GregF
Forum Replies Created
- Posts
Hi JL,
Using the comparison of a Gehry edifice with a Nike trainer is not really a good analogy, is it and popularity or commerciality does not always equate to poor quality.
Can you name then a renowned stylish environmentally friendly building of international merit.Believe me I’m all for the environment too,(I have a background in horticulture)but the general infrastructure of the nation is far more important. The notion of biospheres are fine but lets get a few basics in order first.
It’s gas is’nt it, our economy finally booms and we have now have an opportunity to add something of note to our bitty architectural heritage but we always seem to have some malingerers hampering…..don’t do that because……Blah! Blah! It is a general reflection of our irish society, which is why it takes bloody ages for anything to be done. Just do it!…………… and that’s that!
Nuff said………….I’ve been vindicated. Obviously ‘Gehry & Co’ for Dublin/Ireland…. Please!What an attractive little building. It would be a shame if it were to be demolished, especially if it were to be replaced with an insignificant run of the mill office or appartment block.
Yeah!….and check out the tacky detailing of the imitation high mantled fireplaces with mock brass fenders, a beautiful rose and coven for the stippled ceiling, genuine(?) antique pine kitchen, Italian tiled bathroom, mahogany frontdoor with a fanlight thing and stained glass and glorious PVC sashed windows in a horizontal format…….. UGH! Someone please save us.
Oh and don’t forget the cherub statue thing in the front garden among all the weeds.
Is’nt it all so beautiful and so 2000 AD.Hi JL, Here are the answers to your ponderous questions…………
Is there a major pre-occupation with the visuals? ……..Why not! Do architects nowadays design their buildings with the architectural media in mind?…….So what! Do buildings have to be visually exciting in order to make an imprint with audiences which will be only seen it in photos?……..If not, what!…. Do city authorities do the same thing when commissioning signature architects – the building as the logo of the local tourist board? ……What not! Would James Gandon cut the mustard in today’s world?…..He’d probably eat it on a ham sandwich! I just can’t see why you have a slight disgruntlement with the commissioning of the ‘big names’ in architecture, especially for the city of Dublin or Ireland in general. We are serious lacking here at the moment….we do need an impetus for our architecture in a way and a ‘big name’ would indeed be just the ticket to set a standard for all the sheep to follow. What has Dublin at the moment got of note to offer……nothing! Even in Belfast there looks as if there is something happening on Laganside…ie the Waterfront Hall,etc… Putting it bluntly our thickness and insecurity holds us back!Gehry’s architecture can been viewed as highly individualistic and stand alone. Note too his rock/pop museum in Seattle, USA which again is a trademark of his highly sculptural dynamic style evoking the work of the Futurist sculpture Umberto Boccionni. His work could be seen as ugly if one is to compare it to mainstream buildings…. one would ‘nt place such an individualistic convoluted building within an ordinary streetscape; such buildings deserve to be free standing so as to be viewed from all angles to be appreciated….as the Sydney Opera House. They are works of sculpture as well.
……but in a way think of the awards for Temple Bar and Smithfield as awards for new ways of urban thinking especially, for us Irish. Rather they can be seen somewhat as awards for effort and further encouragement.Temple Bar and Smithfield are indeed novel appproaches for Irish architecture despite their failings to some.
Well I think that if we had a few more pieces of signature architecture by the ‘Big Guns’ here and there it would add greatly to the city of Dublin (or elsewhere throughout the country) and would be a great stimulus for budding new Irish architects too, would it not. I don’t wish to run down Irish architects but since independance the output and quality has been very questionable. When things become a bit stagnant a catalyst is needed now and again to awaken those deep in slumber (whether they be architects or the general public) After all did’nt Picasso have as already said, Paris, a jewel of a city as a backdrop to stimulate his mind to produce sublime work. Somehow I think that if we have complete blanket approaches of doing things the ‘our way’ of mass house estates, shoddy appartments and run of the mill offices blocks,it will not encourage new minds to blossom but rather stunt them as can already be seen. A bit of artistic foreign influence to dilute ideas can be good.
Good idea…..’Education’ and ‘Involvement’ are indeed vital for sustainting local communities within our changing city. A lot of inner city communities after years of unemployment, neglect and decay now feel somewhat under siege and are suspicious of the new developments and the ‘outsiders’ they bring, hence the objections to almost every proposal, absolute mindless vandalism and attacks on foreign nationals. Education and involvement are vital.
I agree with every word that you have said DARAH as I thought the very same of the newly emerging docks as I saw it during the summer months too.
That’s right Rory it was hardly a landmark of high quality…but I never said it was. The original Spencer Dock plan was overblown, overscaled and too corporate as we all know, but there was a slight hint of difference and optimism….now we may just get run of the mill offices typically found elsewhere throughout the city and suburban industrial estates. Scott Tallon & Walker are fine architects producing fine buildings ….Woodquay, City Bank,etc.. but looking at their portfolio especially their recent offerings, all their work looks the same ….no spark of difference or flair…. Richard Mier in a Catatonic state. It seem’s that with them having a monopoly in this area there won’t be even buildings to comment on or take note whether they be good or bad.
But put it this way, would you prefer a Picasso or a Frank Clarke to hang on your wall, would you like to watch Juventus or Finn Harps play soccer,Bacon & Cabbage or Cordon Bleu, how about Frank Gehry or Scott Tallon Walker to design a national conference centre. Who’s would be more striking do you think? I understand the point you make but do you not think that having a big name does put one on the map, after all are we not a more international city/country now or are we still insular and insignificant.
I agree with e. We should commission more foreign architects to build here. Would’nt it be a good thing if one were to walk any street and one could say ‘Oh there’s a Gehry’ there’s a Calatrava, there’s a Foster, etc….Now that would’nt be a bad thing for the city would it,in all honesty. Sure who was the last reknowned architect to have worked here….Lutyens probably!
I agree with e. We should commission more foreign architects to build here. Would’nt it be a good thing if one were to walk any street and one say say ‘Oh there’s a Gehry’ there’s a Calatrava, there’s a Foster, etc….Now that would’nt be a bad thing for the city would it,in all honesty. Sure who was the last reknowned architect to have worked here….Lutyens probably!
I agree with MG. This is a great plan with vision but no doubt it will follow the same course and fate as previous plans/developments for the city ending up either never happening or reaching it’s full potential but becoming an insignificant mess.
Wel,well Mr. Roche has been dropped in favour of Scott Tallon Walker….The Stock, Aiken and Waterman of Irish archiecture producing en masse the bland supreme, all grey, all low rise, the same detailing for all their conventional and safe schemes, nothing too radical or different.ZZZZZzzzzzzzz! Insomnia. Please will someone lace their coffees with LSD and the croanies in the DDDA…..they are not artists but civil servants masquerading as architects.The Dublin docks is assembling the most drabbest and featureless of modern architecture ….I only hope that I am proved wrong in the long run and we will have instead landmarks of high quality.
Thank God somebody agrees with me. I saw that U2 stint and I thought the very same. What a mediocre backdrop…….especially when one compares us to Paris, NY, Sydney,etc…. or even London too, or indeed any other British city. We are supposedly in the big league now as a popular city/country and I think we should have some trappings to demonstrate so. The DDDA are bullheadily developing the docks as a visually very boring attraction …..too much attention paid to the oppinions of the few locals and not the greater needs of the city. We will in the future regret it. I work in a company with many foreign nationals and they all seem to think the same……..they are disappointed with the visually meagre trappings of the celtic tiger, the exhorborant rents for accomadation and prices in general, etc….Does everyone remember too our none existant millennium celebrations here?….and how we saw Sydney, Beijing, Jerusalem, Berlin, Rome,Paris, London and when we got to Dublin what did we have…….Joe Dolan live from Killarney or some bloody where. We’ve really got to leave our rural instincts behind and focus on being an urban/city people.Is’nt it embarassing.
Thank God somebody agrees with me. I saw that U2 stint and I thought the very same. What a mediocre backdrop…….especially when one compares us to Paris, NY, Sydney,etc…. or even London too, or indeed any other British city. We are supposedly in the big league now as a popular city/country and I think we should have some trappings to demonstrate so. The DDDA are bullheadily developing the docks as a visually very boring attraction …..too much attention paid to the oppinions of the few locals and not the greater needs of the city. We will in the future regret it. I work in a company with many foreign nationals and they all seem to think the same……..they are disappointed with the visually meagre trappings of the celtic tiger, the exhorborant rents for accomadation and prices in general, etc….Does everyone remember too our none existant millennium celebrations here?….and how we saw Sydney, Beijing, Jerusalem, Berlin, Rome,Paris, London and when we got to Dublin what did we have…….Joe Dolan live from Killarney or some bloody where. We’ve really got to leave our rural instincts behind and focus on being an urban/city people.Is’nt is embarassing.
Well, well….. sure you learn something new everyday.If only we could open up here to all the newly proposed schemes, especially for the city of Dublin, which are currently being hampered. Please…please…. will we forever leave our bog mindednes behind.
That’a a very good resume of the building…. It looks contemporary but yet very replaceable and when one considers the dilemma I said…….should O’Connell Street follow along the same or resort to a modern historicism. Maybe when the ‘Monument of Light’ is erected (if ever) it will put the street in a modern context. But does’nt modernist buildings on O’Connell Streeet look crap, consider the former BHS/Pennys nee Metropole cinema beside the GPO. Oh dear!…try as it might to look a part of the street flowery window boxes and all but does’nt it still look crappy.Who was the architect again who rebuilt O’Connell Street after the 1916 Rising….’O’Rourke’ was’nt it…well fair play to him!
