My Favourite Holiday Location - Bunagee Pier

Every summer holiday since I was 13, my family and I have always gone to the same place on holiday for two relaxing fun-filled weeks. It’s a small fishing harbour called Bunagee Pier, just outside Culdaff in the very north of Donegal. However every time we re-visit this place, it always seems to have changed. Some changes are more disliked than others.

The main difference we notice every year is the number of visitors and locals which are turning up all throughout the week to enjoy the Atlantic and awesome beaches. With this increase in so many people, comes an increase in noise level. Before it would be so quiet and peaceful, but now with screaming kids jumping from the harbour and the groan of jet skis and power boats it is starting to get rather irritating. Thankfully the only time we spend at the harbour is when we are fishing so we are able to avoid all the “noise-makers”.

Other changes are the number of people who go to the beach. It used to be a effortless task trying to get a car parking space, but now it’s a real pain to get into the car park never mind finding a space. On the positive side, the beach still has its “Blue Flag” and has amazing waves for some adrenaline pumping body-boarding and surfing.

The small coastguard cottage which we stay in is one of the highlights to the trip which hasn’t changed. Its nearly 200 years old as my parents friends bought it and renovated it before I even existed. Even though I’m now at the stage of not holidaying with my family, this is one place I never want to stop visiting.

The Carnegie Pavilion, Headingley Cricket Ground

On the 21^st July 2010, I had the great opportunity to watch the Australia v Pakistan test match at Headingley Cricket Ground in Yorkshire. This day was not only momentous due to the fact that it was my first test match as a present spectator, but I was also able to witness the new Carnegie Pavilion designed by British architect Professor William Alsop.

When I first approached the stadium from the road, the structure seemed very well disguised into its surrounding and pre-existing structure. I liked how the garden beds at the entrance to the pavilion reflected the shapes of the triangles on the pavilion’s outer skin. As I walked around the corner to the far end of the ground, it disappeared into the houses and unfortunately could no longer be seen. After my ticket was purchased, I passed through the turnstile and walked towards my seat the pavilion caught my eye. It is not only a purposeful facility but it also adds a touch of modernity and flair to cricket. I love the way it is totally different to its surrounding yet blends through shape of the existing structure and the green grass colour.

This extension to Headingley Cricket Ground, home of Yorkshire CC and the ECB, shows Alsop’s wackiness and overpowering aesthetics and takes architecture and cricket to a new stage of modernity. The pavilion has been designed with a double use in mind. Leeds Metropolitan University and the YCCC and ECB are combining university education with a sports complex, and with great success. The teaching room doubles up to become a high-class hospitality dinning room on match days, and the media centre is also used as an auditorium for students to experience another teaching medium. Its glass and metal external structure curves seamlessly with the stadiums original shape. All of the glass viewing areas are ceiling to floor high giving maximum light conditions and first class spectating facilities for high paying sports fans. The purple and green colour scheme has been inspired and chosen with the universities colour scheme in mind. This creates a link between the two so that the public are not just associating it with cricket.

So far, this extension has not been completed for long enough for a general thought to have emerged about the success of this building. If anything it will eventually be looked upon just like all of Alsop’s other works; dividing opinions. I’m glad to have had the chance to see it!

RIBA Sterling Prize 2010



The RIBA Stirling Prize is given to the architects of the building which has made the “greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year" and shown an “excellence in architecture”. It has been founded in 1996 to recognise the British architect James Stirling, and this prize giving ceremony takes place annually. This prize is now thought of to be the most highly acclaimed architecture honour in the UK. Six short-listed buildings are chosen from a longer-list of structures that have received a RIBA Award for other “minor“ achievements. This year the ceremony was shown live on BBC 2 and a small presentation on each short-listed building was given before the winner was announced.

The Six Short-Listed Buildings were: -
Christ’s College School, Guilford, DSDHA

Clapham Manor Primary School, London, dRMM.

Bateman’s Row, London, Theis & Khan Architects.

MAXXI, Rome, Zaha Hadid Architects.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Rick Mather Architects.

Neues Museum, Berlin, David Chipperfield Architects.

　

On the 2^nd October 2010 at the Roundhouse in Camden, North London, Kevin McCloud announced to the architecture world that Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI in Rome had won the RIBA Sterling Prize.  

As a structure I think it is very successful. It really does take the thinking behind any architectural design to the next level. How Hadid uses so many different ideas and influences to gain the best from an art museum is incredible. However I don’t feel her overhanging structure is as successful as it could be. It seems to “stick out” of the building and spoil the fluidity of the overall structure shape. On the positive though the way MAXXI doesn’t blend into its surrounding is an achievement in itself. Art should be bold and striking and so should an art gallery. Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI is a worthy winner of this prestigious accolade.