Irish Architecture News

2009 Irish Landscape Institute Awards

Paul Clerkin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:50:44 +0000

The winners of the 2009 Irish Landscape Institute Awards were announced last week at City Hall, with Minister John Gormley in attendance. The ILI awards celebrate excellence in design of the Public Realm, design of Commercial, Institutional and Residential landscape schemes, Landscape Planning, Heritage Conservation and Landscape Research. At the event, Minister John Gormley made specific [...]

Feilden Clegg Bradley lecture in Galway

Paul Clerkin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:05:34 +0000

RIAI West in association with the Irish Planning Institute are delighted to host a lecture in Galway by Keith Bradley of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, urban designers and architects behind the 2008 RIBA Stirling Prize winning residential development, Accordia in Cambridge, this Tuesday 17th November at 8.00pm in the g Hotel, Galway. Places are limited [...]

University of Ulster honours Daniel Libeskind

Paul Clerkin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:43:15 +0000

Daniel Libeskind, one of the world’s leading architects, today received an honorary degree from the University of Ulster. The award was conferred at a special ceremony in the University’s Belfast campus today. Mr Libeskind – who last year launched the University’s Real Estate Initative –made a special visit to the city, where he also delivered [...]

State demands steep cut in fees from architects

Paul Clerkin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:37:25 +0000

Already floudering from the downturn, architects are coming under severe pressure from State agencies, whose remit to shave costs and cut back on expenditure is being felt across both the construction industry and the architectural profession. Take the tenders for the new Childrens’ Hospital in Dublin, already trailing a saga of cynicism over its location. In [...]

Canal plan spoils our view says Guinness

admin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:53:58 +0000

Guinness bosses have come out against a planned major office, hotel and apartment complex because it could obscure views from the Storehouse Gravity Bar. The developers have been told to go back to the drawing board by Dublin City Council after questions were raised over the height and bulk of the scheme. In its submission [...]

Councillors reject Dunne’s new plan for Ballsbridge site

Paul Clerkin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:11:34 +0000

Dublin City councillors have again rejected developer Seán Dunne’s plans to redevelop the site of the former Jurys and Berkeley Court hotels in Ballsbridge, which he bought for €450 million four years ago. Councillors unanimously recommended that city planners refuse Mr Dunne’s application even though he had significantly scaled back his original plans for the [...]

Young Irish architecture firm TAKA win International Brick Award

admin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:25:11 +0000

Young Irish architectural practice TAKA have won the ‘Best International Project’ award at this year’s BDA Brick Awards for their project ‘House 1 + House 2′. The prestigious awards, which recognise the best use of brick in architecture were held in Grosvenor Square, London last Thursday. The two houses in Donnybrook, Dublin beat off competition [...]

Small is beautiful as architect owner opts for simplicity

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:21:12 +0000

When architect Emmet Scanlon bought his 1930s Dublin house, its vendor, Maureen Bolger, wistfully said: “I presume you’ll come in and knock everything down and build a big extension.” If, and when, she returns for a look-see at the recently finished make-over at her old family home of decades past, she may be favourably surprised: [...]

Sky’s the limit

Paul Clerkin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:09:09 +0000

In part of the video for Phil Lynott’s Old Town, the singer is standing in a boat on the Liffey near where the East Link Bridge is today. To the left of shot, as Philo bobbles from side to side, narrating the story of a boy and a girl, a Guinness ships sits anchored beside [...]

Drama in the docklands: a new theatre takes shape

Paul Clerkin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:54:38 +0000

Dubliners and everyone else in Ireland, are in for a real surprise when the Grand Canal Theatre at Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2, finally opens its doors on St Patrick’s Day next March with the Russian State Ballet’s production of Swan Lake . At a glance, they’ll see an auditorium that’s twice the size of [...]

Box in the docks reopens after four years

Paul Clerkin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:51:06 +0000

When the OPW built the Box in the Docks – or to give it its official title, the Waterways Visitors Centre – back in the mid 1990s, there’s wasn’t a whole lot going on down in that part of Dublin’s docklands. The white cube-shaped building, accessed via a wooden “gangplank” and built on stilts in the [...]

Opus Awards: design is good for the bottom line

Paul Clerkin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:40:20 +0000

Buildings that fit well into their surroundings and have made the most of awkward sites dominate those which have won awards this year in the 10th annual Opus Architecture and Construction Awards. Each is also a striking building, including Cork County Library by Shay Cleary Architects and BAM Contracting which the judges said “responds to [...]

Grafton Architects talk in the National Gallery

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:34:11 +0000

A talk by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects will take place in the National Gallery of Ireland on Thursday 12 November at 6.30pm. The architects will discuss their design for Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan which won them the ‘World Best Building’ Award in 2008, as well as new works. The event will take [...]

Minister of Environment addresses RIAI Annual Conference “Shaping Ireland’s Future”

Paul Clerkin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:20:59 +0000

Mr. John Gormley, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government today addressed the Annual Conference of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland in Limerick. In his address, the Minister acknowledged the challenges facing the architecture profession in Ireland in the current economic climate and recognised the important role that architects have in shaping [...]

Love them or loathe them, but don’t knock them

Paul Clerkin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:35:48 +0000

Why do we love some buildings and hate others? Why have some become icons, while others will forever remain symbols of a hated regime? Do our relationships with buildings, even after demolition, help define them – or us? Sometimes as the song goes, we don’t know what we’ve got ’till it’s gone; and usually it [...]