quirkey
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No such thing as over USE of a public square.
I think Meeting house square is more like its real most comfortable state when it reaches its highest intensities of use and even then there seems to be something superficial about it. Almost everybody there is an outsider, you know like on a saturday when those people selling honey, sushi and cheeses are there.Cant remember the name, but have you ever been to that famous plaza in Venice. The density of the city (land) there is such that the people who live there use these places as their own yard effectively.
While there you see such intensity. Yeah you’ve the Tourists of which a majority seem to be japaneese. But you’ve also got the old women talking, the jugler, people sitting in front of a cafe, some four year old cycling around on his battery powered miniature police jeep, thousand of people passing back and forth and amidst all this it somehow still doesnt feel TOO intensive or OVERUSED.
The problem with Meeting house is in fact the complete opposite of whats suggested. We can only imagine the diffence it woulsd have made if the milleniium bridge was built and positioned according to the plan at the time of the poddle bridge proposal. then there’d be some natural through traffic of padestrians. Now people almost have to deliberatley go there. Another problem is the lack of doors opening on to the square. Where else in th e worl is there a public square with so few dwelling (or otherwise Busy) places overooking it. This would have also created some natural animation of the place.HEY MAYBE YOU ACTUALLY MEAN TEMPLE BAR SQUARE, THE ONE YOU PASS GOING FROM THE HAPENNY TO THE CENTRAL BANK ????
SAME APPLIES I THINK…. SEE HOW MUCH OF A DIFFENCE THE THROUGH TRAFFIC AND OVERLOOKING/DOORWAYS ETC ALL MAKE TO THE QUALITY AND COMFORT OF THIS PLACE !!!!!!YEP EXACTLY.
WE WENT TO VISIT AN ECOLOGICAL VILLAGE CALLED TOARP, NEAR MALMO LAST WEEK.
WE MET WITH SOME OF THE RESIDENTS, THEY WERE JUST NORMAL PEOLPLE ALL LIVING RELAVTIVELY NORMAL LIVES WITH THE SAME FEARS DREAMS, DAILY TROUBLES, SCREAMING CHILDREN AND A PET DOG AS ANYONE. (TEACHERS, CARPENTERS, JOURNALISTS, OLD, YOUNG, RICH AND LESS SO). THE ONLY THING REALLY THAT MADE THEM ANY DIFFERENT FROM ANYONE ELSE HERE IN SWEDEN, HOME IN IRELAND, ANYWHERE IS JUST A VARYING DEGREES OF INTEREST IN SUSTAINABLE ISSUES.
YEAH SOME OF THEM WORE WOLLY JUMPERS AND SPENT ALL DAY DIGGING IN THEIR ALLOTMENT GARDEN BUT SOME OF THEM ALSO ADMITTED THEY DROVE EVERYWHERE DESPITE A LOCAL TRAIN STATION AND NUMBEROUS BUS ROUTES WITHIN FIVE MINUTES WALK.
THE THINGS THAT MADE THEIR LIVES AND WAY OF LIVING FROM A LINEAR CONSUMPTIVE MATERIAL ONE TO AN EXTREMELY ECOLOGICAL WAY OF LIVING WERE JUST VERY SMALL THINGS.
THE BIGGEST THING I NOTICED WAS A KIND OF COMMUNAL OR SHARING ATTITUDE, THEY HAD A COMON BUILDING IN WHICH THEY HAD A LAUNDRY, A LARGE KITCHEN AND DINING/MEETING SPACE, A SAUNA, STORAGE ROOMS AND A GUEST ROOM. HERE THE VILLAGERS COULD MEET AND INTERACT, FORM BONDS AND A SENSE OF COMUNITY. SHARING THE LAUNDRY ROOM, LAWN MOWERS, CAR TRAILERS ETC MEANT PEOPLE COULD REDUCE PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES TOGETHER WITH REDUCING THE MATERIAL/EMBODIED ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF THE VILLAGE.
SOME FAMILIES SHARED A CAR, SCHOOL RUNS, A CHICKEN COUP, OTHERS DID NOTHING LIKE THIS.
ABOUT 80% + OF THE HOUSEHOLD WASTE THERE IS RECYLED. THE OGANIC COMPOSTED FOR USE BY THE PEOPLE WHO USED THE PLOTS OF GROUND THEY WERE ENTITLED TO USE. THEN THE USUALL METALS GLASS CARTONS ETC WERE ALL COLLECTED IN A SMALL SHED ON THE EDGE OF THE VILLAGE. HERE THOUGH THATS NOT REALLY A BIG OR NEW FEATURE. EVERY REGULAR HOUSING AREA HAS THESE RECYLING CENTRES …. AND THE THING IS .. THEY REALLY ARE USED
AS FOR THE ARCHITECTURE, SO MANY THINGS ONLY BECAME OBVIOUS TO YOU IN TOARP UPON BEING TOLD THIS WAS AN ECOLOGICAL VILLAGE. THE HOUSES, MATERIALS, LANDSCAPING, PUBLIC PRIVATE SPACES SEEMED JUST LIKE A REGULAR VILLAGE.
AS NANCY SAID, THIS DOESNT HAVE TO BE ABOUT WOLLEY JUMPERS, THIS IS ABOUT SMALL THINGS, ORDINARY PEOPLE WITH ORDINARY LIVES. SMALL CHANGES IN ATTITUDES, EDUCATION AND PLANNING ARE ALL THATS REQUIRED.
MAYBE ALL OF THIS HAS TO BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED, SOMETIMES ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO THINK ITS POSSIBLE… BUT IT IS , IT REALLY IS.why is this issue considered something separate to REAL design ???
Are all of you designers, purchasers, parents, human beings out there not concerned ????
You are ok and dont feel in the least bit guilty about for example the vast quantity of plastics that go through your household ??
You buy you chicken nuggets, coke, milk and tins of spaghetti.etc throw the container in the bin and think no more about where that goes…… you just go and buy more…. meanwhile you complain about how long it takes to DRIVE to work, and your local corporation are doing nothing.
I bet you’ll all agree that all of these things area important, maybe even imperitive, but think about it……. what have you actually done to help…… really ????I think thats got alot to do with population base. the larger the population of a city the more likely you are to find a greater range of all entities. This includes everything from city spaces to activities to mini sub-cultures.
As for bars, competition for the patronage(ie.money) of the young rich and spend-thrifty is higher in this situation too, and so the design of things becomes more flash, desireable, richer in terms of the quality of finishes, materials and the general aesthetic.
As to whether the quality of the actuall bar spaces actually improves is a matter that could be dabated ….’till the cows come home’[This message has been edited by quirkey (edited 22 October 2001).]
http://www.farmvillage.org/ http://www.gaia.org/
Two sites for things on a slightly larger or more international scope.
NOt much practical or directly usefull info on the sustainable ireland site.
try this one though, looks like we might be able to follow the development of a sustainable village project as it progresses. http://www.thevillage.ie/exactly what i was thinking.
In design we talk so much about context and respect for surrounding buildings, yet so many of us have to be FLASH. Aparently in design, material isnt part of the nature of a place. Our own building is somehow more important than the rest and therefore aparently deserves to be distinct (i.e. stick out or not fit in ) at least material wise.
Well o.k. maybe the national gallery is a worthwhile exception,
Otherwise, if the inside is goingto be like the model and drawings i’ve seen, it’s going to be a pretty fabulous place.If a client, architect or company can now have legeal rights to images of the outside of a buiding, then it wou ld seem to me that we have yet another unjust law. (The only exception i could agree with would be when the image is used for marketing or profit of some kind)
Ethically , surely city spaces (to include the actuall public realm together with the SKINS of the entities, normally buildings, that create these external spaces/rooms) should be the property of the PEOPLE, the inhabitants of the city.
the people decide what is allowed to be built and what is to be destroyed in the realm that is their dwelling space.(CITY).. surely it belongs to them ????
Afterall, in theory at least, it is the people of the city that have given the permission for the building to be constructed in the first place. Never mind to even mention the actuall specifics of the building’s tectonics and the face it presents to the people of the city.Is it not these principles being imposed with regulations such as the Listing system ????? some buildings are listed only for their face, and not the unique or special spaces/uses or actuall architectural principles that would have lay hidden behind.
I really do fear that everything in our society is starting to turn against the people/ families/ neighbourhoods/communal and towards the elitist /corporate/ capitalist/ private/greedy/ careless nature of what is becoming the global monoculture.
Q. As architects, do we not have a primary prerequisitive duty of principle to preserve and to create what is right for the people before anything else ????an answer to Paul’s initial question ???
I’d say americanism, globalism, mac-burger ism. I’ve only seen cinemas with SOUL as you call it in places with less reliance on or influence from north american culture.
maybe thats the wrong answer but it’s what i think anyway.I’ve just moved to Lund in Sweden for a year to study architecture. Been here and in Malmo for nearly a week and still havent seen even one roadsweeper person.
I assume its that nobody throws litter on the street, thatthe inhabitants of these beatifull and very people-friendly cities have a collective sense of social and environmental (and maybe even visual) responsibility that might be a little lacking in ireland at the moment.
We irish could learn from the swedish,and scandanavians in general, (maybe not much about how to party, but )certainly how to attain sustainable buildings and cities.Why not just get out a big con-saw, cut off a chunk at an angle,glaze what remains viola a Corb job (masterpiece) !!!!
NO seriously, a student competition would be great idea. Not many students get a chance at a refurb design job until after graduation. If not as a college project just give a couple hundred quid or a travel voucher or whatever as prize, you’ll get plenty of ideas.
