Dublin - The Home Of Poor Design

bb1234567 · 16-10-2020 12:43pm

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Yeah that's why I just don't hold any hope for design or planning in Ireland. Cities a mess, countryside a mess, and people carry on doing the same stuff over and over.

I think things are coming on a bit in the urban area's, some taste seems to have recently prevailed. Some great high density mixed use schemes being proposed or under construction around Dublin city centre that will really dramatically enlarge the city centre core and add a lot to the city vibrancy, Dublin Landings springs to mind, and the Charlemont St regenration, and the new Connolly Qyarter and the Player Will's Liberties scheme both look unreal although neither have yet begun.

Cork's also having a bit of a highrise moment and they look like pretty cool contemporary designs that won't age like milk.

Limericks recently had a competition for an entire new city centre district for 10,000 people around the train tracks with some exceptional suggestions from big name architects, Galway's Ceannt quarter will also transform the city's image.

So I think the cities have some hope, although the semi d ocean that surrounds them all has already done so much damage and limits our cities so muhc and is near impossible to correct or improve that situation due to NIMBY's.

Muahahaha · 16-10-2020 1:56pm

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

What really bugs me about Dublin is how we allow all of our streets to have cars parked on the footpaths. It's a total free for all outside my house, and it's just getting worse and worse as the years go on, I don't know if more people are buying cars or what. Last time I was visiting my parents in Spain, I didn't see one car on a footpath, not once. They have much higher kerbs and in town centres they have metal bollards on every street so this can't happen. They'll also ticket you if you have so much as a wheel on the footpath.
There is literally no enforcement of this kind of illegal parking in Dublin and it makes the whole place a mess.
If you don't have somewhere to park your car legally, a driveway or car park, you shouldn't be allowed to own one.

They seem to go for underground car parks a lot on the continent, was in a mates holiday home outside Porto last year and they were ripping the whole town centre up to build a massive underground car park, the council wanted to stop cars parking on public streets. You'll even find underground car parks in the smallest of Italian mountain villages. Same in Croatia, a mate was developing a small block of 12 apartments in Dubrovnik and was complaining that the city council were forcing him to go underground to build a car park otherwise he wasnt getting planning permission, its par for the course out there that the council wont let you build and expect the residents to park on public streets.

Here the car park situation is set to get worse- apartment developers are now commonly only allocating 1.25 spaces per apartment. Many households own two cars so this is going to cause chaos in future years. Car park spaces are already the main cause of all out war between neighbours as it is but this 1.25 allcocation is going to make things even worse. There was a murder in Citywest earlier this year where a mother of three children stabbed to death a man at 8 in the morning in a row over a car park space, absolute mad stuff.

Thelonious Monk · 16-10-2020 2:20pm

Also in Spain many residential streets are one way with parking only allowed on one side. They have completely lost control of illegal parking in Dublin and the council and Garda dont want to know.

Muahahaha · 16-10-2020 2:21pm

More so heritage related than design but fair play to Lidl for preserving Dublins architectural heritage underneath their new store on Aungier Street that opened a couple of days ago. There is two separate displays visible underneath a glass floor, one is the remains of the pit trap from a theater that used to be on site the other the remains of a house dating to the 11th century

Shoppers at a new Lidl store in Dublin will get a unique insight into the city's medieval past.
The remains of an 11th century house are clearly visible beneath a glass section of the floor of the store on Aungier Street in the city centre.
The sunken-floored structure was discovered during excavations of the site, close to Dublin Castle.
"It is a unique structure for Dublin," said Paul Duffy from IAC Archaeology.
"I am sure it functioned as many things. As a house or as an extra space for the family.
"It is a domestic structure so you would have to imagine that there would have been a suburb here of Hiberno-Norse Dubliners who were effectively the ancestors of the Vikings," he added.
The remains of an 11th century house can be seen beneath a glass section of the floor of the store A similar glass panel, near the store's checkouts, showcases an 18th century 'pit trap' associated with the stage workings of the former Aungier Street Theatre.
"It was the device that was used when you wanted an actor to come up and down and appear as if by magic on the stage.
"So we were delighted that such a meaningful part of the theatre was found, recognised and is now presented to the public. I think it's really fantastic that Lidl is displaying it right in front of their tills," said Linzi Simpson, consultant archaeologist on the project.
Information panels and artwork interpreting the remains are also displayed throughout the new store.

Video report here
https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/1013/1171342-new-lidl-store-gives-shoppers-glimpse-of-dublins-past/

Dublin - The Home Of Poor Design

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