potlatch
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There’s a level in design at which public responsibility stops. Otherwise, we’ll end up with a city with guard rails everywhere, continually reminding us that we’re so ignorant that we can’t be trusted to look after our own safety. This sort of pattern repeats itself so often in Irish society. Is there nothing we can be proud of without people spoiling it for us? If kids fall into the Liffey, it won’t be the State’s fault – it’ll be theirs.
If Dublin did get, say, Foster’s Millennium Bridge, people would probably call for caging so that kids wouldn’t walk on the cables.
I agree with StephenC: it’s a social issue, not a design issue.
I’m all for public responsibility in architecture but this has gone too far.
The problem isn’t the bridge. The problem is knackers. London doesn’t have a problem with people tightroping across the Milennium Bridge.
Lego: Reinventing Ireland is fantastic. A real eye opener – y’know, finally some decent critical analysis of Ireland that’s not Rintan O’Toole (in fact, the authors hare the Toole). You can get it in Easons – I think I saw it there the other day. The second one isn’t out on paperback until March but I’m awaiting it with baited breath!
Wow, Ian Ritchie is my hero. I simply don’t have time for people who don’t like the Spire. It really is down to a chronic lack of imagination in the Irish psyche – but it wasn’t like this once (let me plug Reinventing Ireland at this point ;)). [And I just found some forthcoming book called Reinventing Modern Dublin: Streetscape, Iconography and the Politics of Identity which looks good]
I think the Spire is going to act as a gateway for the city, certainly – as much as it’s actually a product of Haughey’s Ireland and the crap that goes with that, it’s a change for people to conceive of Dublin in a different way.
I mean, people will be able to see the beacon anywhere in the city – this essentially marks the centrepoint of Dublin so, rather than it being divided between North and South, that axis is going to swivel into a radial conception of the cityscape. People don’t notice it yet, but (the) Milligan is going to radically alter Dublin both in people’s minds and in reality.
This plan tallies with the City’s strategic development plan which hopes to switch the North-South axis to an East-West one, which (at least) strategically makes more sense.
Alls I know is I’ll find it comforting to know that the Spire is there pulling the city together like glue. When I look up, I’ll know where I am. Hopefully Dubliners’ minds aren’t so cobwebbed that this effect will pass them completely by.
I wonder, though, what effect it’ll have on the skyline of Dublin, in relation to the necessity for a rethinking of the use of space. Is it actually going to prompt more preciousness of the low skyline because people won’t want the beacon obscured. Or is it going to encourage people to look upward?
That concerns me, but if the Liebskind plan has been ditched, I’m not surprised. I can see Dun Laoghaire residents opposing the plans because they’d be too “far out”.
A Liebskind is exactly what this country needs.
Wow, this must be a refuge for sign supporters. They certainly should have been given a chance but did you really expect people to be supportive of them at large? I didn’t – we never give anything new a chance.
I look forward to see what happens with the introduction of Luas and Underground maps whenever they arrive! “But look at all the colours!”
That’s possible but the Arts block seems to fit the kind of philosophy that was applied to new campuses in the UK, the outskirts of Paris and elsewhere. But it’s a nice point and I’ll certainly check it out.
What I do know is that the Paris revolt occurred in 1968 but the UCD Gentle Revolution happened in 1969. The Administration and Arts block was built in 1971.
I’d assume that, since the design of the Arts block was opened up to a competition, which Wejchert won, he may have won because he incorporated these tricks into the building. I wouldn’t be surprised if the college administration hadn’t thought about it until he suggested it. But I’m only surmising.
Originally posted by No.42
I’d love to have a read of this – could you post any info you receive?
Yeah, I’ll probably post the article up on monkeybomb anyway but anything more, I’ll let you know.
Rory W: yeah, they’re the aspects of the campus I know about but I need more detail. A load of people still consider the Arts Block to be possibly the ugliest, worst designed buildings in the state. I couldn’t disagree more.
