The Summer Architectural Tour 2013: Dublin (Ireland, part 1)
by Mark English, AIA | Editorials
This summer, Mark, Anne, Kent & Bruno, (all architects) wandered across Ireland and France, enjoying life, landscape and architecture. We had all spent plenty of time in France, but had managed to reach our fine middle years having missed the Emerald Isle.
This summer, Mark, Anne, Kent & Bruno, (all architects) wandered across Ireland and France, enjoying life, landscape and architecture. We had all spent plenty of time in France, but had managed to reach our fine middle years having missed the Emerald Isle completely.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had always imagined that the landscape would be a fabled green paradise. As luck would have it, our visit coincided with a rare heat wave, with temperatures in the 90’s. The Irish bore the imprint of whatever clothing they were wearing the first day of the heat wave, etched into their skin.
Dublin seemed oddly familiar, a close cousin to Boston in particular, or parts of Brooklyn and other east coast US cities. The familiarity was tempered by a sense of sadness, a feeling that the entire country had been partially depopulated, left behind. I knew a bit about the history of Ireland in the famine era, as well as the great architectural accomplishments of the neolithic era, and finally, the interesting new architecture of the “Tiger” years.
One thing is certain; Dublin has had to fight for everything it has today.
