Category / Art/Arch/Culture

by shannonchance

Awash in Culture–and Wishing I’d Hit Record!

I actually had a voice recording device on me today, but I hadn’t set it up.

I was in Linenhall for a quick, half hour coffee meeting. So, I didn’t think to ask to record until the conversation was too good to stop for something as odd and pragmatic as setting up the iPhone.

I was meeting Máirtin D’Alton (the architect who lead a tour I attended during Open House Dublin, I’ve included a photo to spark your memory).

Following the Tour, I suggested/recommended/fairly much insisted on him for a position at DIT. Sima took my advice, and he’s been working for an hour a week in the 4th year architectural technology studio ever since.

Of course, he’s giving more time than an hour a week to the cause.

He’s being very conscientious in the role–he showed me the prep work he’d done for today.  (I always like to know it’s working out well after I recommend someone!) His prep work must have taken hours.

And, he was also part of a studio crit yesterday that lasted from 9am-7pm. Whew! How exhausting!

He still made time to meet me for coffee before studio today. And, our conversation today was fascinating!  I made a few notes on my phone at the end. They’re below, in rough form but interesting nonetheless.

Typical Irish bungalow. This one located near Killaney. (Photo © Brian Shaw.)

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Bungalows have been the norm for single family detached housing in Ireland–past and present. You’ve been able to buy plan books. There are lots of versions of bungalows out there but they all have basic rectangle with simple hip or gabled roof. They’re getting more complex roofs now. They used to be situated with the gable end toward the SW to capture breeze and solar energy, but by now many town councils have regulated they should face street. Hedgerows have been removed to allow roads to be widened. This has changed the composition of Irish towns greatly. They don’t reflect nature or the social fabric the same way as in the past.

The Irish fascination with the TV show “Dallas” lead to over abundance if houses mimicking that style, especially in the north.

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New-fangled bungalow in Tralee, used as a B&B. Downloaded from property listing website.

We discussed WalMart’s development strategy and how this plays out with IKEA around the globe and with Carrefour and the like in France. In France, the big box stores on outskirts have strangled small businesses, much like in the USA.  (IKEA has been getting big press for plans to go green lately, but they really must address the longevity and up-cycling of their products. Their solar lights are very poor quality and they break with little use.)

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Irish traditional music was almost dead in the 1960s. A Guggenheim sister came and did recordings (i.e., qualitative research).  She brought a group to NYC (she had a close relationship with one of the group). The group was set to play for two minutes on a TV show, but due to a cancellation they ended up with 20 minutes to play. They resorted to playing tunes their mom had taught them. This show brought out American enthusiasm; it was wildly popular in the US. This sparked a revival of traditional music on Ireland. (Interestingly, Fulbright Ireland has a big role in preserving Irish language today.)

Image by John Moore / Getty Images / AAP, from the article Totally green: IKEA pledges to switch to 100% renewable energy by 2020.

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Regarding names: it was popular in the north to use the mother’s last name (surname or family name) as the child’s first name. That’s how names like Kelly and Shannon would have started bring used as first names.
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Jimmy Stewart biography.

In our discussion, I posited that architectural pedagogy is becoming more relevant to society while the architecture profession is becoming less and less relevant (the irony is that education has a big role to play in instilling the types of values that are causing this demise, as well as instilling a sense of curiosity and engagement that makes architecture grads so valuable to other fields).

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Mairtin told me that Jimmy Stewart studied architecture at Princeton. He then bagged it, and went into acting. He played in a film set in the Shenandoah Valley, that Máirtin watched last weekend.
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…Máirtin has offered to show Esther Serchi and me some important sights on the outskirts of Dublin, while she’s visiting in a week.
by shannonchance

Guesses?

You see a lot of these around Europe. They look a lot different in Rome and Switzerland, though, where they’re still in use. Any guesses what they’r for?

This one is located near the Marsh Library in Dublin 2.  It looks so sad and unappreciated. I saw another one in a similar state the other day (in Kilkenny, I think).

I’m going to bed now (it’s 12:33 AM), but I’ll send you a gold-star cookie if you guess right while I’m asleep!

Can you figure it out?

by shannonchance

Gray Sky Blues

Another rainy day in Dublin.  Here’s hoping the sun breaks through.  It almost always does each day–sooner or later.  I’ve attached an example of sunshine after rain, taken as I was crossing Dame Street on October 2.

Reflection on Dame Street. Copyright Shannon Chance, 2012.

by shannonchance

Glimpses of Grennan Castle

Shannon and Dave–hot in the pursuit of abandoned castles. We stopped to admire Grennan Castle from a far.

We didn’t get inside Grennan Castle, but did catch a glimpse on one of our castle-hutting-near-Killkenny days. This castle was constructed in the year 1210.

Abandoned Ireland looks like a fabulous site. It includes photos from the inside of Grennan Castle, and explains:

“Grennan Castle measures 20 metres x 13 metres and stands 20 metres tall, the walls at their base are 2.5 metres thick. The ground floor contains three barrel vaulted chambers with an entrance to the second floor on the south side by a staircase built hidden into the thickness of the wall. At the top of the staircase is just a gaping opening down to the floor below. This opening was originally covered by a trapdoor, hence with the trapdoor raised the castle was almost impenetrable.”

Abandoned Ireland also notes that “In 1650 Cromwell’s troops called to the castle. The siege lasted only two days, the garrison marched out leaving all their weapons behind them and promised to never again oppose English rule.” It wraps up by stating, “Grennan Castle survived in good repair until the early 1800s.”

You can click on this image to see a larger version.

You can click on this image to see a larger version.

Grennan Castle in the distance.

by shannonchance

Dashing Between Stories

Sometime this weekend, dashing from the all-day seminar “Conversations on Stories” hosted by Notre Dame and the evening welcome event hosted by the Fulbright Ireland Alumni Association, I managed to capture a few fleeting glimpses of Dublin for you.  These were all taken near O’Connell Bridge.

by shannonchance

Wrapping Up Tonight’s Meal at Thai Spice

Wrapping up tonight’s meal at Thai Spice.

One tiny little thing I do to help prevent needless waste is to carry a food storage container (i.e., Tupperware) in my purse.  That why went I can’t finish my meal, I don’t have to ask for a disposable take-home box.

Think how many plastic or styrofoam containers a person uses in a year… those containers will stick around in the landfill for centuries.

This method is painless and guilt-free.

So, why not stow a small container in your bag right now?

The one in my purse has a reusable shopping bag inside (the black one shown is a slingsax by Envirosax, I found my first one here in Dublin in March 2010).  That keeps things in my purse as compact as possible.

by shannonchance

My Incredible HU Students

I’m so glad to have Facebook so I can stay connected with family, friends, colleagues, and past students. Several of the students I coached in a Disney design competition work as Disney Imagineers today.  Nikk and Nicole Smith crafted this fine image of the Obama family (and yes, they had the blessing of Pixar).

The Obamas as Incredibles, copyright Nikkolas and Nicole Smith.

Carlton Copeland, who travelled to Italy with me last May, posted a reflection shot of his own last week, and acknowledged my contribution.  🙂

Carlton’s caption on Facebook for this shot was:
“An addiction taught by @shannonchance — with Shannon Massie Chance.”

He’s part of Hampton University’s Solar Decathlon team.  You can see his work from our summer design studio at Urban Push. His team’s proposal for a new development in Romewas great. Below are a few of his photos and sketches from the trip, and the banner shot form his Facebook pag

From Piazza San Marco, Venice (copyright Carlton Copeland, 2012).

Carlton’s Facebook banner — a photo from our May 2012 trip to Italy.

A sketch Carlton made in Rome (copyright Carlton Copeland, 2012).

Carlton’s photo of me in Italy  (copyright Carlton Copeland, 2012).

Sketch of Piazza Fenice, in Venice (copyright Carlton Copeland, 2012).

by shannonchance

Crafting Kilkenny

Kilkenny Castle’s lawn was full of crafts people last weekend.  They demonstrated traditional building methods for visitors to see. I’ve included photos of a man operating a pole lathe and one of a man who thatches roofs.

by shannonchance

Sharing the Love in Burnchurch Castle

When visiting County Kilkenny, Dave and I got to visit castles built in a couple of different styles. We did this with the help of the  Office of Public Works (OPW) branch located in the industrial park outside Kilkenny.

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Just before we arrived at Burnchurch Castle, Dave had set me up for free iMessaging (iPhone texting) to his sister-in-law, Lucy.  When she texted me a video of the kids chanting “Hi, Aunt Shannon!”, it finally dawned on me that I could easily share moving images with my friends and family back home.

As Dave and I explored the castle, I sent video clips back to the States and got immediate reactions from my beloved ones.

Both the castle and the family pow-wow were amazing.

“Many tower houses have an abundance of mural chambers and passages hidden away within their walls, though few have the number and complexity of those found in the early 16th-century castle of the Burncourt FitzGeralds,” explains Ireland’s Eye.  “This well-preserved tower house, occupied until 1817, has four storeys beneath a vault with the principal chamber above, lying just below a gabled roof.”

Ireland’s Eye continues, “Apart from its mullioned windows, this chamber is noteworthy for its finely carved chimney-piece; it has a tall, round chimney, while the roof’s gable walls have been extended so that both ends of the tower are carried up an extra stage to provide high battlemented fighting platforms.”

“A great hall was formerly attached to the tower’s outside wall, but this has now vanished, as has most of the bawn. A curved outside staircase still provides access to the three upper floors of this little tower.”

Irelands Castles adds:

“There is precious little material available about this pretty well preserved Irish tower. It was built sometime in the fifteenth century by the FitzGeralds of Burnchurch in County Kilkenny. It is known for being one of several Irish towers with the slightly narrower sides of the castle extending up an additional floor, creating in essense a pair of tower wide turrets.”

“This furnishes a natural gable at both ends of the roof as well as an additional defensive level of battlements. There are numerous narrow rooms in the walls, including a ‘secret room’ on the fourth floor. The rounded chimney may be a later improvement [that on the model is square], and the fireplace in the 5th floor Hall sports a ‘joggle voussoir arch’, whatever that is.”

“The castle originally had a bawn with a 41 foot tall tower at one corner. Though the old drawing, date unknown, shows remnants of buildings, only the round tower [see both below] appears to be standing in pictures I found on the internet and in a library book. Burnchurch was apparently last occupied in 1817, but it can be explored.”

At the end of the day, Dave and I celebrated with a trip to Kyteler’s Pub (establish 1324). Dave tortured Lucy (who was visiting his Mom at the time) by texting her this catchy little video.

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by shannonchance

Bustling, Breathtaking Kilkenny

Here’s a view from the Kilkenny bridge.  I took this on our September visit, but it was every bit as beautiful when I visited with Mom last weekend.