The cobbles are going!

Tricity Bendix wrote: »

Supporting bad Irish architecture only does this country a disservice. The best thing Trinity could do for Irish architecture would be to demand excellence, not accept mediocracy.

Edit: I thanked Cantab. I think I may be dumped soon.

There are some fine examples of good modern Irish architecture on campus. Ussher Library, Berkeley Library and Parsons Extension are three. True there are plenty of buildings that have little artistic merit, Simon Perry,the LLoyd and SNIAM being prime examples. I think a lot of the Arts blocks aesthetic problems are due a lot down to neglect. If the facade was cleaned every now and again it would look far nicer.

When it comes to these projects, there is usually an architecture competition to see who wins the contract. Trinity can only accept what is submitted. And in general these designs are highly constrained by space height and especially cost. If we want Frank Geary on campus, well expect building costs to skyrocket.

Tricity Bendix wrote: »

This wont be one of them.


If people accept crap, they're going to continue to get crap. Personally, I think constructing another building on campus shud be expenve. ulngsmade on the cheap wont last and will be more expensive to maintain in the long run.

You mentioned the Ussher library. The Ussher might look beautiful, but its horrifically designed. Architects design whatever they want, and clients just accept it. Anyone who has worked in a library could tell you that havng a hollow building is not going to be condusive to study, especially when one of the floors is extensively used by library staff.

Peoples interpretation of architecture can vary wildly, some think the Berkeley Library is ghastly and totally out of place between the museum and old librarys, others, myself included think its the finest example of brutalist architecture in Dublin, and has settled well into its surroundings though it should be maintained better at the front. This new building, "the cybertron," doesn't set the world on fire with its outstanding outlandishness. One could say Trinity/the architects should have been more daring, but that would probably have had even more detractors. The reason I like this design is that it fits the context well. Its modernity fits with the arts block.

The lifespan of the building depends more on the quality of the build rather than the architectural design. Trinity has had problems with poor quality build in the past (substantial cracking in the Hamilton). Hopefully better oversight on its newer projects will prevent this happening again.

The things that concern me about it is that it appears to be much like a tower. Unfortunately this is probably down to the constraints of the site. Contrary to Cantab. this design would have taken at least a day to mock up

For my final two years the Ussher Library 4th floor was my other home. I can't say I had a large problem with noise from the other floors echoing through the atrium. I found the space light and airy and a good place to work. I much prefered it to any of the other main campus libraries.