One of the most tired arguments used by Trinity Students in a puerile attempt to prove the alleged superiority of their particular educational institution is an architectural one. The neo-classical theme park that is Trinners is constantly held up as exponentially more beautiful than Stillorgan Tech, the Prefab, Belfield Airport or whatever other highly original tag they've thought of lately. I have nothing but the highest scorn and derision for the kind of person who spends their free time on the whole Trinity vs. UCD deal, but this is an issue which to be dealt with.
It's even a commonplace among UCD Students that our architecture is modern and hence ugly while theirs is old and hence beautiful. This of course is symptomatic of a very deep-seated tendency. The entire modern movements in Architecture and indeed Art are all too frequently dismissed out of hand.
Of course no one can deny that modern Architecture has produced some phenomenally ugly buildings. And unfortunately parts of Belfield Campus are not especially pulchritudinous. For example, the Science Building might be quite prepossessing if it wasn't for that slightly nauseous shade of green tile that covers the whole thing. The Arts Block is a mess, a user-unfriendly warren on the inside and a sort of post-modern Gormenghast from the outside.
However other modern buildings in Belfield are far more aesthetically pleasing. The Ag block, for example, is a pleasant and airy haven. The Engineering Building is sleek and streamlined, with a very restrained, high-tech, rather Teutonic cool. The new computer building has a similar atmosphere, perhaps illustrating that modern architecture is most suited to more technologically orientated locations. The Church, the O'Reilly Hall and the Microbiology Centre are other architectural highlights of Belfield Campus.
What has to be remembered is that Architecture, like all other facets of culture, is inescapably a portrait of its times. Belfield campus is a product of the era of Sean Lemass, free second-level education and the other social changes of the late 60s/early 70s. The Architecture of Belfield, like that of many hideous schools dotted around the country from that time, reflects the Brave New World atmosphere of the time. Belfield Campus is perhaps a better memorial to that age of rampant Social Engineering than say the Ballymun High Rises, another building very much of its time. At least Belfield reflects an engagement with the modern world, sometimes successful, sometimes less so.
And of course there is life outside Belfield in UCD. The Vet College is a mix of old and new, the old unfortunately too old for use as a Veterinary Teaching Institution it increasingly seems. My old stomping ground Earlsfort Terrace of course is a good aul' neo-classical monolith, as wannabe-monumental as they come.
And don't forget that the alleged architectural beauty of Trinity reflects a time when there wasn't much hope of getting into the place if you weren't male and non-Catholic. Neo-classical architecture's tendency towards vastness and monumentality, and its implicit association with Ancient Greece and Rome and therefore some kind of tradition, has always attracted megalomaniacs and tyrants. Mussolini's lasting memorial is the quite hilarious "Wedding Cake" in Rome, a white elephant in every sense. The Nazis condemned most modern art as "degenerate" and promoted stiff, artificial neo-classicism. The Russian Revolution abandoned modernism and turned to stodgy Socialist Realism around the same time it was devoting its energies less and less towards implementing Karl Marx's ideas and more and more towards murdering lots of people. Don't forget that the Roman Empire, the inspiration for much of this, was a genocidal, militaristic predecessor of the twentieth century's authoritarian empires, based on slavery and the unquestioned power of the state.
So there's nothing inherently wrong with buildings that dare to include concrete and steel. Equally, the mere fact that a building looks like a knock-off from the Roman Empire doesn't necessarily make it beautiful. Remember that the next time someone from a University that doesn't even have a Faculty of Agricultural Science (and, I ask you, what kind of University is that?) tries to give you an inferiority complex over the alleged beauty of their College
