DARA H

I’m sure CIE can do whatever they need to to the Phoenix Park tunnel that they did to the tunnels linking Bray- to -Greystones for the DART extension to Greystones…….

who said i was a student..?! I suppose one thing we have to remember is that planners are not normally just concerned with aesthetics – they often as not have other things on their mind such as land uses (& environment/ local economy public services etc etc.). A building may be pretty but they might not want it there in the first place – e.g. for other reasons such as obscuring entirely another (listed/ protected) building… Visual aesthetics are besides the point sometimes (profits by higher densities etc. are not often at the top of their considerations list either i’ll bet.)
I’m not taking the professional rivaly to heart – better to try and work together than apart & just agree to disagree otherwise….!
Yep, i;ve come across plenty of engineers, architects, tech’s, planners, builders etc & yes – engineers & planners aren;t generally the most flamboyant of characters i’ll admit, watch your back with builders & architects – watch out for them too.

Teething problems really! – people will eventually get used to dotting all the i’s/ crossing T’s etc!. Its fair to say though that some councils are being a lot more judiciuos (strict) than others.
Some councils provide their own checklists with their planning applications etc. that they send out to people. & i think some can be sourced on the athourities websites. Other than that – its a matter of checking applications against the list given in the Planning Reg.s

Sorry Alan,
all the talk about your proposals for Sligo &, Scottish and Irish architecture etc. reminded me of the above web discussion so i dug it up!

Did RISA ever split from RIBA?

What ever happened to the celtic ‘fringe’ concept?? Still sounds like a nice idea to me.

Maybe Scottish architecture could have a spot on archeire just as there is the UK, world & Portugeese architecture forums.
(Apologies to Paul if that means more work for you – i’m just chock full of great ideas this evening?!!!?)

In the case of industrial/ business parks silver does seem to be the new brown.
As in, if you look at circa 1980’s industrial estates many have brown cladding &/or have a red trim to whatever colout they were. Nowadays many industrial buildings are clad in silver & greys – just as brown and red trim buildings look pretty dated now – i think the same will be said about silver 10 years from now – never mind the fact that it is getting a bit monotonus & boring.
Silver & greys can look good but it losses its effect when you enter estates full of exactly the same thing.

Architects this/ architects that….Public Spaces.. = Eh, you’d get the immpression that it always has been & is now only the purview of architects to design public spaces/ squares etc. I have to say myself that while they may be well placed to design open spaces on purely aesthetic grounds i’d be far happier to see ‘urban designers’ do the work – there is a considerable difference in the professions.

For example, urban designers may come up with much more imaginative landscaping & paving ideas or even, town planners might approach things from a different angle & think of someting that the architects might not.
My point – the ability to design a building’s interior & exterior does not neccessarily translate into a good designer of open spaces.
I’m sure the people from the Lanscape Institute (?) would agree?

I think the reason why Dublin may not be that distinguishable from most British (or many European) cities – is that it is the same size as those cities because Ireland (& capital), as a nation, is tiny compared to most other European countries e.g. Britain, Germany, France, The Netherlands etc.
On a historical note – you’ll find that many colonial powers would have considered their ‘dominions’ to be ‘incapble of self-governance’ – that is part of the standard colonial dialogue.

Urban planning – well, we tried some ‘new towns’ (e.g. Tallagh) although unlike our European neighbours like the Netherlands & UK, we made half-arsed attempts at it i.e. we cleared the ‘slum’ areas of the inner city & settled their populations into vast areas of low-density housing expecting personal cars to be the preffered & logical method of transport (cul-de-sac patterns of streets mitigated against good public bus access & pedestrian flows for catchment areas).
No attempt it seems was made to establish new town centres and industries etc. or, introducing mixes of various socio-economic groups.

Public transport – i personally get annoyed when politicians complain about having to spend money on ‘subvention’ of rail and bus services – i view said as.. Public Services.. and, as such, should not have ‘operating at a loss’ as a major consideration – i.e. how often and when, are stretches of roads and sewer lines expected to ‘turn a profit’???
Public transport, like above mentioned examples, are part of the national infrastructure that help keep the engine of the economy running – the direct & indirect benefits are not always immediately tangible e.g. people travelling on trains are not travelling in cars contributing to air & noise pollution, traffic accidents etc. etc but those benfits are not apparent in simply Irish Rail ticket returns. Other Euopean countries spend a lot more on their ‘subvetions’ than we do.
I do not think Ireland can afford to become as -lets say Socialist leaning as other countries howerver, i think that we’re sliding too close to the more British/ Amerian like profit-driven & car dominated society – I think Ireland can even less afford that particular approach e.g. rail services, though vital, are less likely due to population characteristics, to make a viable profit in privatisation – i.e. maintain as a national (infrastructure) service. Railfreight maybe an exception.

besides the red and sometimes (piss) yellow tactile small paving slabs you usually see – it is possible to buy larger slabs (like a ramp down to the road level) with a ribbed effect like courdroy trousers and, you can also get larger slabs with dark/ black stone with (contrasting colour) stainless steel studs rather than dimples in you see in the red & yellow average types mentioned above.

I don’t see any real reason to replace the bridge as it is now – it got its own character and particular function and i especially think it shouldn;t be replaced just becuase its not new or fashionable i.e. i’d thnik it’d be even more boring to replace it with another (modern/ fasionable) white, concrete or metal – cable-stay or not bridge – a la ‘LUAS’ bridge, either of the calatrava bridges, the motor way one up in Drogheda and others around Europe etc etc.
As for removing the signs – in a peverse way i kind of like them ‘changing with the city’!? And as they have been existing advertsing structures for years i seriously dougt anybody other than CIE can remove them. Seeing that the govt. has always made them impoverished and play second fiddle to roads i wouldn’t want to deny them a handy money earner.

Christ, that was a long bloody thread in that UK forum!! – i gave up reading when i realsied how long it went on – still, a lot of discussion about Dublin for a foreign architecture website – especially as one of the commentators said that it was UK only skyscrapper site?