Buildings

BUILDINGS ON GRANGEGORMAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

May 25, 2023 by infomatique

PHOTOGRAPHED USING A SIGMA DP3 QUATTRO

Today I obtained an unused Sigma Quattro DP3 camera and, believe me, it is more than difficult to use for multiple reasons. The first problem that I had was that the internal battery was exhausted and I could not change any settings, I could not even set the date and time. The second problem was that AF would not work so I had to focus manually which was difficult without a viewfinder.

The biggest problem is that LightRoom does not recognise the RAW files and there is no point in using the JPG files and to complicate life one needs not to use any setting above ISO 100. Alto the battery life is the worse that I have encountered.

The Grangegorman site is an area of approximately 73 acres located in the Arran Quay Ward of Dublin in the district of Grangegorman. It is north of the River Liffey and south of the Royal Canal, and approximately 1.5 kilometres from Dublin’s City Centre. The Grangegorman site is bounded by the North Circular Road to the north, Prussia Street and Stoneybatter to the west, and Brunswick Street to the south.

It is unique because of its location in the core of the city and, other than the Docklands and the Poolbeg peninsula, is the last remaining large undeveloped land bank in the city.

The site is divided into two precincts known as St. Brendan’s West (54 acres) and St. Brendan’s East (19 acres), on either side of Grangegorman Road Upper. The eastern edge of the site is beside the Broadstone and Phibsborough bus depots, property used by Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann under the auspices of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE).

Much of the site is still undeveloped and can be considered brown-field, however part of St Brendan’s West has been redeveloped and is now in use by TU Dublin. There are also large areas of public realm accessible to the community, including a children’s playground. These lands contain many mature trees together with an array of protected buildings under the current Dublin City Development Plan, all of which date from the nineteenth century or before.

There is a high boundary wall which surrounds most of the site which means access to the lands is restricted. The lands are elevated on the north eastern part sloping gently down towards the south west. The Grangegorman site has a diverse architectural, historical, and land use character, however the area is fragmented and cut off from surrounding residential neighbourhoods. These factors have served to limit expansion and to discourage the coherent development of the area.

BUILDINGS ON GRANGEGORMAN UNIVERSITY CAMPUS [PHOTOGRAPHED USING A SIGMA DP3 QUATTRO] 026

ST FINBARR’S CEMETERY IN CORK

May 13, 2023 by infomatique

THE MAIN STRUCTURES

I made three attempts to visit and photograph this cemetery. The first time I got the wrong bus and ended up miles away and had to wait an hour for a return bus. The second time I had to abandon the session because of a thunder storm. The third time the rain held off for about forty five minutes.

St Finbarr’s Cemetery, which opened in 1868, is the largest cemetery in Ireland outside of Dublin. The keeper’s house (office) is inside the gate to the left. Inside the graveyard there are two small churches (Catholic and Protestant) that were built when the cemetery was first opened and were used for funeral services for a time.

The freestanding cruciform Roman Catholic mortuary chapel was consecrated in 1867. This chapel, designed by Sir John Benson, has a Hiberno-Romanesque influence, most evident in the round tower to the north elevation. The use of basalt stone for a building is very unusual in this part of the country and the polychromatic use of the paler limestone with the basalt results in a distinctive character and appearance. The scalloped slate to the roof and decorative cast-iron rainwater goods are examples of the type of architectural ornamentation favoured during this period. Although very similar to the Protestant chapel in the cemetery, this building displays subtle differences such as the location of the entrance porch and round tower.

WOOD QUAY CIVIC OFFICES AND NEARBY

February 15, 2023 by infomatique

DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL

The Wood Quay site was allocated as a proposed headquarters of Dublin City Council in the 1940s but construction did not begin until the early 1980s due to the discovery of the remains of the Viking city.

The monumental towers were built to a design by Sam Stephenson, whose original design included two more towers to the north-west. However the latter part of the design was shelved, with the later phase of the offices built to a design by Scott Tallon Walker in the late 1990s. A strong horizontal emphasis is created by recessed window strips, which articulate the facades.

The later connecting glass atrium to the centre provides a contrast to the solidity of the granite cladding, the combination of these materials characteristic of contemporary architecture. The building has continued in its original use and remains a controversial but focal point and landmark structure in the city.