Celtic tiger style architecture

Ubbquittious

I wonder what people in 100 years will think of Celtic tiger architecture if any of it is still around by then

What kind of traits would you associate with the building style of the time?

To me it would have to include

*An estate of matte piss coloured houses knitted onto a traditional village

*A traditional stone cottage or single storey terraced house with a massive extension out the back built at a 90 degree angle to it, the roof of which sticks out far above that of the original building

*An unpainted 5-bedroom house unit with three dormer windows surrounded by a blob of tarmac, with a tarmac driveway and no trees except for the odd sad looking cordylines. Maybe there would be some shrubs surrounded by stone chippings with a layer of plastic beneath for easy maintainence.

*Big ugly white panel at the side of every house for the electricity meter.

*A bathroom with a massive bath that looks like it was teleported in from a posh New York hotel if it wasn't for all the leaks and the fact that the 150L water cylinder hasn't a hope in hell of ever filling the bath.

*Timber frame, slapped up in half the time, double the profit!

*Something something boulevard and something drive or parkway in the backarse of Co. Cavan

*A bathroom squashed into a bit of dead space upstairs not quite big enough for a bedroom. Complete with a little sh1tty plastic electric fan heater and equally sh1tty extractor fan.

*Garage filled with cardboard boxes for the TV and other plastic rubbish. A black Navara crewcab with the notorious "snap in half" design flaw stands proudly outside.

*A room built specifically from the ground up to be centred around the TV.

*Gas barbecue outside, used once, now a pile of rust.

Sleepy

The myriad of 300sqm McMansions complete with obligatory stand-alone "garage" (comprising of a never played on pool table and home bar) built all over the boreens of Ireland will stand testament to the complete lack of Celtic Tiger planning.

You forgot neglected decking with rats living underneath that consumes a full two thirds of your outdoor space and is slowly rotting because you have neither the time nor the energy to maintain it, and a hot tub that was used every evening for three weeks non-stop, then forgotten about for ten years while the algae under the tarp incubates new forms of life with greater intelligence than the tubs owner.

Dormer windows, as many as possible, with not so much as a nod to symmetry.

Shiny tile everywhere interspersed with 'accent' tiles that you're stuck with for life because removing them is more hassle than it's worth and besides you imported them from a master ceramics artisan worker in Sicily who made them in a pressure cooker filled with volcanic water and etched them by hand with Micaelangelos nail clippers.

Faux Victorian lamposts pockmarking a tarmac'd driveway of eighteen feet behind black wrought-iron gates with gold tips bearing the nameplate "Balmoral" or "Misty Morning" or some such.

Same everywhere there's a boom.

garbo speaks

Living room curtains made from human skin.

whisky_galore

We have no eye for good design, we just excel at cheap (and cheap looking...but costing a bomb), the butt-ugly and kitsch.

Mansions the size of small hotels with Mammy, Daddy and 2 kids rattling around inside.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

SEPT 23 1989

the buildings will not be standing in 100 years time

mloc123

*Big ugly white panel at the side of every house for the electricity meter.

Is that not every house?

whisky_galore

Incomplete houses with black plastic and 'Elf n Safety' site signs flapping in the wind...slowing growing algae and eventually returning to nature. Roof lead and copper piping pilfered.

Ubbquittious

mloc123 wrote: »

*Big ugly white panel at the side of every house for the electricity meter.

Is that not every house?

Plenty of houses that don't have it, they really started appearing en masse during the tiger. Usually along with matching white plastic ugly square downpipes and the chaypest white PVC window available

silverharp

all the stupid stainless steel used on office buildings and public spaces around town, guaranteed to look cr'p within 10 years and any lights for effect well broken or vandalised

mloc123

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Plenty of houses that don't have it, they really started appearing en masse during the tiger. Usually along with matching white plastic ugly square downpipes and the chaypest white PVC window available

What did houses have before white PVC esb boxes...? Same goes for gutters, your options are generally white or black PVC and have been for 30-40yrs now. Before that iron was used. Neither of these are a Celtic tiger thing.

edit: our previous house was built in 1978 and had a white PVC esb box.

mloc123

mloc123 wrote: »

What did houses have before white PVC esb boxes...? Same goes for gutters, your options are generally white or black PVC and have been for 30-40yrs now. Before that iron was used. Neither of these are a Celtic tiger thing.

edit: our previous house was built in 1978 and had a white PVC esb box.

The meter was internal and in my experience stuck up in the front hall.

Mint Sauce

mloc123 wrote: »

What did houses have before white PVC esb boxes...? Same goes for gutters, your options are generally white or black PVC and have been for 30-40yrs now. Before that iron was used. Neither of these are a Celtic tiger thing.

edit: our previous house was built in 1978 and had a white PVC esb box.

I'd say any house built 80s or later would have the ESB outside, before that the metre would probably be inside.

That's my experience of any house I have lived in here anyway.

Agree with the guttering though, I don't know any house without uPVC guttering, either in white, or brown to match the uPVC frames.

LirW

Damask wallpaper and mirrored furniture.
I'm surprised some people still buy these.

Buildings covered and eaten by red algae because they were abandoned after builder's finish and somehow still manage to stand, even the windows being green from algae.

Bungalows that could have been build anywhere between 1970 and 2009 and still have the flimsy "For Sale" sign out because the owner's grandkids are still in negative equity.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

A lot of retail and commercial architecture and interior design that seemed to be almost entirely inspired by the big brother house

Vladimir Poontang

They'll be falling down in 20 years time. Build quality is shocking.

silverharp

mloc123 wrote: »

What did houses have before white PVC esb boxes...? Same goes for gutters, your options are generally white or black PVC and have been for 30-40yrs now. Before that iron was used. Neither of these are a Celtic tiger thing.

edit: our previous house was built in 1978 and had a white PVC esb box.

when my continental inlaws came over the first time to see our house they thought it was a rain collection grey water system, how I lolled

Ubbquittious

mloc123 wrote: »

What did houses have before white PVC esb boxes...? Same goes for gutters, your options are generally white or black PVC and have been for 30-40yrs now. Before that iron was used. Neither of these are a Celtic tiger thing.

edit: our previous house was built in 1978 and had a white PVC esb box.

The meter would be just inside the house. Before that again they either did without or they had a 1-cylinder lister diesel engine tied to an alternator with a leather belt in a wooden frame

LirW

LirW wrote: »

Buildings covered and eaten by red algae because they were abandoned after builder's finish and somehow still manage to stand

I'm glad someone mentioned that. What's the craic with that? It seems to just devour some houses? I'm sure it's around decades but ive only seen it myself in the last couple of years or so but on a lot of houses (maybe im only just noticing it).

mloc123

Mint Sauce wrote: »

I'd say any house built 80s or later would have the ESB outside, before that the metre would probably be inside.

Yup, I assume the change was to allow for easier meter readings and maybe safety... nothing to do with celtic tiger building practices... predating the tiger by 15-20yrs

B0jangles

Sleepy wrote: »

The myriad of 300sqm McMansions complete with obligatory stand-alone "garage" (comprising of a never played on pool table and home bar) built all over the boreens of Ireland will stand testament to the complete lack of Celtic Tiger planning.

You forgot to mention the pillars made from barely disguised Wavin piping on either side of the front door.

Classy.

LirW

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm glad someone mentioned that. What's the craic with that? It seems to just devour some houses? I'm sure it's around decades but ive only seen it myself in the last couple of years or so but on a lot of houses (maybe im only just noticing it).

It's easy to remove really, if they are on houses the owner is either not ar5ed or it's simply abandoned. There are plenty of abandoned celtic tiger mansions here and I swear every single one of it has it.
It seems to me they particularly love celtic tiger builds because they aren't on every house.

LirW

And every old celtic tiger house you view is empty par the massive black leather recliner that's randomly placed in the middle of a room.

Ledger Petite Bullet

Ledger Petite Bullet wrote: »

A lot of retail and commercial architecture and interior design that seemed to be almost entirely inspired by the big brother house

I always thought the Big Brother Houses were modelled on the reception area of <any towns> engineering lubricant supply firm.

Uncomfortable sofas and lightly scuffed vinyl floor tiles, with one-way mirrors strategically placed so callers that steal pens from behind the receptionists desk (while she tries to locate someone who cares to greet possible customers) can be brought to task and offers of instant coffee withheld.

bear1

The fact that you have journalists calling 8-10 storey buildings as "high-rises" says a lot of what our architecture actually looks like.
Seems to me developers were a lot more ambitious during the tiger years with their proposals than they are now for fear that anything radical looking or above 40m will be rejected.

LirW

Oh and with that one I'll probably get myself on thin ice:
The cheap wood optic shaker style kitchens with black granite countertops. If you were not that loaded with black appliances. If you had the cash you of course would go for the stainless steel ones. Important is the wine rack over the fridge.
And because it doesn't serve any real purpose beside being a middle class status symbol: The kitchen island. With expensive bar stools that have been sat on twice. They come in 3 options:
Just counter space and half of it is taken up by clutter.
One displaced looking sink that has a ridiculous tap. The sink is either too small or too deep and the lime of the water splashes that go literally everywhere are engrained because the good celtic tiger housewife at some point simply surrendered to get on top of them.
And last but not least, the fanciest one: The island with the cooker on it. Splashes everywhere, the breakfast bar is declared as warzone and won't be used ever because of the fat splashes and film on the leather bar stools, the super expensive bespoke extractor fan never really worked and in general the whole thing looks like an American soap opera show kitchen.

lawred2

Mint Sauce wrote: »

I'd say any house built 80s or later would have the ESB outside, before that the metre would probably be inside.

That's my experience of any house I have lived in here anyway.

Agree with the guttering though, I don't know any house without uPVC guttering, either in white, or brown to match the uPVC frames.

Is it normal for these pvc ESB boxes to have a mains kill switch as well as the meters?

Ours does and it freaks me out that anyone with a ubiquitous allen key can come along and kill your power supply..

bb1234567

bear1 wrote: »

The fact that you have journalists calling 8-10 storey buildings as "high-rises" says a lot of what our architecture actually looks like.
Seems to me developers were a lot more ambitious during the tiger years with their proposals than they are now for fear that anything radical looking or above 40m will be rejected.

Who cares about height? Its more important than good looking buildings are built than how tall they are.Old cities like paris are a lot nicer than any modern high rise city in the world, thats for sure. China ,and many other countries, is building lots of tall buildings and their cities look like absolute ****e, why would you want our city to look like that?In fact, even though high density is good, Id say theres a massive correlation between cities being really ugly and having lots of high rises

Giblet

silverharp wrote: »

all the stupid stainless steel used on office buildings and public spaces around town, guaranteed to look cr'p within 10 years and any lights for effect well broken or vandalised

Hello Beacon Court Mall! Manages to be colder inside than out!

whisky_galore

From:
http://mcmansionhell.com/post/157457285986/mcmansion-hell-ireland-edition

bb1234567

whisky_galore wrote: »

From:
http://mcmansionhell.com/post/157457285986/mcmansion-hell-ireland-edition

Thats gas hahaha

bear1

bb1234567 wrote: »

Who cares about height? Its more important than good looking buildings are built than how tall they are.Old cities like paris are a lot nicer than any modern high rise city in the world, thats for sure. China ,and many other countries, is building lots of tall buildings and their cities look like absolute ****e, why would you want our city to look like that?In fact, even though high density is good, Id say theres a massive correlation between cities being really ugly and having lots of high rises

The Government, for one.
Cities are expanding outwards rather down upwards, this can't be sustained.
If the trend continues then what space will be left?
Buildings don't have to be low to be nice, you can build very nice attractive buildings which are both tall and in tone with a city.
Paris has high rises and it's a completely different style of city than Dublin so not sure what your point is there.

LirW

whisky_galore wrote: »

From:
http://mcmansionhell.com/post/157457285986/mcmansion-hell-ireland-edition

I kid you not, everyone around here is building these garages. They are like a plague. Even our neighbours living in a council end of terrace are thinking of squeezing a free standing garage in on their plot.

bb1234567

bear1 wrote: »

The Government, for one.
Cities are expanding outwards rather down upwards, this can't be sustained.
If the trend continues then what space will be left?
Buildings don't have to be low to be nice, you can build very nice attractive buildings which are both tall and in tone with a city.
Paris has high rises and it's a completely different style of city than Dublin so not sure what your point is there.

Well Ive very rarely been to a high-rise city that was a nice place to be. All those north american and asians cities are filled with soulless glass boxes, devoid of any character. Low rise european style cities are whats beautiful. And thats exactly what we'll get if we go high-rise , seeing as the majority of docklands turned out to be just glass with no interesting features or beauty, can't imagine we will suddenly get attractive buildings just because they're tall then. Ill take low rise over that

I think the vast swathes of semi d's should be bought by developers and redeveloped into attractive dense bands of residential developments around 7-8 stories in height rather than ruin the city centre with high rises. And it is of course possible, developers regularly buy and amalgamate lots of expensive city centre properties from multilple owners. If incentive was put in place for developers to buy ugly suburban semi d's and densify then they would

whisky_galore

bb1234567 wrote: »

Thats gas hahaha

My favourite one on that site...

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

LirW wrote: »

And every old celtic tiger house you view is empty par the massive black leather recliner that's randomly placed in the middle of a room.

Which has a pleasing symmetry seeing as most of them are plopped dead centre in the middle of a half acre of front garden. It's the only place they're allowed to be. And that half acre MUST contain one of these, preferably destroyed by wind and rain. Sad looking labrador and vague attempt at a rockery optional.

B0jangles

I think the grimmest sight is when you see one of those one-off mcmansions standing in the middle of a bumpy field - obviously there for a good few years but the 'garden' is still just a flat expanse of straggly grass with the occasional heap of rubble and leftover building supplies.

Ledger Petite Bullet wrote: »

Which has a pleasing symmetry seeing as most of them are plopped dead centre in the middle of a half acre of front garden. It's the only place they're allowed to be. And that half acre MUST contain one of these, preferably destroyed by wind and rain. Sad looking labrador and vague attempt at a rockery optional.

Oh yeah, the sadly sunbleached kiddie car is perfect

LirW

I think the vast swathes of semi d's should be bought by developers and redeveloped into attractive dense bands of residential developments around 7-8 stories in height rather than ruin the city centre with high rises. And it is of course possible, developers regularly buy and amalgamate lots of expensive city centre properties from multilple owners. If incentive was put in place for developers to buy ugly suburban semi d's and densify then they would

Kinda difficult though when local people object everything that's higher than their own turd.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

B0jangles wrote: »

I think the grimmest sight is when you see one of those one-off mcmansions standing in the middle of a bumpy field - obviously there for a good few years but the 'garden' is still just a flat expanse of straggly grass with the occasional heap of rubble and leftover building supplies.

:eek:

Great minds

Hurrache

LirW wrote: »

And because it doesn't serve any real purpose beside being a middle class status symbol: The kitchen island.

Any house that I know, including my own, the kitchen island is one of most used places in the house, it's pretty much the centre of everything that happens.

bb1234567

LirW wrote: »

Kinda difficult though when local people object everything that's higher than their own turd.

Id say they object more because developers propose ugly cheap glass buildings rather than them being tall

silverharp

Giblet wrote: »

Hello Beacon Court Mall! Manages to be colder inside than out!

there is a bit of the, well the one in Spain we viewed looked well :rolleyes:

LirW

Hurrache wrote: »

Any house that I know, including my own, the kitchen island is one of most used places in the house, it's pretty much the centre of everything that happens.

I can't stand them, I got a new kitchen recently and a lot of places simply don't have the place for a nice and spacious island. Neither does mine. I also don't want a big kitchen because big kitchen means lots of clutter and I hate clutter more than I hate kitchen islands. I went for a U-shape with a lot of counter space instead.

I have the theory that their sole purpose is to shatter your hip into thousand pieces when you run into them while you have to rush saving the kid from being eaten by the dog.

Sleeper12

Ubbquittious wrote:

I wonder what people in 100 years will think of Celtic tiger architecture if any of it is still around by then

Lego homes

garbo speaks

The people here complaining about other people's house designs are just jealous they will never leave their damp, squalid bedsits.

Hurrache

Hurrache wrote: »

Any house that I know, including my own, the kitchen island is one of most used places in the house, it's pretty much the centre of everything that happens.

I have to agree, it's the centrepiece of my parents kitchen and about 70% of weekday meals are eaten there. No sink or oven, though it does house a drinks refrigerator and a dishwasher on the action side.

Hurrache

LirW wrote: »

I can't stand them, I got a new kitchen recently and a lot of places simply don't have the place for a nice and spacious island. Neither does mine. I also don't want a big kitchen because big kitchen means lots of clutter and I hate clutter more than I hate kitchen islands. I went for a U-shape with a lot of counter space instead.

I suppose space is the key. Ours doesn't have sinks or cookers, it's just a worktop with storage space below. So breakfast, dinners, homework, chats, guests all centre around the island.

bear1

bb1234567 wrote: »

Well Ive very rarely been to a high-rise city that was a nice place to be. All those north american and asians cities are filled with soulless glass boxes, devoid of any character. Low rise european style cities are whats beautiful. And thats exactly what we'll get if we go high-rise , seeing as the majority of docklands turned out to be just glass with no interesting features or beauty, can't imagine we will suddenly get attractive buildings just because they're tall then. Ill take low rise over that

I think the vast swathes of semi d's should be bought by developers and redeveloped into attractive dense bands of residential developments around 7-8 stories in height rather than ruin the city centre with high rises. And it is of course possible, developers regularly buy and amalgamate lots of expensive city centre properties from multilple owners. If incentive was put in place for developers to buy ugly suburban semi d's and densify then they would

You just said Paris was a nice city with it's low rise architecture, now you are saying it's rare..
No it's not, Rome/Milan/Naples/Barcelona/Madrid/London.. there are loads of cities out there with high rises and also low rise interesting buildings.
If you think the docklands is a high rise glass box then you must be looking at the wrong docklands.
and actually just to point out, Bolands Mill although not tall at all is a very interesting looking proposal which is under construction now.
That area has been a lost cause, a place that could have been developed to it's full potential has instead been given the usual Irish blandness.
Even capital dock has turned out to be a joke to look at.
So you are advocating that we instead build outwards? How is that in any way a positive thing?
Look at the proposal in Cork for the 40 storey, it's a very interesting building in it's renders.
Limerick is getting quite a nice skyline along it's river and it's still a predominantly low rise city.
You cannot compare the architecture here to other major European cities and we cannot continue to harp on at our Georgian heritage. We are holding ourselves back when it comes to innovation and it's the likes of the anti-over 40m tall brigade that results in us stuck in this.

worker bee

The fake standing stone in the front garden of a new build bungalow. To show that you're not a jeep-driving, Iceland-shopping, giant TV screen watching blow-in but are actually in touch with your mystic side and Celtic roots.

Muahahaha

Apart from houses some of the large scale retail parks built during the Tiger years were an incredible waste of space. When you go into the likes of Woodies or Halfords or similar look up and see how high the ceiling is. Massive big waste of building matierals and space, there was absolute no need for it. Except if you want to set up a business for climbing indoor walls, then that 50 foot high ceiling is useful, otherwise no
https://awesomewalls.ie/dublin/