john white
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That’s right Paul and MK. Thanks for the nice remarks by the way.
The Websites I’m presently working on aren’t really viewable. Still in development. Funnily enough, they’re all charity related: APSO [site re-design] they share our technology and skills with Developing world countries, St. John of God Hospitaller Services, a new Forum website for all international agencies involved in sharing technology etc for Overseas Development.
Good worthy stuff indeed!
I must say I’m really beginning to enjoy that type of client and project as opposed to the COMTELINTERDEVCORPSOFT.COM shite.I’m too busy working on two sites of my own today to look past much more than the front page but I’d quickly suggest:
• Too many conflicting colours – the main pink header accross the top should probably be the blue/grey of their logo with the text in white – without the top and bottom stripes
• the colour arrangement and construction of the left and right column buttons are conflicting [too similar whilst being different. Know what I mean?]
• Too many conflicting typefaces
• The seemingly Archeire-inspired divider/header graphics are a good move but the alignment of the attached photos seems a little zig-zaggy
Generally speaking – not hideous, just needs a little more very simple adjustment. Wouldn’t take much really. I’d say: whatever the nice touches are, try to repeat them throughout the rest of the page/site – rather than allowing a designed by commitee look to creep in.
That’s my aesthetic-review based a quick examination. Hope it’s not too harsh,
J
Well, then have they done their market research? Have they discovered that in a booming economy what we want is the Chique, the sophisticated, the pub that looks like our workplace? A pub which co-ordinates nicely with an Audi TT rather than a Dubliner’s record.
I think the former scenario caters to the people with lots of dosh!
Didn’t Frank Lloyd Wright favour having the ceiling within arms reach? Thought it was more ‘organic’ or something?
Must say – he was a beautiful artist.
Well, Bunch certainly the idea of ‘inbetweening’ with buildings doesn’t work in my view. A bit like putting grey inbetween white and black. No contrast.
It’s simply smoothing the gaps. A mock Georgian DOES indeed demean/devalue the real thing alongside it. Person looks up, goes hmmm… looks like that new one beside it only older. Maybe IT should have nice PVC windows too!
This smoothing effect just creates blandness, nothing to catch & interest the eye. Ever see those smooth, anally retentive airbrush paintings?
J
RE:
“Maybe this new clean crisp image can be shipped around the world now as the authentic Irish bar.”
If you mean the nice frosted glass, beechwood and chrome look – that’s already all round britain. I don’t think we invented it!
As for the ‘Irish Theme Pub’. Yes, I agree it’s ludicrous: Tearing out the eclectic mix of different nice/trashy styles from over the last 2 centuries including all the 60’s and 70’s kitsch and then re-doing it in MDF [argghh] and polyfiller to look like a stage set in the abbey! The bar area of the Long Hall may be a hodge-podge with it’s mirror tiles etc but at least it’s real. It has evolved. A record of the establishment’s journey through the decades.
As for the filth in the old pubs:
The International Bar has a sewer of a toilet despite having beautiful woodwork etc. It’s a health hazard. Why we idiots [although I don’t go to pubs much anymore] literally put up with this shit is beyond me. I believe those pubs are immune to health regulations because they’ve been filthy SINCE BEFORE the ’50’s or something.I too don’t want to see the demise of the old pubs, Victorian, ’60s or otherwise but I reckon a lot of people think they’re just unhealthy kips.
JJ Smyth’s is another hole. I had to hold my breath before entering the Gents – I nearly asphixiated by the time I got out!
RE:
“Maybe this new clean crisp image can be shipped around the world now as the authentic Irish bar.”
If you mean the nice frosted glass, beechwood and chrome look – that’s already all round britain. I don’t think we invented it!
The International Bar has a sewer of a toilet despite having beautiful woodwork etc. It’s a health hazard. Why we idiots [although I don’t go to pubs much anymore] put up with this shit [literally] is beyond me. I think those pubs are immune to health regulations because they’ve BEEN filthy since before the ’50’s or something.
JJ Smyth’s – another hole. I had to hold my breath before entering the Gents – I nearly aspixiated by the time I got out!
As for the ‘Irish Theme Pub’. Yes, I agree it’s ludicrous: Tearing out the eclectic mix of different trashy styles from over the last 2 centuries including all the 60’s and 70’s kitsch and then re-doing it in MDF [argghh] and polyfiller to look like a stage set in the abbey! The bar area of the Long Hall may be a miish-mash with it’s mirror tiles but at least it’s authentic! It evolved. A record of the establishment’s journey through the decades.
What you say has a lot of truth in it Scotus.
Although I’m trying to force myself to be more positive about our fragments of heritage these days [seeing as I’m going to probably be living here for a few years yet. Oh God…] I can’t help being a little disapointed myself quite often when visiting various sites. It can necessitate a measure of self-delusion. It also necessitates that however when walking around grand British & continental cities – for a quite different reason – shutting out the terrible knowledge of what it took to fund many of their beauties. Colonies, slavery, tyrannical church etc…
I suppose we can at least enjoy some freedom from guilty conscience when viewing the often naive fragments of our heritage – in addition to their artistic and historical aspects.
I thought here in Ireland we bragged that the Newgrange passage tomb was the oldest Neolithic structure in europe… or something?
I suppose one needs to be cautious about promoting a totally individual national culture etc… denying influences from outside: it can lead to exaggeration of mythical & godlike ancestries, nationalism, arrogance, zenophobia etc… Dev would’ve approved of that.
A little increased awareness and pride in our heritage wouldn’t hurt though – could really improve this nation for the better! This is going a bit off track isn’t it?
Ta for that Bunch
I suppose then, in order not to simply emulate other countries we still need to develop our own brand of architecture from scratch? Is there not much of a design heritage that we can distincly call our own? Who do our present day architects and architecture students really look up to in Ireland?
Is the task more daunting than we realise?
I suppose this present development will have gone irrevocably forward before we get all of this sorted out – Irish cities may well end up looking like any other European cities albeit on smaller scales.
I predict a future backlash…
I wonder what Ireland would’ve looked like if it hadn’t been ‘civilised’ by St. Patrick, The Normans and the Brits?
Was there much of an original Gaelic culture to act as a decent stylistic building block? Would we have spiral buildings of some sort [although spirals are a basic design element in many cultures..]
Which other places have very individual architectural styles? Spain with Gaudi – was that a reflection of ancient Spanish culture?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to try exercises involving seemingly random actions like arranging things/people/words etc and seeing how they fall in the proportional sense? Do people conform to the golden section without knowing it? Is it a universal pattern that everything comfortably falls into? Might explain why we find it attractive.
If decent apartments aren’t to be built it’s an added shame that good/nice/attractive ones are demolished to make way for them – like in the docklands for example. We’ll never get the likes of those lovely solid stone buildings again!
I agree with the article. Now would be the time to shape up in Ireland – the country is supposedly booming but at the same time the capital city is like a rotting corpse half eaten away by rats with a few platinum prosthetics stuck on. [What a strange mind I must have..]
I’ll tell you, as ‘Anthropolgist’ said I’d also like to see major renovation and preservation initiatives implemented too.
There’s a thread running here about bad quality apartments [add to that the new housing estates covering vast areas of countryside] can we please try to adapt the decent buildings that we have already, particularly in Dublin? I see the docks are losing some fine warehouses. I’ve wandered – my apologies.Georgio Vasari’s ‘Lives of the Artists’ published 16th Century. The first significant art and architecture critic. Father of Art Criticsm.
The Brunelleschi chapter in Vol II is fascinating and often very funny. Quite inspirational!
I reccommend George Bull’s translation: Vol II.
