Archiwik - User contributions [en]

Holes

2018-03-15T20:35:30Z

Djewesbury: Added a reference to Noys' Base Materialism article.

Holes are the negative space of the city.

A hole is necessarily dug before a building can be erected, as permanent structures need foundations sunk underground to lend them stability. A hole dug deep enough into the ground in an urban site sometimes reveals evidence of previous habitation, and information about the development of the city that serve to disrupt or undermine contemporary understandings of history. Looking deep into holes in the ground can help to call to mind the death of previous incarnations of the city, and to remind the viewer of the dirt and waste that is ordinarily made invisible in the city. Looking deep into holes in the ground can also induce a feeling of vertigo, or a desire to escape; or even a desire to be in a hole deep under the ground.

=== The new Belfast campus of Ulster University ===

[[File:UlsterUniBelfastHole.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | Ulster University's big hole in the ground.]]

Ulster University, formed when the New University of Ulster was merged with the Ulster Polytechnic in 1984, is building a new campus in the centre of Belfast. Courses currently located at its Jordanstown campus, a few miles north-east of the city, will move in when the development is complete. The new building will be on the site of the former Co-operative Stories building, also known as the Orpheus building, which was demolished between 2014 and 2016.

Building was delayed in 2016 because the foundations of the site, which is close to reclaimed land that were once the city's docks, flooded once they were dug. Several underground rivers flow in the area; the water table is also very high, and the local geology is composed of 'sleech', a shifting, waterlogged clay, which means that underground watercourses often change their route in unpredictable ways. Digging a hole in the ground can be a risky proposition in such conditions; most developers prefer not to plan extensive sub-floor levels accordingly.

As of March 2018, building has once again stopped as the main site contractors have gone into receivership. It is reported that the building, originally due to open in 2018, may now not open until 2022 <ref> [https://belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/future-of-belfasts-ulster-university-campus-hangs-in-balance-as-builder-considers-pulling-out-36656237.html The “Belfast Telegraph”, March 1 2018.] </ref> <ref> [https://www.newcivilengineer.com/business-culture/administrators-tell-200-lagan-construction-staff-to-stay-away/10028808.article “New Civil Engineer”, March 6 2018.] </ref>. As 200 construction workers were told to go home, lecturers at Ulster University stood on a picket line across the road, as part of a national strike against changes to their pensions <ref> [http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-43147137 BBC News online, February 21 2018.] </ref>.

=== The ''Trou des Halles'' ===

Marco Ferreri's 1974 film ''Touche Pas à la Femme Blanche'' (Don't Touch the White Woman) is a re-staging of the Battle of Little Big Horn ('Custer's Last Stand') in modern-day Paris. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli, much of the film was shot in a hole in the ground created by the demolition of the old markets at Les Halles and the subsequent deep excavation required for the creation of the Châtelet-Les Halles RER station. The hole was very quickly nicknamed the ''Trou des Halles'' or 'hole of the markets'. By using tight camera angles, Ferreri was able to use the steep, sandy banks of the hole to suggest the canyons of the American West. When he panned his camera up, the houses perched on the lip of the hole were revealed, much to the viewer's disorientation.

Images of the continual destruction that characterises the modern city were used by Ferreri to great dramatic effect; throughout the film the greed of the American railroad speculators, and their murderous desire to clear the land at all costs, can clearly be understood as an analogy for contemporary urban clearances. Moreover the casual brutality meted out to the Native Americans is made to stand as a parallel for the USA's involvement in Vietnam at the time of filming. Throughout the film, where reference is made to images of 'the President' (who at the time of the battle, 1876, would have been Ulysses S. Grant) an image of Richard M. Nixon is used.

[[File:Touchepasalafemmeblanche24.jpg | 350px | thumb | right | still from ''Don't Touch The White Woman'', dir. Marco Ferreri, 1974.]]
The ''Trou des Halles'', because of these constant references back and forth across almost exactly a century, comes to seem like a hole to which all the repressions of the city have been consigned, all the most brutal and degraded violent and sexual urges and desires, those things which structure and create the city, but which at all costs can never be acknowledged. Clearly a film very much influenced by Situationist critiques of the urban condition, ''Touche Pas'' integrates these with concerns that we could read in terms of Georges Bataille's understandings of 'base materialism' <ref> [http://danieljewesbury.org/NoysGeorgesBataillesbasematerialism.pdf Benjamin Noys (1998) 'Georges Bataille's Base Materialism', in ''Cultural Values'', vol. 2, no. 4.] </ref>.

 

=== The 'hole in the ground' in Galway ===

[[File:MervueSign_8890.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | The sign advertising the doomed Crown Square / Crowne Plaza complex at Mervue, Galway, in the Republic of Ireland.]]

The suburb of Mervue lies to the north-east of Galway city. Like the rest of this side of the city beyond the N6 ring road, Mervue is a spatial chaos of retail parks, industrial estates, business units, and older and more recent housing developments. Along the Monivea Road in Mervue is a large development site on which no work has been done since 2008 <ref> [http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055609724? An Irish bulletin board discussion about the site, from 2007.] </ref>.

Between 1960 and 2006, the site was a factory making, amongst other things, pallet trucks <ref> [http://www.castlegar-galway.com/crown-control-mervue-galway An idiosyncratic local history website with a page about Crown.] </ref>. The factory was owned by Crown, a company headquartered in Ohio, who closed their Galway plant in 2006 and relocated to China <ref> [http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2005/0523/63463-jobs/ RTE news report.] </ref>.

Work begun on the site soon after the Crown plant closed, with ownership transferred to developers Stephen Harris, Walter King and Bernard McKeon and planning applications lodged in early 2006 <ref> [http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/permission-sought-for-400m-galway-scheme-1.1289805 The ''Irish Times'', March 29 2006.] </ref>. McKeown was a former planner for Galway City Council who went into property development during the boom years <ref> [http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/champagne-stopped-flowing-as-developers-luck-ran-dry-26754810.html The ''Irish Independent'', July 25 2011.] </ref>.

The original plans included over 26,000 sq. m of retail space, over 11,500 sq. m of residential space, and over 9,000 sq. m of office and other space. It was envisaged that the project would end up with a value of €400m. Planning was granted in late 2006, but once the Crown plant had been demolished, the developers discovered that the soil in the site was contaminated, and vast quantities had to be removed for treatment. Some foundations had been laid and concrete superstructures had been begun at the time of the financial crash.

In 2010 it was reported that Galway City Council were owed €2.1m in unpaid levies relating to the site, which at this point had transferred into the ownership of Padraic Rhattigan and Stephen Harris <ref> [http://connachttribune.ie/typo-could-cost-council-500-000-in-high-court-case/ The ''Connacht Tribune'', July 22 2010.] </ref>.

Following the cessation of work on the site, a particularly gifted Galway politician described the site as "a hole in the ground".

 
====Photos of the Mervue Hole in the Ground====
<gallery mode="packed-hover">
Image:Crown-2003.jpg | 2003
Image:Crown-2008.jpg | 2008
Image:MervueHole_8885.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8887.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8888.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8891.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8892.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8893.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueConcrete_8790.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8791.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8793.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8794.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8795.jpg | The abandoned structure
</gallery>

 

==='''References'''===
<references />

Holes

2018-03-15T19:25:40Z

Djewesbury: Updated details regarding the new Ulster University Belfast campus.

Holes are the negative space of the city.

A hole is necessarily dug before a building can be erected, as permanent structures need foundations sunk underground to lend them stability. A hole dug deep enough into the ground in an urban site sometimes reveals evidence of previous habitation, and information about the development of the city that serve to disrupt or undermine contemporary understandings of history. Looking deep into holes in the ground can help to call to mind the death of previous incarnations of the city, and to remind the viewer of the dirt and waste that is ordinarily made invisible in the city. Looking deep into holes in the ground can also induce a feeling of vertigo, or a desire to escape; or even a desire to be in a hole deep under the ground.

=== The new Belfast campus of Ulster University ===

[[File:UlsterUniBelfastHole.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | Ulster University's big hole in the ground.]]

Ulster University, formed when the New University of Ulster was merged with the Ulster Polytechnic in 1984, is building a new campus in the centre of Belfast. Courses currently located at its Jordanstown campus, a few miles north-east of the city, will move in when the development is complete. The new building will be on the site of the former Co-operative Stories building, also known as the Orpheus building, which was demolished between 2014 and 2016.

Building was delayed in 2016 because the foundations of the site, which is close to reclaimed land that were once the city's docks, flooded once they were dug. Several underground rivers flow in the area; the water table is also very high, and the local geology is composed of 'sleech', a shifting, waterlogged clay, which means that underground watercourses often change their route in unpredictable ways. Digging a hole in the ground can be a risky proposition in such conditions; most developers prefer not to plan extensive sub-floor levels accordingly.

As of March 2018, building has once again stopped as the main site contractors have gone into receivership. It is reported that the building, originally due to open in 2018, may now not open until 2022 <ref> [https://belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/future-of-belfasts-ulster-university-campus-hangs-in-balance-as-builder-considers-pulling-out-36656237.html The “Belfast Telegraph”, March 1 2018.] </ref> <ref> [https://www.newcivilengineer.com/business-culture/administrators-tell-200-lagan-construction-staff-to-stay-away/10028808.article “New Civil Engineer”, March 6 2018.] </ref>. As 200 construction workers were told to go home, lecturers at Ulster University stood on a picket line across the road, as part of a national strike against changes to their pensions <ref> [http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-43147137 BBC News online, February 21 2018.] </ref>.

=== The ''Trou des Halles'' ===

Marco Ferreri's 1974 film ''Touche Pas à la Femme Blanche'' (Don't Touch the White Woman) is a re-staging of the Battle of Little Big Horn ('Custer's Last Stand') in modern-day Paris. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli, much of the film was shot in a hole in the ground created by the demolition of the old markets at Les Halles and the subsequent deep excavation required for the creation of the Châtelet-Les Halles RER station. The hole was very quickly nicknamed the ''Trou des Halles'' or 'hole of the markets'. By using tight camera angles, Ferreri was able to use the steep, sandy banks of the hole to suggest the canyons of the American West. When he panned his camera up, the houses perched on the lip of the hole were revealed, much to the viewer's disorientation.

Images of the continual destruction that characterises the modern city were used by Ferreri to great dramatic effect; throughout the film the greed of the American railroad speculators, and their murderous desire to clear the land at all costs, can clearly be understood as an analogy for contemporary urban clearances. Moreover the casual brutality meted out to the Native Americans is made to stand as a parallel for the USA's involvement in Vietnam at the time of filming. Throughout the film, where reference is made to images of 'the President' (who at the time of the battle, 1876, would have been Ulysses S. Grant) an image of Richard M. Nixon is used.

[[File:Touchepasalafemmeblanche24.jpg | 350px | thumb | right | still from ''Don't Touch The White Woman'', dir. Marco Ferreri, 1974.]]
The ''Trou des Halles'', because of these constant references back and forth across almost exactly a century, comes to seem like a hole to which all the repressions of the city have been consigned, all the most brutal and degraded violent and sexual urges and desires, those things which structure and create the city, but which at all costs can never be acknowledged. Clearly a film very much influenced by Situationist critiques of the urban condition, ''Touche Pas'' integrates these with concerns that we could read in terms of Georges Bataille's understandings of 'base materialism'.

 

=== The 'hole in the ground' in Galway ===

[[File:MervueSign_8890.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | The sign advertising the doomed Crown Square / Crowne Plaza complex at Mervue, Galway, in the Republic of Ireland.]]

The suburb of Mervue lies to the north-east of Galway city. Like the rest of this side of the city beyond the N6 ring road, Mervue is a spatial chaos of retail parks, industrial estates, business units, and older and more recent housing developments. Along the Monivea Road in Mervue is a large development site on which no work has been done since 2008 <ref> [http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055609724? An Irish bulletin board discussion about the site, from 2007.] </ref>.

Between 1960 and 2006, the site was a factory making, amongst other things, pallet trucks <ref> [http://www.castlegar-galway.com/crown-control-mervue-galway An idiosyncratic local history website with a page about Crown.] </ref>. The factory was owned by Crown, a company headquartered in Ohio, who closed their Galway plant in 2006 and relocated to China <ref> [http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2005/0523/63463-jobs/ RTE news report.] </ref>.

Work begun on the site soon after the Crown plant closed, with ownership transferred to developers Stephen Harris, Walter King and Bernard McKeon and planning applications lodged in early 2006 <ref> [http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/permission-sought-for-400m-galway-scheme-1.1289805 The ''Irish Times'', March 29 2006.] </ref>. McKeown was a former planner for Galway City Council who went into property development during the boom years <ref> [http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/champagne-stopped-flowing-as-developers-luck-ran-dry-26754810.html The ''Irish Independent'', July 25 2011.] </ref>.

The original plans included over 26,000 sq. m of retail space, over 11,500 sq. m of residential space, and over 9,000 sq. m of office and other space. It was envisaged that the project would end up with a value of €400m. Planning was granted in late 2006, but once the Crown plant had been demolished, the developers discovered that the soil in the site was contaminated, and vast quantities had to be removed for treatment. Some foundations had been laid and concrete superstructures had been begun at the time of the financial crash.

In 2010 it was reported that Galway City Council were owed €2.1m in unpaid levies relating to the site, which at this point had transferred into the ownership of Padraic Rhattigan and Stephen Harris <ref> [http://connachttribune.ie/typo-could-cost-council-500-000-in-high-court-case/ The ''Connacht Tribune'', July 22 2010.] </ref>.

Following the cessation of work on the site, a particularly gifted Galway politician described the site as "a hole in the ground".

 
====Photos of the Mervue Hole in the Ground====
<gallery mode="packed-hover">
Image:Crown-2003.jpg | 2003
Image:Crown-2008.jpg | 2008
Image:MervueHole_8885.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8887.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8888.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8891.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8892.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8893.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueConcrete_8790.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8791.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8793.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8794.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8795.jpg | The abandoned structure
</gallery>

 

==='''References'''===
<references />

Barriers to entry

2016-11-23T13:22:02Z

Djewesbury: Just tidied up the heading and the italics.. Daniel

===FISCAL COMPACT ARTICLE 3===

''The Contracting Parties shall apply the rules set out in this paragraph in addition and without prejudice to their obligations under European Union law: (a) the budgetary position of the general government of a Contracting Party shall be balanced or in surplus; (b) the rule under point (a) shall be deemed to be respected if the annual structural balance of the general government is at its country-specific medium-term objective, as defined in the revised Stability and Growth Pact, with a lower limit of a structural deficit of 0,5 % of the gross domestic product at market prices. The Contracting Parties shall ensure rapid convergence towards their respective medium-term objective. The time-frame for such convergence will be proposed by the European Commission taking into consideration country-specific sustainability risks. Progress towards, and respect of, the medium-term objective shall be evaluated on the basis of an overall assessment with the structural balance as a reference, including an analysis of expenditure net of discretionary revenue measures, in line with the revised Stability and Growth Pact.''

The above text is a segment from the EU Fiscal Compact Treaty that relates to governments' ability to use revenue for investment in social projects such as the building of social housing, roads, rail, renewable energy or basically any initiative that would seek to use public funds for social infrastructure. States are prevented from pursuing such projects if their overall debt to GDP ratio is above 60%. What this means in real terms is that despite the fact that financial resources exist to deal with critical issues such as the housing shortages, states are prevented from doing so.

Homelessness is on the rise as hotels and houses sit idle, boarded up, serving no immediate purpose. For example as of November 2016, 59 vacant properties exist in Galway City yet approximately 64 families are in emergency accommodation and rising, the State's hands seemingly tied, the lack of political leadership to marry existing resources with needs, cowering before the majesty of the market. In theories of competition in economics, a barrier to entry, is a cost that must be incurred by a new entrant into a market that incumbents don't have or haven't had to incur. Ironically the economic system that has been constructed acts as a literal barrier to entry for people seeking accommodation."Page text. <ref>[http://example.org Example.org], more text.</ref>

[[File:250h1098782.jpg]] [[File:2 houses.jpg]]

Pictured is the foster court hotel which is based in Galway city centre which lays empty while people are forced to sleep rough on the street outside. The second picture is of two boarded up social homes in Galway city

[[File:3000.jpg]]The emergence of "anti homeless spikes" has been one rather brutal way that urban planners have innovated in which public spaces are constructed or altered to discourage people from using them in a way not intended by the owner. Sloped benches and window cills or benches with armrests on top that prevent people from lying down are another example.

This is also know as hostile architecture or defensive architecture, a development that sets out to deal with symptoms rather than the cure. Another example is the omission of high pitched tones which are only audible to young people, which act to discourage groups of youths from loitering in specific areas. Critics of hostile architecture argue that it replaces public spaces with commercial or "pseudo-public" spaces and uses architecture "to enforce social divisions".

Holes

2016-11-16T21:15:15Z

Djewesbury:

Holes are the negative space of the city.

A hole is necessarily dug before a building can be erected, as permanent structures need foundations sunk underground to lend them stability. A hole dug deep enough into the ground in an urban site sometimes reveals evidence of previous habitation, and information about the development of the city that serve to disrupt or undermine contemporary understandings of history. Looking deep into holes in the ground can help to call to mind the death of previous incarnations of the city, and to remind the viewer of the dirt and waste that is ordinarily made invisible in the city. Looking deep into holes in the ground can also induce a feeling of vertigo, or a desire to escape; or even a desire to be in a hole deep under the ground.

=== The new Belfast campus of Ulster University ===

[[File:UlsterUniBelfastHole.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | Ulster University's big hole in the ground.]]

Ulster University, formed when the New University of Ulster was merged with the Ulster Polytechnic in 1984, is building a new campus in the centre of Belfast. Courses currently located at its Jordanstown campus, a few miles north-east of the city, will move in when the development is complete. The new building will be on the site of the former Co-operative Stories building, also known as the Orpheus building, which was demolished between 2014 and 2016.

Building has been delayed because the foundations of the site, which is close to reclaimed land that were once the city's docks, flooded once they were dug. Several underground rivers flow in the area; the water table is also very high, and the local geology is composed of 'sleech', a shifting, waterlogged clay, which means that underground watercourses often change their route in unpredictable ways. Digging a hole in the ground can be a risky proposition in such conditions; most developers prefer not to plan extensive sub-floor levels accordingly.

=== The ''Trou des Halles'' ===

Marco Ferreri's 1974 film ''Touche Pas à la Femme Blanche'' (Don't Touch the White Woman) is a re-staging of the Battle of Little Big Horn ('Custer's Last Stand') in modern-day Paris. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli, much of the film was shot in a hole in the ground created by the demolition of the old markets at Les Halles and the subsequent deep excavation required for the creation of the Châtelet-Les Halles RER station. The hole was very quickly nicknamed the ''Trou des Halles'' or 'hole of the markets'. By using tight camera angles, Ferreri was able to use the steep, sandy banks of the hole to suggest the canyons of the American West. When he panned his camera up, the houses perched on the lip of the hole were revealed, much to the viewer's disorientation.

Images of the continual destruction that characterises the modern city were used by Ferreri to great dramatic effect; throughout the film the greed of the American railroad speculators, and their murderous desire to clear the land at all costs, can clearly be understood as an analogy for contemporary urban clearances. Moreover the casual brutality meted out to the Native Americans is made to stand as a parallel for the USA's involvement in Vietnam at the time of filming. Throughout the film, where reference is made to images of 'the President' (who at the time of the battle, 1876, would have been Ulysses S. Grant) an image of Richard M. Nixon is used.

[[File:Touchepasalafemmeblanche24.jpg | 350px | thumb | right | still from ''Don't Touch The White Woman'', dir. Marco Ferreri, 1974.]]
The ''Trou des Halles'', because of these constant references back and forth across almost exactly a century, comes to seem like a hole to which all the repressions of the city have been consigned, all the most brutal and degraded violent and sexual urges and desires, those things which structure and create the city, but which at all costs can never be acknowledged. Clearly a film very much influenced by Situationist critiques of the urban condition, ''Touche Pas'' integrates these with concerns that we could read in terms of Georges Bataille's understandings of 'base materialism'.

 

=== The 'hole in the ground' in Galway ===

[[File:MervueSign_8890.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | The sign advertising the doomed Crown Square / Crowne Plaza complex at Mervue, Galway, in the Republic of Ireland.]]

The suburb of Mervue lies to the north-east of Galway city. Like the rest of this side of the city beyond the N6 ring road, Mervue is a spatial chaos of retail parks, industrial estates, business units, and older and more recent housing developments. Along the Monivea Road in Mervue is a large development site on which no work has been done since 2008 <ref> [http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055609724? An Irish bulletin board discussion about the site, from 2007.] </ref>.

Between 1960 and 2006, the site was a factory making, amongst other things, pallet trucks <ref> [http://www.castlegar-galway.com/crown-control-mervue-galway An idiosyncratic local history website with a page about Crown.] </ref>. The factory was owned by Crown, a company headquartered in Ohio, who closed their Galway plant in 2006 and relocated to China <ref> [http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2005/0523/63463-jobs/ RTE news report.] </ref>.

Work begun on the site soon after the Crown plant closed, with ownership transferred to developers Stephen Harris, Walter King and Bernard McKeon and planning applications lodged in early 2006 <ref> [http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/permission-sought-for-400m-galway-scheme-1.1289805 The ''Irish Times'', March 29 2006.] </ref>. McKeown was a former planner for Galway City Council who went into property development during the boom years <ref> [http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/champagne-stopped-flowing-as-developers-luck-ran-dry-26754810.html The ''Irish Independent'', July 25 2011.] </ref>.

The original plans included over 26,000 sq. m of retail space, over 11,500 sq. m of residential space, and over 9,000 sq. m of office and other space. It was envisaged that the project would end up with a value of €400m. Planning was granted in late 2006, but once the Crown plant had been demolished, the developers discovered that the soil in the site was contaminated, and vast quantities had to be removed for treatment. Some foundations had been laid and concrete superstructures had been begun at the time of the financial crash.

In 2010 it was reported that Galway City Council were owed €2.1m in unpaid levies relating to the site, which at this point had transferred into the ownership of Padraic Rhattigan and Stephen Harris <ref> [http://connachttribune.ie/typo-could-cost-council-500-000-in-high-court-case/ The ''Connacht Tribune'', July 22 2010.] </ref>.

Following the cessation of work on the site, a particularly gifted Galway politician described the site as "a hole in the ground".

 
====Photos of the Mervue Hole in the Ground====
<gallery mode="packed-hover">
Image:Crown-2003.jpg | 2003
Image:Crown-2008.jpg | 2008
Image:MervueHole_8885.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8887.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8888.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8891.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8892.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8893.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueConcrete_8790.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8791.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8793.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8794.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8795.jpg | The abandoned structure
</gallery>

 

==='''References'''===
<references />

Holes

2016-11-16T13:28:49Z

Djewesbury:

Holes are the negative space of the city.

A hole is necessarily dug before a building can be erected, as permanent structures need foundations sunk underground to lend them stability. A hole dug deep enough into the ground in an urban site sometimes reveals evidence of previous habitation, and information about the development of the city that serve to disrupt or undermine contemporary understandings of history. Looking deep into holes in the ground can help to call to mind the death of previous incarnations of the city, and to remind the viewer of the dirt and waste that is ordinarily made invisible in the city. Looking deep into holes in the ground can also induce a feeling of vertigo, or a desire to escape; or even a desire to be in a hole deep under the ground.

=== The new Belfast campus of Ulster University ===

[[File:UlsterUniBelfastHole.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | Ulster University's big hole in the ground.]]

Ulster University, formed when the New University of Ulster was merged with the Ulster Polytechnic in 1984, is building a new campus in the centre of Belfast. Courses currently located at its Jordanstown campus, a few miles north-east of the city, will move in when the development is complete. The new building will be on the site of the former Co-operative Stories building, also known as the Orpheus building, which was demolished between 2014 and 2016.

Building has been delayed because the foundations of the site, which is close to reclaimed land that were once the city's docks, flooded once they were dug. Several underground rivers flow in the area; the water table is also very high, and the local geology is composed of 'speech', a shifting, waterlogged clay, which means that underground watercourses often change their route in unpredictable ways. Digging a hole in the ground can be a risky proposition in such conditions; most developers prefer not to plan extensive sub-floor levels accordingly.

=== The ''Trou des Halles'' ===

Marco Ferreri's 1974 film ''Touche Pas à la Femme Blanche'' (Don't Touch the White Woman) is a re-staging of the Battle of Little Big Horn ('Custer's Last Stand') in modern-day Paris. Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Michel Piccoli, much of the film was shot in a hole in the ground created by the demolition of the old markets at Les Halles and the subsequent deep excavation required for the creation of the Châtelet-Les Halles RER station. The hole was very quickly nicknamed the ''Trou des Halles'' or 'hole of the markets'. By using tight camera angles, Ferreri was able to use the steep, sandy banks of the hole to suggest the canyons of the American West. When he panned his camera up, the houses perched on the lip of the hole were revealed, much to the viewer's disorientation.

Images of the continual destruction that characterises the modern city were used by Ferreri to great dramatic effect; throughout the film the greed of the American railroad speculators, and their murderous desire to clear the land at all costs, can clearly be understood as an analogy for contemporary urban clearances. Moreover the casual brutality meted out to the Native Americans is made to stand as a parallel for the USA's involvement in Vietnam at the time of filming. Throughout the film, where reference is made to images of 'the President' (who at the time of the battle, 1876, would have been Ulysses S. Grant) an image of Richard M. Nixon is used.

[[File:Touchepasalafemmeblanche24.jpg | 350px | thumb | right | still from ''Don't Touch The White Woman'', dir. Marco Ferreri, 1974.]]
The ''Trou des Halles'', because of these constant references back and forth across almost exactly a century, comes to seem like a hole to which all the repressions of the city have been consigned, all the most brutal and degraded violent and sexual urges and desires, those things which structure and create the city, but which at all costs can never be acknowledged. Clearly a film very much influenced by Situationist critiques of the urban condition, ''Touche Pas'' integrates these with concerns that we could read in terms of Georges Bataille's understandings of 'base materialism'.

 

=== The 'hole in the ground' in Galway ===

[[File:MervueSign_8890.jpg | 300px | thumb | left | The sign advertising the doomed Crown Square / Crowne Plaza complex at Mervue, Galway, in the Republic of Ireland.]]

The suburb of Mervue lies to the north-east of Galway city. Like the rest of this side of the city beyond the N6 ring road, Mervue is a spatial chaos of retail parks, industrial estates, business units, and older and more recent housing developments. Along the Monivea Road in Mervue is a large development site on which no work has been done since 2008 <ref> [http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055609724? An Irish bulletin board discussion about the site, from 2007.] </ref>.

Between 1960 and 2006, the site was a factory making, amongst other things, pallet trucks <ref> [http://www.castlegar-galway.com/crown-control-mervue-galway An idiosyncratic local history website with a page about Crown.] </ref>. The factory was owned by Crown, a company headquartered in Ohio, who closed their Galway plant in 2006 and relocated to China <ref> [http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2005/0523/63463-jobs/ RTE news report.] </ref>.

Work begun on the site soon after the Crown plant closed, with ownership transferred to developers Stephen Harris, Walter King and Bernard McKeon and planning applications lodged in early 2006 <ref> [http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/permission-sought-for-400m-galway-scheme-1.1289805 The ''Irish Times'', March 29 2006.] </ref>. McKeown was a former planner for Galway City Council who went into property development during the boom years <ref> [http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/champagne-stopped-flowing-as-developers-luck-ran-dry-26754810.html The ''Irish Independent'', July 25 2011.] </ref>.

The original plans included over 26,000 sq. m of retail space, over 11,500 sq. m of residential space, and over 9,000 sq. m of office and other space. It was envisaged that the project would end up with a value of €400m. Planning was granted in late 2006, but once the Crown plant had been demolished, the developers discovered that the soil in the site was contaminated, and vast quantities had to be removed for treatment. Some foundations had been laid and concrete superstructures had been begun at the time of the financial crash.

In 2010 it was reported that Galway City Council were owed €2.1m in unpaid levies relating to the site, which at this point had transferred into the ownership of Padraic Rhattigan and Stephen Harris <ref> [http://connachttribune.ie/typo-could-cost-council-500-000-in-high-court-case/ The ''Connacht Tribune'', July 22 2010.] </ref>.

Following the cessation of work on the site, a particularly gifted Galway politician described the site as "a hole in the ground".

 
====Photos of the Mervue Hole in the Ground====
<gallery mode="packed-hover">
Image:Crown-2003.jpg | 2003
Image:Crown-2008.jpg | 2008
Image:MervueHole_8885.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8887.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8888.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8891.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8892.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueHole_8893.jpg | The hole
Image:MervueConcrete_8790.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8791.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8793.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8794.jpg | The abandoned structure
Image:MervueConcrete_8795.jpg | The abandoned structure
</gallery>

 

==='''References'''===
<references />

File:Crown-2008.jpg

2016-11-16T12:43:04Z

Djewesbury: The site of the Crown plant at Mervue, Galway, two years after its demolition. Image from Google Earth.

The site of the Crown plant at Mervue, Galway, two years after its demolition. Image from Google Earth.

File:Crown-2003.jpg

2016-11-16T12:42:21Z

Djewesbury: The Crown plant at Mervue, Galway, in 2003, three years before its demolition. Photo from Google Maps.

The Crown plant at Mervue, Galway, in 2003, three years before its demolition. Photo from Google Maps.

Holes

2016-11-15T14:43:24Z

Djewesbury:

File:MervueHole 8893.jpg

2016-11-11T11:10:51Z