deza
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@Sean Carney wrote:
Thank you for pointing out the defination of “Metroplis”, my mistake.
When you say that if I have nothing good to say don’t say anything at all I just want to verify that when it comes to anything being developed outside of Dublin it seems to be alright to criticise and to put down.
Also I no longer live in Cardiff I live in Ireland where by the way I grew up.
I have travelled a bit so have taken my experiences of different citites with me.
Thank You.P.S: I will have to update my profile.
Ah Cardiff! Now that’s a big city isn’t it Sean?!
No one is saying that Dublin is a metropolis ala New york, London et all, but it’s certainly not a small city. Would you say Glasgow, Liverpool, Copenhagen are small? They’ve all got populations similar to that of Dublin.
I think you’ve got a provincial attitude to be honest. It’s the same argument I’ve heard lots of times from people who want the “green image of Ireland” untained by the big grey crab of Dublin which stretches out saying “I’m here too”! These same people hate any image or recognition of urbanity creeping into this romantic “sound of music” nicely boxed off notion.
Cities like Cork, Limerick, Derry, Lisburn, Killkenny are small. Places like Liverpool, Dublin, Glasgow are big. But places like New york, London, Paris, Rio are feckin “houige”;-)
Paul/ Alpha,
That looks familiar. If I think that’s on the Northside of the river a little bit down from the Financial services centre.
Personally, I’d like to see something of a similar height or taller in it’s place. To be honest , I’ll be sorry to see it go. We don’t have enough Stalinist landmarks in Dublin as it is!
I’m going to be greedy here and choose ugly buildings!!
Personally I think that the Quays west of O’Connell bridge on both sides of the liffey should be mostly levelled. On the Northside everything up to and beyond the four courts should be destroyed and rebuilt as something more befitting a city and not that of a provential town. They are an embarrassment to an otherwise architecturally impressive city. Of the Southside quays I’d destroy practically everything. This area has no achitectural merit what so ever. The buildings are bland and falling to pieces and when you compare this area with say college green or O’Connell street they have a decidedly provencial feel to them.
And before the “Dublin’s the capital of a small country” and “buildings should reflect that” brigade start banging on, Dublin with a third of the population of the Republic of Ireland is completely different and in many ways alien to the rest of the country in temrs of its urbanity. Belfast isn’t even half the size and locals refer to it as a big place. I think a lot of this attitude is a throw back to Dev’s identification of urbanity as being alien to the Irish ethos and thus explains the need some people feel to play down this unigue urban identity.
Cheers Diaspoa. Your explanation certainly makes a lot of sense. Perhaps building up and creating affordable housing is the only way to halt this sprawl. Logically there are only 2 options. You build up or you build out.
I think building up is probably the only option to stop Dublin spreading out as far as Galway!
I understand that. It’s just that I can’t see where this sprawl is. I know Dublin is a fairly big city in relative terms.
If you compare it with UK cities such as Liverpool, Sheffield and Leeds for instance it’s bigger. It’s about twice the size of Belfast and Edinburgh and similar in size to Glasgow. Whenever, I’ve been over I’ve felt the buzz of something big. However, a few of us decided to go to Kilkenny and got the train from Euston. After 5 minutes on the train, we were surrounded by fields. It just surprised me especially when you compare it the bustling feel in the city.
Does this sprawl perhaps come in “pockets” of urbanisation?
On paper Dublin sprawls for quite a bit. However, my view on this was changed when flying off from Dublin airport a month ago. As you know, the airport is no more than 7 miles from the city centre, but if you look out the window as soon as the plane starts to make it’s accent all you can see are fields – as far as the eye can see.
Thanks for that. For a city which claims to be progessive, Dublin has such a parochial attitude towards tall buildings.
Dublin is a great city and in many ways a beautifull one. But our city fathers seem obsessed with maintaining a skyline which doesn’t upset the Georgian buildings. If you look at any other major city, they all have buildings which represent the time and subsequent development which took place over the years. Georgian architecture was the imposing building of it’s day believe it or not, then victorian etc. Tall buildings if they are in the right place do not detract from the old ones. A prime example is London. London architecturaly is a beautifull city. All it’s building represent it’s chronological developement. And, it’s got a lot of tall buildings too!! Yes, they dominate the skyline, but they don’t spoil the overall feel of the place.
Dublin should be proud of its Georgian past, respect it, then as time goes by, add chapters which reflect other stages in development. As someone famous might say, “these old buildings won’t go away you know”.
When our city fathers back in Georgian times had the foresight to transform Dublin from a medievil city to one of grandiose proportions and (for its time) imposing and best planned cities in Europe, they showed great vision. They probably had to listen to people campaigning to keep Dublin medievil! I feel the time has come for the new custodians of power, to reflect the times they are living in and think bigger than 5 stories.
