Trinity Library – McCullough Mulvin / KMD Architecture

Current state sat 22 september

Looking at the photo I’m sorry to say but I think it looks horrible…..

What I can never understand is why Trinity so often leaves a useless gap between its buildings and the street, the worst is big cubic gym building on Pearse street which is at an angle to the street and cuts of a little triangle of waste land.

I thought this brutalist stuff was long gone out of fashion……Huge minimalist slabs of windowsless concrete. Wait till this gets weathered too it will look just crap.

Not exactly a barrel of laughs is it??

Ummm, not sure about that building at all. There’s really not much to it is there. Simplicity in general can be beautiful but it is hard to pull it off in Modernist/ minimalist architecture. I also wonder how it will wear in the future. The problem with minimalist architecture it seems to me is, is that once they’ve lost their ‘pristiness’ they look even worse then an ordinary dirty building because you know they are meant to be super clean for the effect (e.g. all white Modernist buildings). On top of that, once they’ve lost their ‘clean, big, blank surfaces’ which is one of their features all you’re left with is Dirty, big, blank walls’.

I think that’s why classical-style architecture was popular c.2, 000 years ago and is still popular today – because there is detail and decoration to look at and admire. No matter what culture or time period you look at jewelry (a form of decoration) has never gone out of fashion. Its as human condition, people like ‘stuff’ to look at to engage their interest.

Minimalist architecture is at times fashionable but they go out of fashion and, as often as not are enduring/interesting enough in detail or form.
Even a manky dirty Victorian or Classical-style buildings have their details such as decorative stonework or brickwork to look at underneath grime and pollution.
Some modern architecture like busaras or the Guggenheim do look good and have details i.e. colours and shapes that can engage the eye from a distance and close up.

From what I can see from the photo of the library there is not a particularly interesting form/shape and no colour or decoration either. At least the slit windows break up the façade a bit – I think if it was all blank facing into Nassau street it would really be a disaster. It’s a shame really that the building appears the way it does behind what is an impressive stone wall & decorative iron railings. I don’t think the tourists will be too impressed. Maybe if even the slit window’s glass were different colours e.g. one red, the next navy etc. so that at least as you approach they become apparent and they might look o.k. contrasted to the white of the façade to make it a little more interesting. I’ll reserve my last judgement until I’ve seen the finished product with my own eyes though.

P.S. brevity was never my strongpoint.

It is a lot friendlier, if blander, from the Trinity side, from the model it looked like the nicest view would be from the new encloused area between it and the back of the Berkeley.

I quite like the massing with the glass volume (you can see on top) that erupts through the stone clad volumes. One thing that this building has over the NGI extension is that it is protected from that most virilent of species – the teenager with markers, and spray paint. Also I imagine Trinity will plant some tree inside the railings which will soften the massing.

A Doctor buries their mistake.
An Architect plants trees.

The cladding although a bit bare is supposed to look like a book shelf with different width books (vertical elements) on shelves (horizontal elemnts).

But I have to agree the views from inside trinity are much better than the nassau street facade. The side facing on to the pitch to the south is heavly glazed.

Id say the photo looks grim and not the actual building. In reality the building is crisp and bright, faced in sparkling white granite (not concrete as some people are assuming). The detailing of the window openings is excellent and the rhythm of the cladding creates more than enough visual interest for me.

The design of the New Library in Trinity College, Dublin is a collaboration between KMD Architecture and McCullough Mulvin. The project was awarded to MCMKMD after the design was premiated in an International Architectural Competition in 1997.
We would be pleased if you could update your topic reference accordingly.

Well, i had an opportunity to see the place on Thursday and now that i;ve seen it with my own two eyes, the place seems not too bad. On closer inspection the cladding isn’t quite as plain as i was expecting and the whole structure was not as ‘blocky’ as i was expecting either.

Approaching from Grafton Street end, i liked the view of pyrimid?-shaped rooflights on one part of the structure.

Was inclined to give the place a thumbs neutral to a thumbs down – now i think i’ll give it a thumbs neutral to a thumbs up.