The Architectural Year Reviewed: The AAI and RIAI Awards

Irish Arts Review

The Architectural Year Reviewed: The AAI and RIAI AwardsAuthor(s): Peter MurraySource: Irish Arts Review Yearbook, Vol. 13 (1997), pp. 24-31Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20492932 .

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THE ARCHITECTURAL YEAR REVIEWED: THE AAI AND RIAT AWARDS

T he Architectural Association of Ireland celebrates its one hundredth anniversary this

year. Founded in the Stag's Head pub

in 1896 by a group of architects frus

trated at the lack of teaching facili

ties in Dublin, the AAI was set up

principally to train voung architects, a role that has since been taken over by two schools of architec

ture: at University College Dublin and Bolton Street College of Technology. Since its inception, the AAI has always adopted a different, and perhaps more lively, mandate than the RIAI - the

Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland - but rivalries that one

might expect between the two organisations seem remarkably absent. Both have annual exhibi

tions and awards for outstanding

recent architecture: the RIAI Regional Awards and the AAI New

Irish Architecture Awards, founded in 1986. The exhibitions afford an

opportunity to take a glimpse at

recent trends in Irish architecture. (Projects included in the exhibi tions are highlighted).

Temple Bar in Dublin and its

environs have seen a substantial

investment of State and European aid over the past five years, result

ing in the creation of an area of

converted warehouses and recob bled streets. It is an area much traf

ficked by members of both the AAI

and the Institute in recent years.

One can scarcely turn a corner

without bumping into an architect, elegantly decked out with steel rimmed spectacles and charcoal grey suit, scrutinising some fenes tration or ruminating on a street

frontage. They are works of art in themselves, these architects, entirely worthy of awards for simply existing. But the AAI and

RIAI laurels are for the moment reserved for their no less ele gant designs. Two new cultural developments in Temple Bar shared the AAI top award in 1996 and each also received an RIAI award: The Ark - A Cultural Centre for Children (Group 91 Architects/Shane O'Toole and Michael Kelly) and the Black Church Print Studios. The Ark is a pleasure to behold, particu

larly its distinguished original 1725 brick frontage onto Eustace Street. The facade on the other side, facing Meeting House

Square, is purely modern and con tains a large folding door of startling

originality ... well, startling unless you are well versed in architectural

history in which case you would realise immediately that it is based on

the famous warehouse door at

Coesfeld-Lette (yes, that one). but with modifications suggested by Santiago Calatrava. The Ark receives praise from those people who use it, a quality often under-rated in the determining of architectural awards. Sharing the AAI Downes medal is the Black Church Print Studios,

designed by architects McCullough Mulvin. One could be forgiven for getting somewhat confused, but a simple rule of thumb is that more or

less everything built in Temple Bar in the past couple of years seems to

have received some award. Two

substantial projects left out in the AAI exhibition are rescued by the RIAI: the curiously depressing Temple Bar Square (Group 91

Grafton Architects) and the Granary Apartments in Temple

Lane, a warehouse beautifully con

verted by Peter Twamley Architects.

Cynics might say that a rash of

award-winning architecture is bound to result if you select a rela

tively small area of the capital city,

bounded by Trinity College, City Hall, O'Connell Bridge, and the Four Courts, and invest ?45 million

in urban renewal. Indeed, to those

unaware of the dismal and unimagi

native approach to city planning

that characterised the city of

Dublin through most of the post war decades. it might seem nuzzling

that such a prime piece of real estate should have needed state intervention in the first place. However, there is little doubt that

Temple Bar has transformed perceptions throughout Ireland of what quality urban planning can achieve. The creation of

Meeting House Square at the centre of Temple Bar, a totally new urban space bounded by the Ark, The Gallery of

Photography and the National Archive of Photography is one of

the most outstanding examples of urban planning in Europe in recent years. The rest of Ireland is by no means devoid of similar

revitalisations, with Galway and Kilkenny being perhaps the

Peter Murray assesses the

merits of some recent buildings by

Irish architects

2. MCCULLAGH MULVIN ARCHITECTS: Black Church Print Studios. Joint winner (with The Ark) of the AAI Downes Bronze Medal,

the building 'aims to repair a piece of street by filling in a vacant lot in the dense network of buildings and streets'.

1. (Opposite) GROUP 91 ARCHITECTS: The Ark -a Cultural Centre for Children. Joint winner (with the Black Church Print Studios) of the AAI Downes Bronze Medal, the facade onto Meeting House Square has doors that can be opened to create a raised stage for outdoor performances in which The Ark's theatre becomes a stage to the

Square's auditorium.

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW



THE ARCHITECTURAL YEAR REVIEWED

3. M V CULLINAN: Four Houses, Rahoon, Galway. Winner of awards from both the RIAI and the AAI. A unique, modestly -treated, group of houses with appropriate use of

traditional materials: a highlight in an otherwise sprawling residential area.

most outstanding in terms of sensible traffic management, pedestrianisation and respect for the historic streetscapes.

A more enlightened approach to urban planning is certainly

overdue. At the core of Temple Bar, and overshadowing Dame Street, sits the brooding monolithic presence of the Central Bank (architect Sam Stephenson), one of several office blocks built in the 1970's - the 'Miesian' Allied Irish Bank on Baggot

Street by Ronald Tallon is another - that seemed ready to race

up forty stories or more, but remained earthbound, tethered by officialdom to conformity to the mainly Georgian city skyline. After years of wrangling between its owners and the city plan

ners, who took grave exception to their height limit being exceeded by thirty feet, the Central Bank has been recently embellished with a new copper roof. These two distinguished office blocks stand out amidst scores of others around Dublin

city centre that would be forgettable were they not so memo

rable, both for their ugliness and for their stark contrast to the

graceful Georgian terraces that were so often demolished to make room for them from the 1960's onwards.

Much time and thought has been devoted over the past five

years in trying to subdue other squat, brooding, and powerful buildings, many of them by Sam Stephenson. Just south of

Stephen's Green, a hilarious cream stone skirt has been stitched

onto the first storey of his Teach Earlsfort, which now looks

like it has dropped its knickers, while perhaps his most contro versial building, the twin giant bunkers of Dublin Corporation's Civic Offices (1985) have recently been screened off with clini cal efficiency by Scott Tallon Walker's Civic Offices Phase II

(AAI award 1996), which provides a crisp and distinguished

5. (Opposite) Adrian MITCHELL (ESBI Building Consulting Group): Ardnacrusha Control Building, Co Clare. Winner of an AAI award, the new building is dramati

cally sited above the pool below the dam: a highly-imaginative solution with a superb use of materials and form.

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW




27 IRISH ARTS REVIEW




4. David HUGHES (Iamrod Eireann Architects): Dundalk Freight Depot. Winner of awards from both the RIAI and the AAI. Tempered with humour and a touch of style, this aluminium and steel build

ing provides visual interest in an industrial setting.

6. TAYLOR PARTNERSHIP: Galway RTC, Castlebar. Winner of an AAI award, the designs are psychedel ic enough to suggest the architects may have stumbled onto a hidden cache of valium in their survey

ing of this former psychiatric hospital.

facade to the Liffey Quays, while sanitising and deodorising Stephenson's powerful architectural masses behind. Stephenson's architecture approached greatness because it adhered so closely to the basic rule of Modernism, of form fol

lowing function. The original Civic Offices resembled, and were in some ways, the medieval headquarters of an embattled patri

archical administration, living in daily fear of the

siege towers of accountability, probity and Frank McDonald, campaigning environmental corre spondent of the Irish Times.

The new friendly face of Dublin Corporation is

symptomatic of a new spirit, of window-dressing

at least. Fuelled by international statistics that

demonstrate the economic sense of preserving the architectural heritage and promoting cultural pro jects, a better-educated business community and civil service has now adopted a more enlightened

approach to conservation and sensitive urban

infill. Bachelors Walk, one of the more important

of the Liffey Quays, is an interesting case in point.

At first glance, it is an example of sensitive infill,

replicating the varied rooflines and facades of the 18th century houses that were cleared to make

way for this giant new apartment development.

However, it is in fact a pastiche, and has been

severely criticised for hiding the mundane reality of its design behind a mock-Georgian facade that

doubtless meets with general public approval. On

the plus side, it is becoming rarer for good 18th

century houses to be demolished, and several fine

examples in Dublin have been restored in recent

years. This approach has been reflected in the

AAI exhibition, which tears itself away briefly from cultural projects in Temple Bar area to give

an award to the conversion (by Gilroy McMahon

and the Office of Public Works) of Collins

Barracks into a new home for the National

Museum of Ireland. Reviewing the remaining entries in both exhi

bitions is revealing. Several fine small house in

and around Dublin (by Derek Tynan, O'Muire

Smyth, O'Donnell and Tuomey) receive AAI

Special Mentions. Outside Dublin not much

happens. A mention is given to a design for a

small back garden in Cork by Tom de Paor,

whose drawings are a work of art in themselves.

The West fares somewhat better in the AAI

show, with four small local authority houses in

Galway by MV Cullinan) receiving Special

Mentions, (they fared better with the RIAI, who

gave them an award). Cullinan's apartment in

the Liberties followed the same path, receiving an AAI Special Mention and an RIAI Award. A

small museum at Mellifont Abbey (by McGarry

ni Eanaigh) repeats this pattern, receiving an AAI Special

Mention and an RIAI Award. (It should be perhaps mentioned

that the RIAI simply have more awards to hand out). The only

AAI award for a building outside Dublin goes to a very jolly

metal hut beside the railway tracks at Dundalk Freight Depot,

designed by David Hughes and evoking memories of Raymond

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW




7. DUBLIN CoRPORATioN CIT ARCHITECTS: Bride Street housing. One of several new public housing schemes to win an AAI award, this scheme situated in the heart of Swift's Dublin, has roundel reliefs of scenes from Guffiver's Travels.

Loewy, Flying Fortresses and Zippo lighters. It functions appar ently as the gatehouse to a freight yard.

There is no reason to assume that the AAI or RIAI judges

particularly favour the capital city. Their assessment is a fair

reflection of reality. In the Southern Region, the RIAI could only find three projects worthy of inclusion. Reflecting the state of the nation, two of them are courthouses: Richard Morrison's

1801 Clonmel Courthouse, restored by Deaton Lysaght and Cork District Courthouse, which occupies the Cork Model School building, converted by the Office of Public Works. Andrea Wejchert's Student Centre at UCC was also featured, but did not receive an award, which it deserves. RIAI Awards

did go to the restoration by Timothy Foley of the Gothic

Memorial Chapel at Kylemore Abbey and the copper-clad can tilevered Ardnacrusha Control Room which occupies a precipi tous location, stuck onto the side of the turbine hall of this

hydroelectric generating station. In the RIAI exhibition, the West presents with pride a new

and excellent halting site for travellers at Bawney's Bridge Co. Limerick, a 'giant-sized' house in Milcoon Co. Galway, and a

small architect's studio in Co Clare, designed by Brian Grubb, for Brian Grubb. Mr Grubb's clever use of four glass bricks to

provide cottage-style interior window lights to his Glenstall Abbey School extension is a delight. Long-overdue govemment investment in Regional Technical Colleges nationwide brings several RTCs to the fore. The Taylor Partnership designs for

Galway RTC are psychedelic enough to suggest the architects may have stumbled onto a hidden cache of Valium in their sur

veying of this former psychiatric hospital, while commendable economy and restraint is shown in Murray O'Laoire's design for

the Limerick RTC. The RIAI Northern Region touches on three buildings in

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW




LA a~~~~~~~

8. GILRoY MCMAHON ARCHITECrS and the OFFICE OF PUBLIC WORKS: The Naional Museum at Collins Barracks. Winner of an AAI award, the scheme is to convert, and link, two wings of the 18th century parade ground for use by the Museum. The two

link buildings, which face the Liffey, are clad in sand-blasted glass.

BUS EIREANN 4u -u gae -Iinn

9. GILROY MCMAHoN ARCHITECTS: Croke Park.Winner of an RIAI award, the Cusack Stand is the first phase of a redevelopment of Croke Park. The consider

able mass of the structure has been broken down in an elegant manner using a series of layers.

Belfast: the award-winning St. Brigid's Church and a nursery

school, both by Kennedy Fitzgerald, and a fumiture showroom by Roger McMichael. However there is much more happening in Belfast than is represented here. Featured in the Eastern

Region, the circular boardroom of Avonmore Corporate Headquarters by John Thompson and Partners reveals them to be true Trekkies, a theme carried through in O'Caoimh Sheehan's car showrooms for Nissan Windsor Herbert on the Old Bray Road which appears to have just landed and is about to kidnap cars and replace them with Japanese imports.

The Dublin entries featured in the RIAI exhibition are embarrassingly numerous. Awards went to Grafton Architects' Department of Engineering and Moloney O'Beime's remodelled Aras an Phiarsaigh, both shoe-horned into an increasingly cramped Trinity College campus. An RIAI Award also went to the first phase of the redevelopment by Gilroy McMahon of

Croke Park football stadium, a project so awesome, one hesi tates to imagine what the next phases will bring. Featured also

are several public housing projects: on Gardiner Street (Una Sugrue and M V Cullinan), Bride Street (Dublin Corporation), and Co-operative Housing at Allingham Street by Gerry Cahill

Architects. A private apartment development has transformed the old Malt House on Grand Canal Quay (T J Cullen

Architects) while the restoration of Great Ship Street barracks by the Office of Public Works will no doubt be much in demand

by film makers in pursuit of good period locations.

The exhibitions are instructive in other ways. Going back ten

years, it is illuminating to see that the first AAI New Irish

Architecture exhibition in 1986, Derek Tynan, Sheila O'Donnell, Shane O'Toole and John Tuomey were also fea

tured, and it is evident that over the past decade the AAI in

particular has pursued a fairly rigorous line with regard to

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IRISH ARTS REVIEW




10. MOLONEY O'BEIRNE & PARTNERS: Aras an Phiarsaigh, Dublin. Winner of an RIAI award, the architects have skilfully camouflaged an ugly 1970s office block and at the same time realigned the facade along Pearse Street.

identifying those architects who speak its language, and those who don't. The AAI language is based fairly closely on the Modemist movement: windows are generally steel-framed and disposed on the facades of the buildings so as to evoke, say, the abstract paintings of Mondrian. A machine-like finish is favoured, as is the use of concrete, both raw and painted. Lettering, when it is used, is sans-serif. There is a clear, unfussy feel about this architecture. It is essentially a Northern European style, inspired by Mies van der Rohe, Gerrit Rietveld and Alvar Aalto, coming to Ireland in much the same way as

the Northem European Renaissance brought Georgian archi tecture to these shores three centuries ago.

It is a style of architecture that is also making significant inroads into more mainstream commercial architecture, as shown for instance in Roddy Mannion's Galway Docks Development, which is featured in the RIAI exhibition. Over

the years, the RIAI Regional Awards exhibition has tended to be more inclusive than the AAI, to represent a broader range of contemporary architectural practice in Ireland. But with the increase in overall quality of new buildings in Ireland, the dif ference is becoming marginal, and the cross-over between the two different awards and exhibitions is now so complete as to suggest they would be better off amalgamating and pooling their resources, so as to advance the profession in a more structured way. Both exhibitions reflect a level of excellence which has been achieved in a country (as the RIAI's president, David Keane, reminds us) where no professional qualification is required and where any aspiring Sullivan or Kahn can stick up a brass plate and announce him, or her-self as an architect

open for business - a state of affairs greatly bemoaned with jus

tification by those architects who have spent years acquiring their professional qualifications.

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The Architectural Year Reviewed: The AAI and RIAI Awards

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