking place) but once it was removed from the east side of the building you could see the thorough job done. Scaffolding has gone up on the north side now to carry on the work.

Couple of images, people may not have seen before… The first one of the theatre, I hadn’t seen. What happened the dome proposal?

7/6/2012

Finally, after years of neglect, the iconic quaint lamp standards atop the entrance gates of Trinity’s West Front were receiving some attention a weekend or two ago.

The pillars themselves are quite historic, installed as part of the Victorian railings and being of sturdy proportions with charming Corinthian capitals. The lamp heads were only erected c. 1980 but are an extremely convincing Edwardian design – I suspect they may have been salvaged from elsewhere. They feature delicate ribbon-like crosses and delightful frilly hat pinnacles that hover above the globes. A clever little access door too.

It took the guts of 15 minutes and a bit of head scratching to get to this stage. Off she comes.

Carefully does it now.

And settle down.

Sights were then turned to repairing the bulb holders – this disconcertingly large piece of plastic was produced. Okay, perhaps it is going to be concealed by the lamp when it goes back on.

Well, no actually. Not only is it to be left exposed, this is the new base for an entirely new lamp. Yes, the old lamps were dumped, and new, ignorantly detailed, factory-produced lamps have been stuck on in their stead. Not only has the old fabric been lost, but the new lamps bear only a passing resemblance to their elegant forebears, with none of the refined profiling or detailed decoration. They are cartoon imitations of their predecessors. The crude bulb holder is also ridiculously tall.

Before and after, with a nasty plastic top-up and preposterous proportions.

As ever, Trinity pay lip-service to conservation when it comes to detail and respecting historic fabric. Needless to say, the above also has no planning permission.

It is such a shame to see the city’s ever-dwindling stock of decent period style lighting being so carelessly eroded even by supposedly flagship conservation authorities and institutions. There is absolutely no excuse for this. Somebody in authority in there must know this is happening.

Only one lamp has been put back to date as there seems to be a problem with the other.