Bus Garage...

Sunday afternoon I packed my cameras, tripod and left my place going towards the second building I visited during this year Open House 2013 Festival. There was a bit of traffic at this time but there is also always place for bicycle. 
Yes, it is possible to cycle with Large and medium format cameras in bags and tripod. It is just a matter of proper loading the 'vehicle' haha
So I reached my destination with almost no time despite mentioned traffic. 
Donnybrook Bus Garage... completed in 1951 was designed by Michael Scott /Scott Tallon Walker/, author of another beautiful building photographed by me about a year ago - Busaras. 

Somehow I missed the slot with guided tour so had to wait about 30minutes for another. I decided to make a photograph waiting for it. 
The main part in the image was obvious. Famous structure of this classic building. 
Absolutely impressive!

Donnybrook Bus Garage

'Donnybrook was the first of seven other garages to be built and as the brief was similar for each, Michael Scott/Ove Arup proposed a modular shell construction solution with a column free 33.5m x12.2m bay size - 1.9m deep x 500mm wide beams supported the thin shell which varied in thickness from 75mm to 100mm. This innovative world first solution also included a continuous roof light at the apex. (...)'
 /info from leaflet delivered before each tour/

All of you who would like to know a little bit more about this particular garage and its authors please have a look at his LINK.


 

Donnybrook Bus Garage, Elevation

All process of preparation to make this image (the first one) and photographing itself took a little bit over 30minutes…I obviously missed another tour. Quick decision - I packed all equipment and cycled back to Dublin Port Centre to make one of the photograph presented in previous post…. 'View over the Port'.

View over the Port

I found at last a little bit of time to write a few words about Open House 2013 weekend and first of all show some photographs.
Organized by Irish Architecture Foundation Open House 2013, architectural festival is one of the most important annual events for me. 
This is great to see so many people visiting different buildings, queuing in the front of them or running through town with maps looking for certain locations.
Architecture is something more then just another form of expression which you can have a look at and walk away. It is three dimensional, something you can feel, touch, walk inside. There is also lots of different aspects related to each object you can perceive in so many ways. I am talking here about texture of used materials, form, style of the building, light penetrating interiors, the way how you feel inside, its impact on surrounding area and finally structure itself. 
All of it is fascinating once you can understand it.
Due to constant lack of time I was able to see only two buildings this year. 
There was also third one but sadly it was open just on Friday…while Saturday or Sunday is the only time I can take a part in such a tour.
Anyway - two buildings…Both designed by Scott Tallon Walker, architects with a long tradition, history and many achievements.
Saturday morning. Short trip to the first place - Dublin Port Centre. Building was designed by Niall Scott, of Scott Tallon Walker in 1981. It's one of the youngest objects within 'Unfulfilled Dreams' series.  Niall was also a guide on our tour which gave us fantastic look inside the history of an all process  from inception to completion.

Here is fragment of description taken from beautifully printed booklet we received at the entrance:
'The Six storey office building is mounted on a raised podium which is also the roof to the lettable offices underneath. The building comprised of expressed concrete columns and windows are recessed 1.5m resulting in an overhang providing shading from the sun (...)'

Below you can see a few photographs. I should have a couple of more good images but somehow I loaded film in a strange way and just a half of the roll was exposed. It's all because of lack of morning coffee I suppose ;)

Dublin Port Centre

I was using that day Hasselblad 500cm with Distagon 50mm f4 loaded with Kodak TMax 400. No pushing.
Photograph presented above however was taken next day when I came back to capture some interesting forms with my large format camera /Sinar F2, Schneider-Kreuznach Symmar 150mm 5.6 and Fomapan 100 4x5 exposed at 64/.

Entrance Hall

Conference Room

Waiting Area

Front Elevation

Tomorrow or the day after I will present second building I visited during this year festival. Photograph are ready so it won't take such a long time as for this one ;)
Comments are always welcome. Thanks!