Perspectives; where is Irish design? A Pech Kucha contribution by Ciarán Cuffe as part of a panel discussion at the 2017 UCD Festival

1. Perspectives; where is Irish design?
UCD Festival June 2017
Ciarán Cuffe

2. C I A R Á N C U F F E
A R C H I T E C T P L A N N E R E D U C A T O R
@CIARANCUFFE
Gill Sans, designed by Eric Gill. Do we need a new Irish typeface, as Finland did recently?

3. Inis Meáin. Our landscape shapes what we are and what we do

4. Soil created by back-breaking work: alternate layers of sand and seaweed.

5. Limestone. skeletal fragments of coral, and shells. The Burren and the Aran islands

6. Sean Scully’s Doric paintings. Is there an influence of the walls of the Aran Islands?

7. Anna Liffey in the mist. The oldest of all Dublin city bridges, 250 years young

8. Howley Harrington Architects, with Price & Myers A slender steel truss.
Elegantly carrying pedestrians north and south and back again. strong contemporary design

9. Liberty Hall: The dawn of a new architecture, designed Desmond O’Kelly

10. Galway’s Blackrock Diving Tower.
Public works for public use and pleasure

11. Busarus: Michael Scott’s Store Street Bus terminal. Imagine building this today
A bus terminal, a rooftop restaurant, promenade, barber shop, offices and the Eblana Theatre

12. Not Amsterdam, but one of Herbert Simm’s 1930s public housing schemes in Dublin

13. Chancery House beside the Four Courts. Decent housing and public space at the Four Courts

14. A view of Dublin. Breweries
A railway station and a tramway against the backdrop of the Dublin Mountains.
Infrastructure reimagined, adapted and transformed for twenty-first century needs.

15. The width of the colours showing amounts of railway, canal and vehicular traffic.
Blue stars mark points of congestion.
Some things never change.

16. The public realm, is the living room of our city and needs to be as carefully designed.
Streets and Squares must be designed with passion and precision for all ages.

17. The meeting of the Luas tracks at Abbey Street and Marlborough. Crossroads of the city

18. Michael and John’s Smock Alley Theatre
Cities must adapt and change. Buildings that can do the same will stand the test of time

19. College Green reimagined by Paul Kehoe and Ed Jones.
A civic space given back to the people as it once was before traffic took over.

20. Scotsman’s Bay in Dun Laoghaire and to the right of the spires the Lexicon. An inspiring library
by Carr Cotter Naessens. Public works for public gain. As we did once in the mid twentieth
century we need more design that supports the public good and the public interest.
Thank you
@ciarancuffe