Bus shelter provokes new possibilities

GIVEN its tendency to be thought about and practiced in different ways, and experienced in a sometimes sporadic and incidental way, one might reasonably pose the question where it is that architecture is thought to begin and end, and exactly whom is it thought that it ‘belongs’ to?

More often than not, such questions are the reserve of academic and professional institutions. However, what is intriguing and original about the Arts Council’s ‘Engaging with Architecture Scheme’ (which is represented in 2014 by an entirely Cork-based project ‘Sharing Architecture’) is that similar questions are being asked by entirely new constituencies of people — namely, the public. What is so positive about this as a prospect is that the discipline of architecture begins to re-situate itself in to the public realm and be clearly understood as an agent for debate and change.

It also promises that a reappraisal occurs of those forgotten or overlooked urban landscapes. In the case of the current project, this involves Cork’s bus shelters.