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Tracings Volume 2 - Sinead Bourke
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In a similar vein Dr Mark Sheils provides an interesting contribution to the discussion by offering us a glimpse of the city as a stranger when he discusses the grafting of past cityscapes onto the modern city through the process of filming on location. Dr Sheils looks to the city's marginal sites for indicators of its true character. This strikes a chord with Grainne Hassett's article 'Edge City' where she views the city's margins as an indicator in a different sense. She looks at the city's dispersed edge as an accurate expression of the relationship between today's city and today's citizen through her seemingly distant, yet astute, observations.

A lateral perspective is provided by the inclusion of articles from both Elizabeth Hatz and Yvonne Scott. These articles review the work of artists Wilhelm Hammershoi and Michael Kane respectively. As with Aoibheann N� Mhear�in's analysis of 'Paradise' these articles may not initially seem relevant to the relationship between the citizen and the city. However these articles call into question our perception of space from the very still moments as demonstrated by Elizabeth Hatz to the hectic world of Michael Kane as outlined by Yvonne Scott.

Many of the remaining articles offer further insights and observations. They are in general open observations, no school of thought is implied and no hidden agendas are apparent. Only one or two could be accused of being self serving, providing only the author's own work as examples of urban cohesion without any thorough discussion of the theories behind these solutions. One could be forgiven for initially assuming that this volume would be an in-house affair as it has been published by the School of Architecture UCD, however over half the contributions are provided by those from outside UCD. There has clearly been an attempt on the part of the editorial board to maintain a wide scope in the discussion- the articles are varied, ranging from the contemporary idealistic to the traditional, however a small number of contributions do seem to be peripheral to the discussion.

This volume is a forum for discussion and the overall impression is one of seeking. This volume does not profess to provide answers and none are provided. What it does give the reader however are fresh viewpoints and insights. No doubt, the aim of this series is to expand our sense of awareness of the built environment to hopefully inform and bring about a better quality environment. This series has started a much needed process, one which needs to be extended however to make its presence more felt outside the realm of architecture. Should contributions be included from sectors of the community actually building the built environment, as well as from those affected by it, a more palpable and no doubt valid discussion would ensue.