View of Patrick St Cork from North Aspect
picture taken by David Layton
This week I travelled to Cork, a gorgeous little city in the South of Ireland. Cork a port city has changed alot through the years. It not only has changed in Town Planning terms but also in a multi cultural sense.
Ireland now welcomes people of all nationalities to live and work in the country. This has given rise to an explosion of apartment building very much in the language of London housing.
I notice some lovely architecture as well as plenty of questionable buildings dotted around the city centre. However Cork has impoved alot both in style and quality especially after winning City of Culture in 2005.
The following photographs show Cork's regeneration of their main high street, Patricks Street. Cork County Council hired the services of Barcelona Architect/Landscape Architect Beth Gali. She designed a brave and pleasent road scape. Using interesting coloured paving she signifies pedestrian areas as well as road ways.
As you move down Patrick Street the urban scape opens into almost what becomes a plaza. This is known in Cork as The Grand Parade. Beth Gali has created some lovely lighting as well as interesting seating with trees growing from their centres.
Of course Cork is an interesting city with an equally interesting outlook. In many ways conservative but never dull. Apparently there was an indifferent response to Gali's design. Many a comment included 'Arah, it was fine the way it was'...
The next few pics are of a whole new development on Patrick St. They have knocked down an entire old block of the city and created this modern shopping complex. The architecture is nice, clear, crisp but the winner here is the new street created. It connects Patrick St to the cultural area of the Crawford Art Gallery and Cork Opera House. This is also effective in its link to the cafe culture of Paul St. The actual road layout is fairly straightforward but it has a nice link with the architecture in its patterns. There are random circular cuts into the pavement which add a little detail. I liked the lamps which are almost like wall lights. They have a pleasant contempory look.
This week was also an chance to develop my photography skills. I had an appointment with Niall in the Photography Lab. He helped me light and photography my model.
This pic was taken with a wide angle lens. Notice the cool quirky play with persepctive. Also you can see the studio backdrop in the background.
A detail of the pilotis.
The shot taken with regular SLR lens.
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