Documentay on Sam Stephenson (1 Viewer)

[Diddles]

What a bastard - he architected the Central Bank and the Corpo building. He's responsible for every prick that came after him thinking they could get away with designing gash and making them think it's a good thing to be a self righteous prick and ignore the bigger picture, thus ruining Dublin with loads of kak buildings. I hope he's roasting in hell, the up-his-own-hole wanker. I'd say whoever designed that fucking monstrosity outside Dublin Castle was his disciple. The lovely blue plastic shite all over it. Good God!

 

[Richie]

You're right about that thing outside Dublin Castle - just awful, I don't know what the hell they were thinking with that, and it's in such an important location too.. looks like it was designed 15 years ago and built on the cheap, the novelty gimmicks (LED lights, dome) don't help... As regards Sam Stephenson - a lot of people hate the Central Bank but I really think it has something going for it.. The civic office bunkers are pretty nasty though, and the ESB headquarters on Fitzwilliam St was criminal (considering what they got rid of) but it's not his fault that they chose that site. The DIAS on Burlington Road is a slightly more tasteful project of his that a lot fewer people know about. He's certainly not responsible for the arrogant architect-playing-God attitude anyway, that originated way back.. At least in one way it's a good thing we were in recession in the 70s and 80s or we'd have a lot more of the precast concrete aesthetic around Dublin.

 

[dowel]

The DIAS building does look quite interesting, I didn't know there were suppossed to be two more blocks included in the Civic offices plan, woah.

He admired Maggie Thatcher and Hitlers architect but I don't think he was a crap architect. Same as Richie: despite the wierd wind tunnels The Central Bank creates, I quite like some aspects of it.

That yoke on Dame street really is awful, naf lighting makes it even worse.

 

[Corey]

Central bank was pretty innovative, save for the extra floor they had to take off. Floors were lowered down from the top, and are susupended from a central column, rather that bulit on top of each other.

Civic offices are awful. There's no noticeable visual context or aesthetic available in their design, and no regard for the surrounding architecture.

The cunt.

 

[jane]

I hadn't realised that these buildings were designed by the same dude. I'm absolutely not defending him because I think most of the buildings of which you speak are either total shit or just totally out of place, but the problem with trying to build anew in a mainly Georgian city is that the whole concept of Georgian order is uniformity, reproducing the same idea over a large area. There's no way to build without hurting it. I do wish they'd put a little more effort into trying to fucking make it interesting at least. If you're going to destroy the integrity of a Georgian square, you might do something to make it interesting.

I honestly like the whole urban palimpsest, and I wouldn't want to see all old buildings because it would seem really contrived and artificial, but Dublin right now is a total mess. Even though I would, in principle, have to concede that development has to happen, and you can't save everything, I can't stand watching what's happening. Good architecture should age well, but the stuff that's going up won't age and mature, it'll just rot and decay. I agree about the Central Bank, even if it's out of place, it's managed to blend with the city centre, and plus, it's become a landmark, where secondary meaning/function wasn't pushed on us by the developer (i.e., the 'little Italy area', which I refuse to call 'little Italy' because it's a fucking corporate development and not an Italian neighbourhood).

My biggest beef is interior spaces, places that were clearly designed by a clueless draughtsperson on paper, and no one thought about what the three-dimensional one would be like, how people would circulate, how well people could use the space. For example, the Village. Must have made sense on paper to put the toilets next to the stage, but fucking hell, what a fucking mistake. And the interior is so poorly designed that no matter how nice it looked on paper, it did not result in a human-friendly place. The most common crime is toilet doors that look handy on the plans, but in reality, you can't actually open or close the door if there's a person in the stall because there isn't enough space.

They're fucking kidding themselves into thinking there's more space available in this city than there actually is.

Actually, I'm going to start a thread about this because I've just ranted this off-topic.

 

[Burgerbarbaby]

I'd say whoever designed that fucking monstrosity outside Dublin Castle was his disciple. The lovely blue plastic shite all over it. Good God!

http://www.archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=1772

Also...the floors on the central bank were built on the ground around the core then hoisted to their present level, not lowered from the top, you can figure it out when you look at the steel bars suspending the floors. I always liked that building, although it was better early on...for years it had no roof and you could see the huge girders which held the floor suspension bars, v dramatic.

 

[shitepipe]

the thing about him is he comes from a time when conservation did not mean what it does now- history was just something that got in the way and the idea of consultation with the community was unheard of. the fault also lies mainly with the client (for example DCC, or ESB)- they decision to knock fitzwilliam st and build on wood quay was ultimately theirs.

oh, and the central bank is for me probably the best building in dublin.

 

[MARYJANE]

(i.e., the 'little Italy area', which I refuse to call 'little Italy' because it's a fucking corporate development and not an Italian neighbourhood).

i thought it was called "posh alley".

this documentary was great (i presume we're talking about the one made in the 80's that was shown on monday night). there was the square kid on a skateboard sub plot (the first skateboarder at central bank??), the bizarre voiceover that would interrupt people.

and the part when they showed the ariel view of the land the civic offices were built on, and marked out the parimeter realllllllyy slowly with a white line, in total silence - one of the best things i've seen on tv in a long time. full of gentle suspense.

i dont mean it in a jokey ironic way either, i genuinely enjoyed it.

 

[dowel]

i thought it was called "posh alley".

this documentary was great (i presume we're talking about the one made in the 80's that was shown on monday night). there was the square kid on a skateboard sub plot (the first skateboarder at central bank??), the bizarre voiceover that would interrupt people.

and the part when they showed the ariel view of the land the civic offices were built on, and marked out the parimeter realllllllyy slowly with a white line, in total silence - one of the best things i've seen on tv in a long time. full of gentle suspense.

i dont mean it in a jokey ironic way either, i genuinely enjoyed it.

The kid was so funny! It was supposed to be Sam Stephenson as a child, no? I was totally transfixed on the aerial views too.
The mass protests for rhe Civic offices were crazy, I wish there was more of that now, maybe that yoke on Dame Street could have been avoided - for fck sake, what idiot designed that?