I present, for your consideration, a photograph taken in a 2000-2005 housing estate in Ireland. It is Brightwater, Crosshaven, Co Cork, Ireland… but it could be anywhere in Ireland. Have a good look at the photograph, then keep reading….
What do you notice?
In the left there is a nice house, its a pity it has white PVC windows with obvious airvents but it looks ok… but unfortunately the development only has a veneer of quality.
In the right there is another house on another “street”, we are looking at the back of it, now the back of anything is usually worse than the front, but did no architect stop to think that the back of one house can be seen from the front of another? Was the slope not taken into account. Similarly look at the garden wall. Leaving aside the skid marks look inside the garden, you can see concrete blocks!
Now, because all these things are made from concrete and owned by different people they will never change, certainly not within my lifetime, they are for all intents and purposes permanent.
I mentioned at the start that this development is in Crosshaven, Co Cork. Had it been located in Courtmacsherry, Co Cork I can safely say it would look nicer, why? Both are coastal villages within the Cork County Council planning area. Well Courtmacsherry is in “West Cork” so a development would have stone walls (actually concrete blocks with a covering of stone but it would look nice). I can’t comment on the rear of that house.
So whats the conclusion here? Development companies, like all companies, come and go, times move on but if you built something in concrete you’d better make sure it looks nice because it will be there for a long time.
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