funnies

funnies

I think we were all pretty shocked with the massive and immediate work load. Lectures so far aren’t very taxing and gradually class participation is taking place, namely Old school rambling on and one particularly funny argument from Ross “I heard you slagging muck. What’s wrong with muck? Muck is great!! You can build houses with muck!” Time will tell whether we have been won over by the muck side of life I guess…

This week we were met with the most embarrassing task; to measure and draw our bodies at scale 1:1. Some people, lets just say, overcompensated areas. One stu-dent indicated a 6-pack that Arnie would envy. Brian was definitely easier on the girls, being careful not to offend. Slap-ping your boyfriend for calling you fat is acceptable…your year head on the other hand is a whooole different kettle of fish.

The all nighters we’ve been threat-ened. This is apparently the easy part so we should milk it when we still can!

Hurrah, we have arrived!! Got our course and finally cutting the chord from nagging Mums and over-protective da’s.

Our term began with a tour of all DIT campuses and the architecture in between. Great for boggers like myself. Freshers week followed and what a week it was! I giggled at David O’Doherty and drooled all night over the Blizzards front man Brez-zie, who played Freshers Ball. We elected our class reps; Anna Keogh, Rob Mannion and Cian Hughes.

first year

Caren Finnegan

Work Hard play Harder

first year

Caren Finnegan

With this thought in mind we set off to define our future lives at a series of dingy sites spread across Dublin city. Fending off some of the negative aspects of Dublin city we sketched, drew, measured and generally avoided work until we got our third and fi-nal studio. Then we began to design our buildings under the tute-lage of our year head Patrick Flynn. Despite bizarre phrases like “its really only toxic if you lick it”, we think he’s sane. Mostly sane.

Crammed into our studio, nine people to a desk and five people to a chair, we began to create our concepts. Some were good, like ‘an effective transition between the negative and the positive. Some, like ‘I want to make my building look like my pet cat’, were bad. Confusion abounded. What’s in a sauna? Um, steam? But then what’s the steam room for? Um, more steam?

second-year

Ah, second year. The one after the first year. The one before the third one. I read somewhere that this is the year in which architects form the thoughts that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. No pressure then.Our first project (the one before the sec-ond project) was, is and will have been to design a bath house at anyone of four sites spread across Dublin.

petie Barry

More CroWded tHen an indain train

luke Gleeson

JoHn o’CallaGHan

JaMes o’toole

olivia Hillary

edWyn J. HiCkey

Brian Jordan

dave BradsHaW

niall HoWard

CaoiMHe loFtus

“really not enjoying third year, i have lots of work to do and can’t do anything and it’s really horrible.”

“it’s just busy i suppose like, well thats all i’ve got”

“i have nothing to say.”

“i suppose; very fast pace, very time con-suming, but i suppose it’s a lot of fun. ”

“Well i’m enjoying it, a lot of work, a lot of com-puters; i’m not used to “at the moment it’s not

as stimulating as i thought it would be but i hope it will progress.”

“it’s ea... third year’s going, going ok, we have to do computer work, ea... love the new studio”

“there’s a lot of hours, there’s too much, there’s ea... i don’t know”

“yeah, there’s a hell of a lot of work to do, big step up. ‘Could be fun to be working on a bigger scale than last year”

so...HoW’s tHird year GoinG?

third year

“very good, we started off in individual proj-ects, which got everyone back into designing. now we’re working in groups, we’ve made them smaller so as people cannot hide behind a bigger ones”

derMot Boyde

luke Gleeson & Bernard Brennan

roBert CHapMan“a little pressurised, as if one was working under sta-lin himself. of course being a trot i disagree with that. looking forward to design

third year

fourthyear

More likely imagining themselves back on the beach in that hot country, or even back in work where days ended at half5! Oh those blissful days! Nevertheless, we’ve survived our first hand up and had a great turn out for our first post hand up party, despite the lack of sleep.

Our year has swelled to nearly 60 students with a large quota of Erasmus students and a few extreme-architects: people who came straight from 3rd year. We’re studying the more practical sub-jects this year, Cost Control- what do you mean we can’t build it out of solid granite?! And learning that you can’t just add a few letters after your name and hey presto you’re an archi-tect- this, apparently, is not very professional! As for stu-dio, we have 2 main themes running through the year: until Christ-mas we are working on a new Abbey theatre, we are currently analysing sites around the city centre as possible new locations.

“24 weeks to 5th year”- these were the words that greeted the fourth years on our return to Bolton Street. Back with a bang! 15 months of freedom seemed like a distant memory when we received our first project of the year, an outdoor ur-ban theatre. Thoughtful faces were to be seen around the studio, pondering over the seating arrangement maybe? Or con-templating relationship between the actor and the audience?

ruth Condron & Ciara Hammel

25 Weeks to FiFtH year

fifthyear

As for real work, there was much googlin’ to be done, don’t know how students managed before live map. Sadly things had changed on Bolton st, though maybe not the college itself, after years of faithful service Declan (Deco to his friends) finally closed shop, The first years will no doubt hear tales told of a larger than life character of wit and charm, “7ft tall he was, with arms like treetrunks and a head of fiery red hair, Deco they used called him...” but his memory will live on with through the older years...

Week 2 involved a series of workshops designed to get us think-ing about what it was we wanted to achieve in our thesis, it was a helpful exercise and provided an interesting diversion from the routine of the studio.

week3 there now begins the minor inconvenience of starting work on a thesis which in 8months time will take the form of 12 A1 sheets and a cartload of models that’ll hopefully get us out of Bolton st...bollox.

5th year! Well, to be honest, the first 2 weeks have gone by pretty smooth-ly. The only problem is that eventu-ally I’ll have to get around to do-ing a thesis...The fifth year studio is a sort of reward for putting up with bargin basement studios that you get handed through your progression up through the feeding chain in Bolton st. The week continued with the year settling back into the college routine after 3months off, so onto Bodkins and of course the pav where some well earned beverages were enjoyed by all.

Brain Fitzgerald

untitled

fifthyear

Brain Fitzgerald

First year is described as going from 0 to 60 in 9 months, how do you feel about

shaping young minds?

I don’t feel like I’m a huge influence. First year is mostly about skills, spacial reasoning and thinking like an architect. It’s also really important to facilitate talking and learning between the years and having conversations about architecture. You can ac-tually see when the students become aware of what they’re learning while designing. It’s exciting to think that the first years come in with practically nothing and leave with so much material.

You worked for both Dominic Stevens and Tom DePaor, have they influenced you much?

Yea, they defiantly influenced me. I think mostly in a subconscious way. Both practice architecture in a very different ways. Managing to work in the architectural world of Ireland today is something they are both good at. That’s what makes them so successful.

You contributed to the new publication “The Lives of Spaces” about Irelands partici-pation at the 2008 Venice Biennale. It talks about the use and reuse of spaces, how do you feel about this in regard to your first year studio and it’s evolution from an

apprentices workshop to a canteen and now architectural studio.

Well, it’s high above the city and has good views of the surround-ing area, which is nice to work beside. It has lost a lot of its ‘canteen’ atmosphere. The suspended ceilings and electronics make it a different space. It all happened so fast. I suppose we are

How is DIT going?

The year is going good. It’s exciting to be in the city, now that I’m here it seems like the city en-vironment is the best place for an architectural school.

interview with Brian Ward

enjoying it the same as you guys across the road. I heard it was a really good canteen though; it’s a shame to lose it. They had a reputation for big portions and salt of the earth canteen ladies.

Finally, do you have one piece of advice for all the first year

students?

Find a way to work so that it’s enjoyable for you. Everyone enjoys different parts, so it’s important to have something you like doing, otherwise it’s really not worth it.

Brain Ward is the first year yearmaster

easa

DIT was represented well at the Andea Deplazes Lecture on Thurs night, both by the student body and staff. Especially noted was the appearance of Dave “your project needs more sex” O’Shea, who’s sadly missed at 3rd year crits. Also present were the heads of most years, who seemed to be vying for the best seat in the house. After a brief introduction by the AAI president, where his work was praised for both its Tectonic simplicity and exqui-site complexity Deplazes took the stage. The lecture felt like a glimpse into the thoughts of the architect. His pride for his country, his love of construction and its place in architecture, his enthusiasm for education and the zeal with which he approached it; all these attributes were expressed in the 7 projects he pre-sented throughout the evening. As a fellow student, I was really impressed by how much con-fidence he had in his students, working with them on projects that any well qualified architect would have loved to sink their teeth into. This was portrayed well with the Shining Project; a moun-tainside hut, which was both sustainable and beautiful. The white washed interior and reflective skin produced a building that was surprisingly inviting, plus it’s green credentials would have put a smile on the face of the most staunch SEED lecturer. Of course ETA’s facilities were somthing to behold and con-tributed significantly to the material exploration.... at least we have a foam cutter...oh wait!

review of andres deplazes lecture

funnies

derek keatley

funnies

derek keatley

11th - 20th

oct

iFi are holding the French film festival

16th

octutopia: ballitore. third year book launch.aai lecture: Manana se-ries

oct18th - 19th

octsangria ball;Cirque du Freak

22th

oct

23th - 26th

deaF; dublin electronic arts festival

oct

23th - 26th

Hallowfest; Horrow film festival at the iFi

oct30thaai lecture; mexican

architectural series; tatiana Bilbao

nov1staai site visit;

niall mcloughlin architects

nov8th

aai site visit; mccoullough mulvin

novaai lecture; a2 architects & site visit

27th & 29th

nov11th

aai lecture; manana series

issue #02

dec4th

article deadline

what’s on

next contribution deadline thurs 4th dec

asa contact details: asaboltonst@gmail.comshane - 0872535966

editors: helen rose condon & cecily weeks