246

Features Buildings
Interview with Manuel Aires Mateus Precast House, Howth, Co. Dublin, FKLarchitects
JJ Sweeney in the Architecture of Modernism Garden Room, Castleknock, Dublin, Ronan Rose-Roberts Architects
The Dictionary of Irish Architects 25 St. James’ Hollybrook Park, Clontarf, Dublin, Boyd Cody Architects
Glenn Murcutt and Edward Cullinan 1 Heuston South Quarter, Kilmainham, Dublin, Anthony Reddy Associates
at DIT Bolton Street Offices at Lincoln Place, Dublin, McCullough Mulvin Architects
Eurocampus, Clonskeagh, Dublin, A2 Architects
Retrofitting St. Anne’s Convent, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, MCO Projects

May / June 2009

e10 (Incl VAT)
ARCHITECTURE
The Journal of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland

ARCHITECTURE
The Journal of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland

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 CONTENTS

2 Contributors 14 RIAI Silver Medal for Housing

7 Comment 17 Architecture News
9 President’s Column 21 RIAI CPD News
Architecture Ireland
10 RIAI Triennial Gold Medal 2001-2003 23 Andrzej Wejchert - An Appreciation
incorporating Irish Architect
13 National Housing Conference 2009 25 Urban Agenda - Alan Mee
The Journal of the Royal Institute of the
Architects of Ireland
9 Sandyford Office Park, Dublin 18
Telephone: 01-295 8115/6
Facsimile: 01-295 9350
PROJEC TS Living, Learning, Working
Email: [email protected]
www. architecturenow.ie 28 Precast House, Howth, FKLarchitects
32 Review - Rory O’Donovan
Publisher
Gerry Murphy

Editor
Dr Sandra Andrea O’Connell

Editorial Co-ordinator and

Products and Technology
Ailbhe Moloney

Commercial and Advertising

Sales Director
Cecil Maxwell

Sales Executive
Gerry Walsh
34 Garden Room, Dublin, Ronan-Rose Roberts Architects
Design
Origin 36 25 St. James, Hollybrook Park, Dublin, Boyd Cody Architects
Printing 38 1 Heuston, South Quarter, Dublin, Anthony Reddy Associates
Swift Printing Solutions
44 Offices at Lincoln Place, Dublin, McCullough Mulvin Architects
Correspondents
Ulster:
46 Eurocampus, Clonskeagh Dublin, A2 Architects
Ciaran Mackel BSc.Dip.Arch.Dip
Project Management, MSC Design, MRIAI
50 Retrofitting, St. Anne’s Convent, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, MCO Projects
Munster:
Alexander White Dip.Arch., MSDI, MRIAI
Leinster
Brian McClean B.Arch.B.Sc.Arch, MRIAI
Connaught:
P R O D U C T S A N D T echnolog y
Malcolm O’Beirne Dip.Arch.B.Sc.Arch,MRIAI
London: 59 Retrofitting: Energy Efficiency in Historic Buildings Conference - by Eimear Hearne
Sean Madigan AADip.Arch,RIBA,MRIAI
Angela Brady B.Sc.Arch, Dip.Arch.,FRIAI, RIBA 61 Going Passive in Europe - by Gráinne Shaffrey
Germany/Austria/Switzerland:
Rory O’Donovan B.Arch 63 Product News: Sustainability and Retrofitting
France:
Vincent Ducatez, Architecte DPLG, MRIAI, 65 2009 AAI Awards
M. in Arch.
67 Roofing and Curtain Walling
69 Furniture News

Published by
Nova Publishing Ltd.
for the RIAI
F eatures
RIAI 72 Interview with Manuel Aires Mateus - by Sandra Andrea O’Connell
8 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
Tel: 01-676 1703 74 James Johnson Sweeney in the Architecture of Modernism - by Raymund Ryan
Fax: 01-661 0948
Websites: 77 The DNA of Landscape - Three Landscape Lectures - by Sandra Andrea O’Connell
Architecture Ireland 81 Glenn Murcutt and Edward Cullinan at DIT Bolton Street - by Sandra Andrea O’Connell
www. architecturenow.ie
RIAI
83 The Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940 - by Colum O’Riordan
www.riai.ie 85 Passive House Student Residences, UCD - Tony Rigg
Cover:
Precast House
Photography by:
Verena Hilgenfeld A rchitecture in practice
87 Book Reviews - by Desmond Byrne and Ruairi Quinn
88 10 Questions for Peter Carroll, A2 Architects
 CON TR IBU TOR S
Eimear Hearne
(Retrofitting Historic Buildings Conference ) Performance
Eimear Hearne graduated from UCD and worked at the Office
of Public Works prior to joining Paul Arnold Architects Grade
1 Conservation Practice, where she has worked on a variety of
historic and new build projects. Eimear has a particular interest Guaranteed
in sustainable design and is currently involved in writing the
Advice Series publication for thermal upgrading of traditional
homes for the DoEHLG. 3 – 7. 7. 2009: Affordable

Alan Mee
(Urban Agenda)
Early start to the
coming seasons!
Alan Mee is an architect working in urbanism, architecture
and education. He operates an architectural practice, which
responds to the increasing demand for organising systems
and design quality in development. Current work ranges from
large scale urban design and research to domestic architectural Tendence, the major international con- Helpline
projects. He is also Director of the Urban Design Masters sumer goods trade fair, presents the most
programme at University College Dublin.
important product highlights and design
themes for gifts, furnishings, decorations
Rory O’Donovan
and the home in July – leaving you plenty Sustainable
(Review Precast House Howth)
Rory O’Donovan was born in Dublin and studied architecture of time to make your preparations. As a
at UCD, graduating in 1976. He has lived in Vienna since 1986 business forum and trend barometer,

Irland
where he worked for many years in private practice while also it offers the ideal starting point for the
Shopp
contributing to various architecture magazines. Since 2002 he coming autumn / winter season and the
has worked exclusively as a free-lance writer and translator
spring / summer season of next year. in ist gL

DU: 01.04.2009
in the fields of architecture and urban design. He works on a Extens
Welcome to Frankfurt! ive ran
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Switzerland, the Architekturzentrum Wien and, of course, Short lead times inable
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Colum O’Riordan erform
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e of c
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n
Archival Studies from UCD. He has been Archive Administrator
to 40Y teed for up
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rs �
of the Irish Architectural Archive since January 1994. He is a

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member of the board of the Irish Architecture Foundation and
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Raymund Ryan
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 CON TR IBU TOR S
Tony Rigg
(Passive House Student Residences)
Design flexibility THE SIGA-PRINCIPLE:
Tony Rigg qualified as an architect in the UK and moved to Israel
in 1975, working as a partner in private practice, focusing on Rapid-build technology WARMTH STAYS WHERE IT BELONGS.
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Marie-Louise Halpenny performance for

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her images. She has worked and travelled throughout
Europe, Asia and the Americas on architectural, fashion
and cultural assignments. She is currently based in Dublin.
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Verena Hilgenfeld
(Photographer, Precast House )
Verena lives in Dublin and works as a photographer and
architect. Born in Hamburg, she studied architecture in
Braunschweig, Germany. After her diploma in architecture she
expanded her architectural expertise through a postgraduate
master’s degree. She gained expert knowledge in architectural
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Ros Kavanagh
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St. Anne’s Convent)
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 COMMENT

marmoleum ®

maximum
sustainability
Remembering Andrzej Wejchert and Brian Boyd by Dr Sandra Andrea O’Connell

Our first thoughts this month are with architect Andrzej Associates for Eircom. The practice was responsible both for
Wejchert who died on 12 May. In his long and distinguished the masterplan for this important historic site at the foot of the
career, Andrzej has been a Council member for 16 years and Royal Hospital Kilmainham and for the design of a landmark
twice RIAI Vice President. A proud moment came last year building at this important gateway to the city and Heuston
when the practice celebrated publication of its extensive Station. The building is also a model of energy efficiency with
monograph A&D Wejchert & Partners (Gandon). It was the innovative twin façade developed in close consultation
wonderful to see so many of their peers, clients and friends with Arup Engineers. Energy efficiency was also a key theme
at the book launch in the National Gallery celebrating with in the Retrofitting of St Anne’s Convent by MCO Projects. The
practice founders Andrzej and Danuta and their colleagues a ‘greening’ of existing buildings is a major task for architects
diverse and distinguished portfolio of work. There was a sense and building professionals and the topic is a regular feature
that much more is yet to come from the tremendous energy in Architecture Ireland. A2 Architects demonstrated great
and passion that Andrzej radiated. John O’Reilly reflects in this innovation in a new extension for the Lycee Français D’Irlande,
issue on one of Ireland’s great architects.We also remember which responds both to the existing context set by the
architect W. Brian Boyd, a dedicated architect and urbanist, German School St Killian’s, while creating a new connective,
Architecture Ireland who died on 2 May. Brian Boyd is well-known as Manager informal realm between the school’s spaces and levels.
Editorial Board 2008: Our cover project – Precast House by FKLarchitects – deals
for the HomeBond scheme in Northern Ireland and for his
television work with UTV entitled Heritage from Stone. superbly with the challenges set by programme and coastal
Sean Ó Laoire, President
site conditions, and represents in the words of reviewer Rory
John Graby, Director
In this issue O’Donovan “a sequence of interlocking volumes and light”.
Dermot Boyd
Miriam Dunn During these difficult ecconomic times for the profession,
Paul Kelly there is nevertheless much to celebrate with the recent While our new bi-monthly circulation responds to the
Paul Keogh announcements of the Gold Medal for Architecture to Gilroy challenging economic times, it allows us to continue to
Ann McNicholl McMahon for Croke Park and the Silver Medal for Housing produce a high quality architectural magazine of international
Kathryn Meghen for O’Mahony Pike’s Hanover Quay scheme. When President standard that looks comprehensively at Ireland’s best
Gary Mongey of Ireland, Mary McAleese visited the RIAI on the occasion of architecture, interviews leading international practitioners
Jason O’Shaughnessy the Gold Medal she spoke perceptively of the “much more including Manuel Aires Mateus and Martha Schwartz, and
Gráinne Shaffrey reports on topical events such as Raymund Ryan’s essay on the
sombre mood that prevails now”, yet also of the need for
Liam Tuite
architecture to continue its leadership role and “enthral the 50th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Guggenheim
lives of others”. The important role architects play in the built Museum and the influential role played by Irish curator James
environment was evident at the National Housing Conference Johnson Sweeney. The Guggenheim Museum marks the
which turned out to be a constructive forum for readjustment, beginning of an ongoing debate on architecture and art.
resilience, resurgence, with architects emerging as constructive We hope you will enjoy this issue.
problem solvers and resourceful innovators, as many of the
Architecture Ireland
papers demonstrated (see President’s Column and Conference
The contents of this journal are copyright. The
views expressed are not necessarily those held
Report).
by the RIAI nor the publishers, and neither the
RIAI nor the publishers are responsible for these
opinions or statements. Publication in Architecture
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Projects in this issue range from the modest scale of the
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ISSN 1649 - 5152

© Nova Publishing Ltd.
AI 246 - 7
 Walls
Walls to
t WWorkstations
orkstations P resident ’ s
column
Introducing
QUADRO
QUADRO
“CREATING
EATING SPACE
“CRE PACE NOW”
SP N W”
NO

Unlimited Beyond the Peoples’ Republic of Namaland by Sean O’Laoire

Flexibility Readjustment, Resilience, Resurgence: These fighting words In anticipation of our metamorphosis to “Namaland”, the
framed the proceedings of the National Housing Conference in contribution by An Bord Pleanála chairperson, John O’Connor,
late April in Sligo. has thus far passed beneath the radar. It was inspiring and
Free Standing reinforcing to hear him state trenchantly that “Nama” must
Scenario building is a technique commonly used in strategic never be an expedient for private gain or recompense. In a
Retail planning. As part of the process of producing a major strategic critique of “developer-led” planning, he unequivocally, stated
Rapid Airport Lounge plan for the RIAI’s future, due in late May, one workshop that An Bord Pleanála will expect plan-led development

Installation focused on speculating on possible ‘futures’ for Ireland 2016,

the fast approaching centenary of the Easter Rising – 1916.
proposals and, in the case of Nama’s assets, a clear prioritising
of public gain. He underlined strongly the need for architects
Inevitably, a diverse range of scenarios were postulated, to be centrally involved in planning and local government.
reflective of our human predisposition to view a half-filled Our leaders might usefully look to Finland’s recovery, where
vessel as being half empty or half full. However, the potential a decimated profession was drafted into public service in the
for massive social upheaval, if not revolution, was a sub theme 1990s, contributing hugely to conditions which ultimately saw
shared by many contributors. an extraordinary social and economic renaissance.

One does not have to be a social geographer, a sociologist, In a very real way, the unique forum that is the National
or an urban economist to view the aggregation of our Housing Conference is a living testament to the vision
settlements as an index of communal values. As a mirror of the and passion of our colleague James Pike, whose 40 years
evolution of a young republic, the picture is not pretty. We, as involvement was celebrated. He was also a major contributor
a society, have passively and collusively created a footprint, to the RIAI’s New Housing 2, a magnificent chronicle of the best
which is inherently difficult to sustain and which clearly of Irish housing by Irish architects in the last decade or so,
demonstrates our uncritical acceptance of class stratification, which was launched at the conference. Buy, beg or borrow it.
disjointed and dysfunctional community infrastructure and
extraordinary mismatch between the location of housing and This writer was honoured to give the closing keynote address
areas where it is fundamentally required – all on a island with in which I put forward a modest proposal – “Towards a Sligo
Cafe the population equivalent of greater Manchester or Lyon, but Charter”, which set out a possible “resurgence” agenda for the
with over 100 forms of local government. General De Gaulle’s parties to the Housing Conference, building on the goals of
problem with governing a country which produces over 365 this year.
cheeses pales by comparison.
Resurgence: Towards a Sligo Charter
Inter-alia, the conference set out to “consider how the public • This time of crisis will be used to set out a vision for the
and private sectors can help the housing sector contribute renewal and well-being of Irish society. That vision will be
towards economic recovery”. At a time when the public mood formulated by the DEHLG, the Urban Forum and the RIAI,
Lobby is not conducive to separating poachers from gamekeepers, on behalf of, and in conjunction with, all key stakeholders in
the self evident link between how and where we live, and our Irish society.
capacity to be economically competitive may not be a message • This time will be used to openly interrogate our mistakes
that the public wish to hear. Yet, it needs to be articulated and system failures, including our planning and governance
clearly, intelligently and positively, and in turn, that imperative systems.
must be linked to our potential to remediate the mess and • This time will be used to guide research, innovation and
move to a better future as a society, not just as an economy. education.
• This time will be used to articulate the connections
The proceedings of Sligo may, at this time, represent a small between the quality of the public realm, to economic
footnote to our daily struggle with the maelstrom. However, competitiveness, education and public health.
in those footnotes, contributors such as Mick McDonagh, • This time will be used to articulate the economic and social
former Cork City Architect, diagnostically revealed the disjoint dividends of good governance, planning and design.
between two local authorities’ formulation of a vision for
Cork and to the ultimate cost to its citizens. John Fitzgerald, I am pleased to advise that all parties have positively embraced
former Dublin City Manager, and now Chairman of Limerick the proposition and work has commenced.
Regeneration, felt liberated to look at the legacy of successive
generations of politicians and “governments who didn’t ever Beir Bua is Beannacht
Casement house bal
baldonnell
donnell business park, baldonnell,
b dublin. 22 think the place (Ireland) had a great future”. `
AI 246 - 9
T: 01 6420050 F: 01
0 6420055 E: celine@w2
[email protected]
2w.ie W
W:www.w2w.ie
:www.w2w.ie
 RIAI Triennial Gold
Gold Medal Interview with Des McMahon and Deirdre Lennon

AI: Des, Gilroy McMahon were appointed in 1989 For example, the level of demand for conference where the elevation is stepped down. Internally the

Medal 20 01-20 03 by the GAA for the redevelopment of Croke Park –

what was your central design objective for the new
stadium?
and hospitality facilities – as realised today in the
Hogan Stand – could not have been anticipated
when the project started on site in 1993. By the time
stadium is a single entity; externally it interfaces with
different urban contexts.

the Hogan Stand was completed in 2002, nearly AI: Des, how important was your background as a

C roke P ark Des McMahon: When we started this process,

there was no modern stadium in Europe. Croke
Park predates Stade de France by six years and
ten years later, Croke Park had become the biggest
conference facilities provider in Dublin. The RIAI
regularly holds CPD courses and exams there and
former football player for County Tyrone to the project?

Des McMahon: Initially, I kept it a secret, as I did not

Millennium Stadium by ten years. Stadiums were the wider construction industry uses Croke Park for want the two issues to become mixed up. I suppose
buildings that were locked up at 5pm on a Saturday education and training. it gave me an insight, though, not only into the
after a match and did not open until the following needs of players but into the wider aspirations of
A Store of Memories and Iconic Building
the GAA organisation, the spectators and the many
The jury could not have chosen “a more popular and iconic continuous investment in quality in the built environment. categories of voluntary participants of a complex
building – one that already has in the short few years since On an auspicious day in Irish politics – marked by the cultural organisation.
its transformation created a store of historic memories”, return of the word ‘emergency’ and the announcement of
these were the words of President of Ireland, Mary one of the toughest budgets – Sean O’Laoire referred to AI: Are there any particular innovations in Croke Park
McAleese, when she bestowed Irish architecture’s biggest Croke Park as an example of what can be achieved “against and how did you develop these?
honour on Croke Park architects Gilroy McMahon. With a a background of confusion, hopelessness and lack of
nod to the jury, headed up by Joan O’Connor, she praised direction”. Deirdre Lennon: Designing the stadium entry and
the assessors’ perceptive choice, adding that otherwise exit system was a huge challenge requiring the
“83,000 people would have told you week after week that Developed by the GAA, at the height of the late 80s input of pedestrian flow consultants, previously only
you got it wrong”. recession, almost entirely from their own financial used on large scale transport projects. Rigorous
resources, Croke Park was a timely choice for the Gold and often repeated calculations determined route
Referring to her last visit to the RIAI in 2006, when she Medal and a powerful reminder of the need for vision and and staircase widths, calculated to the millimetre
presented the Gold Medal to O’Donnell + Tuomey for courage. “GAA President Nickey Brennan said that “as a to ensure exemplary Fruin comfort levels for
Ranelagh MD School, the President acknowledged sporting organisation, we always aim for excellence and Saturday morning. This concept dates from the patrons, circulating from seat to street exit within
that “the mood is more sombre now and the economic we carried this through with our stadium. We wanted to post-industrialised era when the stadium would give a predetermined time scale. Design criteria and
downturn has taken a particularly difficult toll on your lay down strong foundations for a stadium that will last the working man a break on Saturdays. Croke Park is legislation for stadium hospitality areas were largely
profession”. She appealed, however, for confidence: “We a lifetime and Gilroy McMahon have achieved this. We much more than that. It is venue on match days and undetermined at the start of the project and we
need architects to believe that they are geniuses, we need are thrilled for Des McMahon and his team. They did an on non-match days. It is an all-year-round facility for carried out match day surveys to calculate patron
our lives to be enthralled by architects”. Whether it was a outstanding job”, praised the GAA President. Stadium families and is both of national and local importance. queuing time for food/beverage concessions and
building of the size of Croke Park or the humble scale of Director Peter McKenna added that the uniqueness of The GAA, under Director General Liam Mulvihill, user profile for sanitary facilities. Our concept of
the pump house, “what you feel as a deep personal pride, Croke Park lies in its wider appeal: “It is a multi-use facility were really driving this ambition to build a modern both permanent (based on demand recorded)
ripples out across the country and the whole country gets from matches to concerts, conferences and family events. stadium of world standard. They simply did not want and passive provision of wheelchair capacity was
an enormous lift”, said the President, adding, “although the In three years, six million people, the entire population of just another stand. approved by the National Rehabilitation Board and
1
younger profession might feel scared at this point, I sense Ireland, have been to Croke Park,” said McKenna. adopted as an appropriate methodology in other
today a mighty strength and in three, six, nine and twelve AI: How did you research this new stadium model? stadium design projects.
years, there will be projects and there will be awards”. Special Commendations were awarded to Áras an Chontae, Were there any precedents?
Offaly by ABK Architects and Clontarf Pump House by de AI: What was your proudest moment in Croke
RIAI President Sean O’Laoire referred in his introductory Paor Architects. Other short-listed practices were Grafton Des McMahon: From an engineering point of view Park? When Tyrone won the All-Ireland in 2008 in a
remarks to Finland and the architecture of Alvar Aalto Architects, FKLarchitects and McCullough Mulvin/ KMD we looked at some of the stadiums that had been stadium that you had designed?
as an example of achieving outstanding results in tough Architecture for the Ussher Library in TCD. Awarded since developed for Italia 1990, however, the business
economic times. “When asked why do you build so well in 1934, the RIAI’s Triennial Gold Medal is the highest honour model came from North America. The idea that a Des McMahon: It was actually a minor hurling
times of poverty, the answer was because we can’t afford in Irish architecture given to a building of exceptional merit. stadium could generate an income on non-match game on the first Sunday in 1996 when the Cusack
not to”, quoted Sean O’Laoire and stressed the need for For previous winners see www.riai.ie. days through conferences, retail, museum and other Stand had opened after completion of phase 1. It
1 President of Ireland, Mary
non-sporting events had been developed there. This was wonderful to see that all the calculations with
McAleese presents additional income was important for the financing the sidelines and the ‘c value’ had worked out. In
Des McMahon and
Deirdre Lennon with the of the stadium. It is important to remember that AI: Located in a tight urban context, Croke Park’s stadiums where they got these fundamentals wrong,
RIAI Gold Medal
Croke Park was developed at the height of the last historic site brings its own restrictions – how did you people will stand up in their seats to see the pitch
2 President Mary McAlesse, recession, mainly through the GAA’s own resources. deal with these? beyond the person in front of them. This is a safety
Sean O’Laoire and
Des McMahon issue and has led to incidents. In Croke Park all you
3 The Gold Medal short-listed
AI: Deirdre, you have been project architect for the Des McMahon: To achieve a capacity of 83,000, we need to do is move your head slightly to the side and
practices with President past ten years. The stadium and its four stands were had to invent a structure that could cantilever in you will see the full pitch as the action unfolds. There
Mary McAleese
developed in four distinct phases. How important two directions like a capital ‘Y’ and so accommodate isn’t a bad seat in Croke Park and to experience the
4 Croke Park Stadium
(Photo: Ros Kavanagh)
was the phased approach to the realisation of the 14,000 seats in air space outside the confines of standard of visibility on this first match day was my
project? Croke Park. However, as the stadium has to express proudest moment.
aesthetic unity, the structural frame for phase 1
Deirdre Lennon: The phased approach was central (Cusack Stand) had to anticipate a problem that AI: Deirdre and Des, Congratulations again on this
to the operation of Croke Park which, uniquely had would only occur in phase 2 (Canal End) – how to outstanding achievement.
to be kept going for the GAA season. During the cantilever these seats over the railway line. This is
entire construction process, we never fell below a how the Y structure was developed.
capacity of 60,000. It also gave us and the client an
opportunity to fine tune ‘back of house’ aspects of Deirdre Lennon: The stadium also has to respond
the stadium that were simply not apparent when the in scale and elevation to its varied urban context –
first planning application was granted in 1992. All in from the canal and the railway to that of an ordinary
all, we lodged 21 subsequent planning applications. Dublin street in the case of the Hogan Stand,
10 - AI 246 AI 246 - 11
 N ational H ousing
C onference 2 0 0 9
Readjustment, Resilience, Resurgence Report by Sandra Andrea O’Connell
RIAI Identifies Planning Problems a proactive role and monitor variances in performance to
Running for forty years since 1969, the National Housing ensure proper standards. In order to prioritise important
Conference has seen its fair share of recessions. The dreaded infrastructure projects, Graby suggested the appointment
‘R-word’ was therefore adapted by the conference organisers of an infrastructural co-ordinator in each planning authority.
into a cyclical approach with ‘readjustment, resilience and “We simply must make changes”, said John Graby, “for the

National Energy
resurgence’ offered as critical tasks for a recovery of Ireland’s next conference to say ‘they did take reform seriously and
built environment. If a common theme emerged from the did something to make a better and effective system’”. John
two-day event with over 30 presentations, it was a prevailing O’Connor, Chairman of An Bord Pleanála, echoed these calls
sense that the excesses of the boom years were never to be for a reform as the planning system “must play a part in the

Efficiency Awards
repeated again. insurgence”. “Developers and vested interests had undue
influence on plan-making in the past”, criticised O’Connor, “by
“The world has changed and if you have a zero cost solution, law development should be led by democratic plans”. “The
1
please send it up to Custom House”, were the ominous future must be different”, concluded O’Connor and suggested

Energy Efficient
opening words of Michael Finneran, Minister of State at the that the new National Asset Management Agency (NAMA)
DoEHLG with Special Responsibility for Housing and Local “offers invaluable opportunities such as the assembly of land
Services. The Minister came armed with sombre statistics of banks and sites for infrastructure, education, enterprise and
deteriorating finances and drastically falling output, while amenities – but it must work within the planning system”.

Products Category
demand for social and affordable housing was up and rent
supplements had increased by 100%. Finneran proposed that With only 16% of the reduced €1.4 billion housing budget
a new lease scheme of existing properties is to deal with the earmarked for regeneration, John Fitzgerald drew a
social housing shortfall and oversupply of private properties. compelling picture of Limerick’s ailing housing estates.

Winner
“Leasing is not a sinister plot to bail out developers, it will Fitzgerald criticised the lack of inter-agency cooperation and
2
provide better value for public finances than solely relying on made a passionate plea for urgent funding and progress. “A
capital programmes”, concluded the Minister. lot of children are seriously at risk; they are on a conveyor
belt to criminality, if there is no intervention”, said Fitzgerald.
Many conference delegates failed to see, however, how He criticised the lack of an overall vision and inter-agency
the leasing scheme proposal would support the DoEHLG’s co-operation and stressed the need to “restructure local
pioneer policy Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities governance and realign all plans for regeneration with the
(2007), which had resulted in such innovative local authority National Spatial Strategy”. “We need to accelerate all plans
The Dyson AirbladeTM hand dryer won the schemes as County Fingal’s A3-rated social and affordable that are out there”, pleaded Fitzgerald and concluded that
Energy Efficient Product category at the 3 Oldtown (presented by County Architect Marguerite Murphy “unlike other forms of investment, such as the Metro, this one

2007 National Energy Efficiency Awards. and designed by Cullen Payne Architects) and Dublin
City Council’s York Street apartments (Seán Harrington
can’t wait and gets worse everyday if it is left unattended”.
Mick McDonagh, former Director of Ballymun Regeneration
Its patented technology means it uses Architects). Describing architecture as “learning by doing”, and Cork City Architect, agreed with the urgent need to
up to 80% less energy than a warm air
1 Minister Michael Finneran,
TD and Toal O’Muire, joint
Seán Harrington emphasised the need for actual projects restructure local government. He illustrated how the Cork
conference organiser to develop sustainable housing models. “As practices get Area Strategic Plan (CAST) was designed to attract people
hand dryer. representing the RIAI
smaller, the current brain drain is a national emergency”, to the wider region but lacked “essential connection” with
2 John Fitzgerald, Chairperson
Limerick Regeneration Trust
said Harrington and argued that “while there are warnings Cork’s ambition to make the city an attractive place to live. In
about an overhang of properties, there is equal danger of Ballymun, the central issue of connections and permeability
The Dyson AirbladeTM hand dryer is 3 Mick McDonagh and
conference delegates undersupply of know-how”. had become “a deal breaker” with the neighbouring
also hygienic and fast. It literally communities. “The implementation of sustainable urban

scrapes water from hands, leaving If a new sobriety prevails in the housing sector, there was an
overwhelming consensus for major reform. Unblocking the
design requires the involvement of all stakeholders”, argued
McDonagh and urged architects “to take a broader view and
them dry in just 10 seconds. Conference presentations are planning system was presented by RIAI Director John Graby seek to influence the overall environment”.
available on :
www.nationalhousingconference.ie as an urgent task. “The system has to change to facilitate
To find out more, or to arrange economic recovery”, said John Graby and presented drastic The concluding presentations by Assistant Secretary in the
but ready-to-implement “Dynorod” solutions. He urged the DoEHLG, Des Dowling, Dublin City Manager John Tierney,
a demonstration, please call
DoEHLG “to ensure standardisation and streamlining, as each and RIAI President Sean O’Laoire all ended on an uplifting
ROI: 01-401-8300 local authority currently has their own version of planning note, agreeing to use the current time for forward planning
UK: 0800 345 7788 applications, while planning notices have become an art for the next resurgence. The conference also demonstrated
or visit www.dysonairblade.ie form, in which the lawyers get involved”. Procedures for that architects have a major role to play in this resurgence.
pre-planning meetings and consultations also vary hugely, Delegate Gerry Cahill stressed the need to employ the
according to Graby, with many unworkable systems – i.e. expertise of professionals in any retrofitting schemes, while
“ring on Thursdays between 10am and 11am”. Feedback from James Pike presented an innovative new model on equity
RIAI members in a recent survey had criticised the current partnerships for housing development (see also interview).
system as “dysfunctional” and “marked by planning creep” Above all, the pioneer proposals, innovative policies and
such as contradictory requests for ‘further information’ fruitful exchanges between private and public sector
and repeated invalidations. Among the many solutions put demonstrated how, forty years on, the National Housing
forward by the RIAI Director was for the DoEHLG to take Conference is more necessary than ever.
AI 246 - 13
 R iai silver medal
for housing
Hanover Quay, Dublin Docklands Highly Commended
The mixed-use development at Hanover Quay / Sir John Rogerson’s Quay St Joseph’s Court Sheltered Housing,
by O’Mahony Pike Architects was presented with the RIAI’s prestigious Silver Gorey, Co. Wexford by Paul Keogh Architects
Medal for Housing. Minister for Housing and Local Services, Urban Renewal
Fitzwilliam Quay Housing, Dublin 2
and Developing Areas, Michael Finneran, TD presented the Silver Medal to
by O’Mahony Pike
James Pike, Chairman of OMP Architects at the National Housing Conference
in Sligo. Chair of the judging panel Derek Tynan, DTA Architects said: “The
Commended
Hanover Quay project has proven to be a truly sustainable development,
one which remains attractive for both families and couples to live in and Cluain Padraig Housing, Westport, Co Mayo
also one which carefully and creatively includes retail and commercial by Simon J Kelly and Partners
1
accommodation.” Hazel Grove Transitional Housing,
Donabate by Gerry Cahill Architects

Interview with James Pike, OMP Architects

AI: James, Hanover Quay has been AI: You were appointed following a AI: At the National Housing Conference
described by the Silver Medal Jury as competition. How much did the design you presented an innovative scheme
“a new benchmark for emerging, high change after the competition? of equity partnerships. How did you
density urban architecture” – what research this model?
makes this scheme so innovative and James Pike: As part of the competition
original? we took the design to planning James Pike: With housing output
2 consent stage. The site was then sold having come to a complete halt,
2
James Pike: The integration of private to a developer on the understanding OMP had become aware of a Scottish
with social and affordable housing that he would employ us to complete and Scandinavian model based on
has worked very well in Hanover Quay. the project. We were lucky that the a community land partnership that
One of the big problems throughout developer was Park and Sisks with was developed by Chris Cooke of the
Ireland is that every town and city has whom we had worked on Mount St. Nordic Enterprise Trust. We decided to
a large area of social housing, which is Anne’s in Milltown, so very few changes explore this model with the assistance
separated. In Hanover Quay we wanted were required. The other prize winners of solicitor Kevin Ryan and accountant
to create a mix of tenure and has been at Gallery Quay did not establish a good Kieran Ryan. In this equity partnership
achieved by providing 56 different relationship with the selected architects scheme, investors take a share in the
apartment types out of 292 units. and another architectural firm was whole project, rather than buying
These are tailored to suit different users appointed, and they made substantial individual units and when they want to
including a significant number of family changes to the design. move on, they sell their shares back to
orientated, ground level, own door the trust. The investor gets a return on
units, which animate the public realm. AI: You have recently edited the RIAI’s their money, once the whole scheme
The scheme has a fantastic waterside New Housing 2 book (published has been let. These equity partnerships
location and the social infrastructure of by Gandon) – a substantial volume, are very attractive for pension funds
courtyard gardens, cafés, restaurants, containing a wealth of housing projects that wish to buy out the investment.
3
a theatre and shops is very important. – what are the achievements and Occupiers can either just pay their basic
The innovative aspects of Hanover Quay shortcomings of the past years? rent (which covers the capital costs and
are currently being studied by CABE as interest), or by paying additional rent
The Jury for the RIAI’s premier housing
an exemplary scheme. James Pike: Looking at the finished if their circumstances change, they can
award were: Sean Harrington, SHA
Architects; Gary Lysaght, FKL Architects; book, there are quite a lot of good purchase an equity share. An occupier
Michael McGarry, McGarry Ní Éanaigh AI: Did you have any precedents for schemes. Much of this is concentrated can therefore own his/her dwelling, in
Architects; architect Sterrin O’Shea; and
Hanover Quay? in the Dublin region, such as the inner time, without having to borrow.
Chair Derek Tynan, DTA Architects
city regeneration of Temple Bar and
James Pike: It is certainly influenced the Docklands, but we have been less AI: What has been the reaction to your
by Scandinavian apartment schemes. successful outside the Capital. We need proposal and how will you develop it?
The idea of the winter-gardens, to strengthen other urban centres such
which can be used as balconies in as the Gateway cities to make them James Pike: The reaction has been
1 & 2 The Silver Medal Winner: the summer and as enclosed outdoor attractive places to live. Most housing quite enthusiastic and we are currently
Hanover Quay, Dublin
rooms all year around, came from currently being constructed is one-off looking at the necessary legal
3 James Pike Finland. The concept of separate blocks and this is completely unsustainable, framework. The equity partnership
and courtyards can also be found in as the population will become more model could be applied to existing
apartment schemes in Paris. When we scattered. We need to encourage housing schemes where units have not
first designed housing in Ireland in the denser urban development. There are been sold or only a limited number. The
1970s, we looked at French apartments huge advantages to living in the city, most important thing is that the model
as a model, for example in the Merrion for example being near facilities and is not a straitjacket; it is inherently
Village scheme. schools. flexible and would be tailored to each
regeneration opportunity.
14 - AI 246
 Common myths about acoustics:
ARCHITECTURE
NEWS

There’s nothing
innovative
1
about acoustics

2 3

(1) Irish Are Crossing the Rhine

An Irish consortium composed of Heneghan Peng Architects, Arup Consulting
Engineers and Mitchell and Associates has won the competition for a bridge
crossing the Middle Rhine Valley, in Germany. Located near the famous Loreley,
the area has UNESCO’s World Heritage status and the winning proposal will be
presented in June to UNESCO for consent. The jury praised the design with the

Acoustic ceilings
S-shaped ground plan as “an elegant building, which blends harmoniously into
the river landscape.” The structure of the superstructure consists essentially of a

all look
steel hollow box, on the pillars of the river bridge on the inside of the curve by
using oblique Truss-type fault in the surface reinforced.
www.hparc.com

greencement
(2) Endgame at Beckett Bridge
The new €59.95m Samuel Beckett Bridge, designed by Dr. Santiago Calatrava
Valls, arrived in Dublin on 11 May on a barge from Rotterdam. Constructed in
the Graham-Hollandia JV Shipyard in Rotterdam, the superstructure began its
the same
odyssey on 4 May across the English Channel and Irish Sea. The bridge will be
placed on its reinforced concrete support pier in the Liffey for finishing and
commissioning works and is due to open in early 2010. The 120-metre long
and 48-metre high cable-stayed bridge (a concept familiar from the Dundrum
Luas Bridge) will link Guild Street with Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, west of Cardiff
Lane and Macken Street. According to Dublin City Engineer Michael Philips, “its
graceful, almost weightless appearance and position across the Liffey at Dublin’s
maritime gateway sends a confident, forward-looking statement about today’s
Dublin”.
• Ecocem is • Ecocem significantly • Ecocem significantly (3) World Architecture Awards Opens for Entries
100% recycled reduces CO2 increases the life of Programme Director Paul Finch announced that the world’s biggest architectural
summit, the World Architecture Festival, will take place in Barcelona from 4 to 6
emissions the concrete November 2009. Aside from completed buildings, new awards categories have

All you need for

been added this year including ‘Interiors and Fit-out’, ‘Structural Design’, and
‘Future Projects’, with 42 Awards to win in total. A thematic exhibition, ‘Less Does
More’, will examine the challenges facing architects in the new world economy.

Telephone: +353 1 667 0900 Lansdowne Road

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, whose practice Grafton Architects won
the ‘World Building of the Year Award 2008’ for Luigi Bocconi University, Milan
said: “This unique forum will offer optimism in the current challenging climate,
good acoustics
ensuring architects are made aware of and can enjoy, as well as be inspired by
innovative serious work of all scales, in a variety of regions and countries of is absorption
www.ecocem.ie diverse cultural physical and economic environments.”
Online entry to the WAF Awards is open until 26 June 2009.

www.lowcarbonconcrete.ie
www.worldarchitecturefestival.com
 4 5 6 7

ARCHITECTURE NEWS
(4) The Lives of Spaces Returns criteria by which planning applications submitted to the Council will be assessed
Following its successful run at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition once the draft Plan is adopted in early 2010. This includes a more detailed set
in Venice (2008), Ireland’s entry, The Lives of Spaces, is showing until 28 June of guidelines to the current Plan for assessing extensions, corner sites, and rural
at the Farmleigh Gallery before going on a national tour. Commissioners and housing as well as new density, open space and building height standards. The
curators, the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) Director, Nathalie Weadick and Plan is on public display at the Council offices until 3 July during which time
Dr. Hugh Campbell, Professor of Architecture at UCD, asked the participants submissions on the Draft Plan can be made. This provides an opportunity for
to reflect on the use made of the space within their buildings. Each of the nine architects, landowners and property interests to maximize the development
selected pieces explores the central role of space in our society, how it frames potential of their lands. Anthony Marston Planning Consultancy can be

STOP BELIEVING IN MYTHS

and structures our collective life, from domestic to civic, from personal to public. contacted at
Taken together, the nine pieces provide a portrait of Irish architecture and of Irish E [email protected] or M 086 3837100.
society. Participants include Grafton Architects, Hassett-Ducatez, Gerry Cahill
Architects, McCullough-Mulvin, O’Donnell + Tuomey, De Paor Architects, TAKA (6) Chipperfield, Mateus and Siza Vieira Design Holiday Homes
Architects, Patrick Lynch and Simon Walker, and Dara McGrath, in association Spending your summer holiday this year in house designed by Pritzker
with Robinson McIlwaine. The IAF has also recently moved its premises to the Prize winner Álvaro Siza Vieira, Sterling Prize recipient David Chipperfield or
RIAI offices at 8 Merrion Square. renowned architect Manuel Aires Mateus is offered by the innovative Bom
www.thelivesofspaces.com and www.architecturefoundation.ie Sucesso resort in Óbidos, on Portugal’s Silver Coast. “Architecture is a form of
artistic expression, allowing us to live inside a work of art, to surround with
Use Armstrong ceiling solutions for passive and active acoustics…
(5) Moving Dublin at the Broadcast Gallery
“For two years, we moved around Dublin in every way possible: by car, taxi, bus,
beauty the best moments of our life”, say the developers who commissioned
23 contemporary architects from Portugal, Spain and the UK to design the 601
… to meet end-user needs
tram, bicycle and on foot. We met scores of Dubliners, and recorded dozens exclusive holiday villas houses on the 1.5 million m2 site. To integrate the scheme
of personal accounts of moving through the city” – discribe Anne Cleary into its landscape, the villas and townhouses were dispersed and finished with
and Dennis Connolly their film-based work Moving Dublin, which runs at the green roofs. Materials were restricted and colour has been limited to whites and
Broadcast Gallery, DIT Portland Row. The Paris-based artists both studied natural shades. The completed first phase includes houses by Álvaro Siza Vieira
architecture in Dublin in the 1980s and their architectural training influences (image 6), Eduardo Souta Moura, Gonçalo Byrne and Madalena Cardoso de
their work, as they critically investigate their urban environment. Moving Dublin Menezes as well as an 18 hole golf course. Houses are available for purchase or
emerged from a two-year residency by South County Dublin. Eamon Ryan, TD, holiday rental through www.bomsucesso.net
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and co-founder (See also interview with Aires Mateus, p.72)
of the cycling campaign, said that Moving Dublin captures the “leaden skies
and bleakness of much of modern city life”. Comparisons with Joyce’s Ulysses (7) KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival, 7 – 13 June
were inevitable, argued the Minister, except the monologues in this work were The KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival offers a unique opportunity to
stitched together from contemporary emails. “Dubliners have become used to experience performances from world-class virtuosos amidst the beautiful
life in the trenches and a trench-like humour has emerged”, concluded Ryan in surroundings of some of Ireland’s stateliest residences and buildings. The
his opening formal opening speech Moving Dublin is available as a book and Festival opens this year at the magnificent neo-classical jewel of Emo Court, Co
DVD from Gandon Editions with a punchy forward by Frank McDonald. Laois with performances from world-renowned artists Daniel Müller-Schott Orcal Canopy OP Range Optima Canopy
www.broadcastgallery.ie, E [email protected] (cello) and Robert Kulek (piano) and others. Concert venues include Killruddery
House in Wicklow; The National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Cork’s Fota House;
Competition to Design Museum of Polish History, Warsaw and Castletown House in Kildare. www.musicgreatirishhouses.com • Concentration: the highest sound absorption with the innovative OP technology
The Polish Minister for Culture and National Heritage, Bogdan Zdrojewski and (up to 1.00 _w).
the Museum of Polish History have announced an international competition for Kevin Kieran Award Announced
the design of a Museum of Polish History in Warsaw. The two-stage UIA/UNESCO Orla Murphy of Simon J Kelly and Partners • Confidentiality: high sound attenuation performance with the dB range
approved project is open to architects worldwide. The 20,000m2 museum will Architects, County Mayo is the recipient of the Kevin (up to 44 dB) and Orcal Premium (up to 47 dB).
be located in the Jazdow neighbourhood close to the riverbank of the Vistula Kieran Award 2009-2011. A partnership between
river, called “Skarpa Warszawska”, and vast prestigious parks, a significant the Arts Council and the OPW, the award offers an • Intelligibility: the right balance between absorption and attenuation with
aspect of Warsaw’s identity. Deadline for registration is 15 June with first stage emerging architect the opportunity to develop the standard Armstrong range.
submissions due by 30 June 2009. and deliver a research project worth €50,000
www.muzhp.pl/competition over two years, and subsequently to design and
run a building contract for the OPW. Orla Murphy Complement these acoustic ceiling solutions with products from the Armstrong
New Draft Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Development Plan graduated from UCD in 1995, where she has Canopy range. Alternatively, Armstrong can provide active acoustic solutions for
Report by Anthony Marston been a lecturer in studio design since 1996. She Sound Masking.
Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council published its new draft County jointly established the Westport studio of Simon J Kelly & Partners Architects
Development Plan on 24 April 2009. It is the first step in setting a new framework in 2004 and has particular experience in the design of housing and educational With an extensive range of materials, shapes and performance products, Armstrong
for development within the Council area for the period 2010 to 2016. The Draft buildings. She was editor of the AAI’s journal Building Material and Cavan is a leading innovator and provider of design and acoustic ceilings solutions.
Plan sets down new zonings, and development, management guidelines in Architect in Residence from 2007-2008. Orla will be researching the potential of
terms of requirements for all residential and commercial development as well architecture to enhance the experience of living, working and playing in the 21st
as permitted uses within the new zonings It will establish an updated set of century Irish town.

www.armstrong-ceilings.ie
18 - AI 246
 230 x 305 mm
Erscheinungen: Magazin
R I A I C P D N ews
and C urrent
Space is reflected in the presence of form.
programmes
Log into to RIAI CPD Engage http://cpd.riai.ie to access the to announce a half-day Refresher Course on 16 June on ‘How
booking forms and to plan any of the following activities. to make a Fire Certificate Application’. Topics covered in the
Booking forms can also be downloaded from the CPD section seminar will include:
of the RIAI website or contact Teresa Harte [email protected]. • When is a Fire Safety Certificate required? Overview of
The RIAI CPD Engage User Guide can be downloaded at the provisions of Building Control Act/Regulations re. Fire
Resources area of the RIAI CPD Engage Website. Safety Certificates
• Base reference documents
RIAI Business Breakfast Seminars • Distinctions between New-build/Extensions/Alterations
CPD Points 2 • Typical FSCA Documents
Following a strong demand from members at the RIAI Strategic • Negotiations with Fire Prevention
Reviews, the RIAI are holding a series of breakfast seminars on • Fire Safety Certificate Appeals
business related topics. The charge for attendance at these • Breaking news - new Building Control Regulations
events is €25 including refreshments. Refer to the note above to reserve a place on this seminar.

The Human Relations, Business Entry Strategy and Financial Urban Design Masterclass Series
Planning seminars took place in March and May. The Public CPD Points 3.5 per module, 25 max
Relations seminar will take place on 18 June. Refer to the note The RIAI, in partnership with Sarah Rock of PlaceMakers, will
above to reserve a place on this seminar. be delivering an innovative and hands-on Urban Design CPD
programme in September and October 2009, in Dublin and
Health and Safety: RIAI PSDP CPD Points 20 Cork. Each masterclass will explore a key topic in urban design
RIAI Project Supervisor Design Process is an intensive two- and will cater for a range of experience and interest levels.
day programme designed specifically for professionals in the Masterclasses are limited to 15 participants and will consist
field of architecture and delivered by the RIAI, in partnership of seminars, case-studies and a hands-on design exercise
with Scott MacNeill Architects and Safety By Design. The exploring the topic in further detail. The small class sizes will
programme includes, on successful completion of the two maximise learning outcomes and ensure engaging discussions.
days and an assessment, accreditation by the RIAI as a trained
PSDP. This is an intense and interactive course from start to Masterclass sessions include ‘The Foundations of Urban
finish with involvement from participants in workshops and Design’, ‘Urban Design Assessment’, ‘Creating Place, ‘Improving
discussions. The HSA has attended the course and reviewed Place’ and ‘Advanced Public Realm and Street Design’. Special
the materials presented and has supported the approach taken recognition will be given to participants who complete the full
by the RIAI/Scott Mac Neill/Safety By Design. Completion programme. Refer to the note above to reserve a place on this
of the ‘RIAI Designing for Safety’ CPD is a prerequisite to seminar.
attendance on this course.
The RIAI welcomes suggestions and comments from
For a limited time, the RIAI is offering a 25% discount on the members on CPD. Please contact Sandra Campbell at
PSDP course to RIAI members. The course is reduced from [email protected]
€1600 to €1200 Euros. Refer to the note above to reserve a
place on this seminar.

Health and Safety: RIAI Designing for Safety

CPD Points 4
The RIAI, in partnership with Safety By Design and Douglas
Wallace Architects, present ‘RIAI Designing for Safety’, an
intensive half-day safety course designed by architects for
architects. The purpose of the course is to provide architects
with a working knowledge of health and safety and the role
of the designer under the construction regulations. The
programme includes practical exercises to develop experience
in producing the correct information to be passed onto Project
Supervisors, record keeping and designing out hazards. The
course is offered at €400 to RIAI members. Refer to the note
above to reserve a place on this seminar. Sydney-based architect Glenn Murcutt received an Honorary
Request detailed information or visit our sales partner. RIAI Membership from RIAI President Seán O’Laoire at DIT
RIAI Fire Safety Refresher Course Bolton Street on 31 March. The Pritzker Prize Winner and UAA
CPD Points 4 Gold Medalist was honoured for his architectural achievements
How to make a Fire Safety Certificate Application and contribution to Irish architecture as Visiting Professor
The RIAI, in partnership with John McCarthy MRIAI is pleased at DIT.

designflow spielmanns ltd, 12a fumbally lane, dublin 8, ireland

phone +353 (1) 40 20 606, fax +353 (1) 40 20 600, [email protected], www.designflow.ie
Headquarters: USM U. Schärer Söhne AG, Münsingen Switzerland, www.usm.com
AI 246 - 21
 O bituary

D r . A ndr z ej
W ejchert ‑
A n appreciation
By John O’Reilly
Andrzej Wejchert was born in Gdansk in 1937, just two years access building was commended by the RIAI Gold Medal
before Poland became the first European battlefield of the jury, (period 1977-1979). In 1989, the Sports Centre at UCD
Second World War. However, it was not the carnage of the was highly commended by the RIAI Gold Medal jury, (period
war but the political turmoil and dissention in post-war 1980-1982).
Poland which gave rise to his family being disposed and
having to leave Gdansk for Warsaw in 1948. In Warsaw he The consistent high standard, coupled with the volume and
received his secondary education and subsequently studied diversity of the projects, earned for Andrzej the admiration of
architecture in the Warsaw Polytechnic from which he his colleagues and the distinction of being elected to Council
graduated with honours in 1962. He was then employed in of the RIAI on which he served for 16 years. He was twice
the Design Office of City Buildings, Warsaw, and devoted elected as Vice-President of the Institute. His dedication to
practically all of his spare time to participating in architectural architecture was also acknowledged outside the RIAI. In
competitions. In 1964, he won the International Architectural 1997, he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws
Competition for the Master Plan for the campus layout at from the National University of Ireland. In 2000, for his work
Belfield for University College Dublin, which included also the on the Sobanski Palace Complex in Warsaw, he was awarded
design of the Arts, Administration and Aula Maxima buildings. a Diploma from the Ministry of Culture of Poland for the
In the initial development of this project, he worked in best modernisation of an historic complex. In 2003, he was
association with Robinson Keeffe & Devane. He was joined in elected an Associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy and
‘Feeling Plush’ Carpet Tile Collection from Shaw Contract Group Suite 1 The Avenue Ireland, a year later, by his wife, Danuta Kornaus-Wejchert. was subsequently appointed to the Board of Governors of the
National Gallery of Ireland.
Beacon Court It was not, however, until 1974 that Andrzej and Danuta
AS INSTALLED THROUGHOUT EIRCOM CORPORATE HQ Sandyford founded the practice of A & D Wejchert Architects. At the For him, perhaps, the most significant event in his eventful
time, it was simply not even suspected that this gentle, life as an architect was to have given a lecture to the Congress
100% FULLY RECYCLABLE YARN & BACKING Dublin 18 unassuming couple were about to inject into the corpus of of Polish Architecture in his birthplace, Gdansk, in 1998.
Irish architecture a new and vibrant energy which would give
BREEAM ‘A’ RATED PRODUCTS
to Ireland, over the ensuing 35 years, some 65 major projects On 12 May 2009, Andrzej Wejchert left us as quietly as he
Tel: +353 1 205 2807 in the fields of education, healthcare, retail, commercial, had lived and worked amongst us, leaving behind him one
Fax: +353 1 205 2808 housing, leisure, culture and worship, most of which received of Ireland’s most successful award-winning architectural
awards, commendations or other distinctions from several practices, now A & D Wejchert & Partners, to carry on the
sources. ethos of excellent design and service which was, for him
email: [email protected] at least, founded on the respect and love which he had for
www.rocgroup.ie In 1978, Andrzej was awarded the Triennial Gold Medal of people generally.
the RIAI for the design of the Administration Building at UCD
Belfield, (period 1971-1973). In 1986, the Aillwee Caves Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
Trade by Appointment

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Exclusive to ROC Group

B O L O N L ANO
C O N T R A C T AI 246 - 23
 U rban A genda

By Alan Mee

Contributions to this page are welcome, to Urban Forum

[email protected] by mid month in advance In 2009, the Urban Forum is hosted by Engineers Ireland,
of publication. who convene monthly meetings between the RIAI, Irish
Landscape Institute (ILI), Society of Chartered Surveyors, and
Urban Design Education the Irish Planning Institute (IPI). The Urban Forum Transport
The Irish architectural profession is undergoing radical Colloquium took place in February at DTO offices, including
re-positioning caused by a combination of economic crisis Dave Fadden of the Department of Transport, who presented
for larger businesses and continuing pressures on small “Smarter Travel – the new policy framework for transport
practices to survive; many of these pressures were there in Ireland”. Issues discussed included Competitiveness and
even before the downturn started. More and more architects Transport, Freight Movement, Energy, Planning and Policy,
Grangegorman here are specialising, whether in conservation, energy, or all in a transportation context. The Forum held a colloquium
urban design. Some of the issues this raises for urban design on Land Value Taxation on April 1st with a public meeting
were faced years ago in other specialisations; issues such as attended by over 300 the following evening. The Forum
accreditation, developing professional competencies, and have sponsored a research study by Dr. Constantin Gurdjiev
the need for separate CPD. In some other countries, urban of Trinity College, and a preliminary report will be sent to
design is specifically incorporated as a branch of learning the Commission on Taxation by the middle of May. The
into undergraduate architectural education, so that specialist Forum also intend to issue a manifesto in mid May before
architects in this field qualify with particular intentions for the local and European elections. This will be an update of
their careers. However, many argue that the broad scope of the manifesto issued in 2007, before the General Election. A
the traditional architectural degree allows for specialisation further colloquium on Green Infrastructure is being held on
at post-graduate level, after workplace experience, retaining May 26th at Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road.
broader employment opportunities for graduate architects.
A new initiative of the President of the RIAI, Sean O’Laoire, to Research
set up an Education Forum, involving architectural education, Many recent Irish research publications relating to the
with links to the Institute and the profession is a welcome urban environment could benefit from more dissemination.
opportunity to review the current position of urban design Amongst these is the recent Thesis of Liam Mannix, submitted
education at all levels. for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the Department
of Geography, University College, Cork, which is titled; “An
Grangegorman Masterplan and DIT Exploration of the sense of place of the residents of four
In Dublin’s North Inner City, directly west of Broadstone housing estates in Mallow”. The work deals with “the micro
Railway Station, 73 acres of walled off lands have been geographies of place and how they are sensed”, studied in a
subject of a Masterplan by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and specifically Irish town context. It explores how the manner in
Planners of California, in conjunction with DMOD Architects, which people feel and react to their houses, estates and town
Dublin. Cited as one of the largest undeveloped pieces of are both interlinked together, and dependant on the physical
land in the city, the intention is to relocate Dublin Institute form of each place, an individual’s accessibility and their
of Technology to a new single campus, from the current 40 emotional connections. More information is available from
or so locations currently occupied around Dublin. A primary [email protected].
intention of the plan is the reintegration of the site back
into the dense North Inner City fabric. More information is Agenda
available at www.ggda.ie. The recent National Housing Conference addressed many
issues related to urbanism, urban design and spatial planning.
Simultaneously, DIT architecture third year students have In particular, Session 3A, covering current Irish urban design

Proud suppliers of the Eircom HQ fit-out been considering the design of the urban fabric and buildings
in the area between the current Bolton Street facility and
policy and initiatives, dealt with National Policy, the Draft
Urban Design Manual, Street Design, and some current best
Grangegorman, leading to individual building design, in the practice. All papers can be downloaded at
context of a broader Masterplan for the area, agreed after http://www.nationalhousingconference.ie
an internal student Masterplan competition. It is hoped to
publish some of the student work, following on the successful This website relating to the current Moving Dublin exhibition
publication Utopia; Ballitore by DIT Architecture 3 about that at the Broadcast Gallery in Portland Row, Dublin, has many
village in 2008. videos, maps, etc of interest.
http://www.cityloops.net/Dublin/moving_dublin.html
AI 246 - 25
 Precast House, Howth, Co. Dublin, FKLarchitects
Garden Room, Castleknock, Dublin, Ronan Rose-Roberts Architects
25 St. James Hollybrook Park, Clontarf, Dublin, Boyd Cody Architects
246
1 Heuston South Quarter, Kilmainham, Dublin, Anthony Reddy Associates
Offices at Lincoln Place, Dublin, McCullough Mulvin Architects
Eurocampus, Clonskeagh, Dublin, A2 Architects
Retrofitting St. Anne’s Convent, Booterstown, Co. Dublin, MCO Projects

PROJECTS

AI 246 - 27
Architects Quantity Surveyors Main Contractor Photography PROJECT SizE
FKLarchitects Vesey and Associates Denis Finn Ltd Verena Hilgenfeld 358m2
Luis Aguirre Manso, Michael Bannon, Jim Vesey Denis Finn, Louise Loddick,
duRATiOn
Jeff Bolhuis, Michelle Fagan, John Traynor
18 Months
Verena Hilgenfeld, Paul Kelly,
Gary Lysaght Structural Engineers LOCATiOn
Barrett Mahony Consulting Engineering Howth, Fingal
John Considine, Linda O’Hara
Client SuSTAinAbiLiTy
Private Ground source
heat pump
Heat recovery
ventilation system

PREC AST HOuSE

HOw TH

2 3 4

FkLarchitects’ Account
The site is long, sloping, falling towards cliffs and is cut at each corner, making four recessed terraces At ground floor level (sleeping level) the situation is
the sea; the narrow dimension orientated on the and one at the entrance door. These cuts are more introverted and the figure ground relationship
abstract view of the sea and sky. Entering the site, defined by the polished precast concrete returning is the reverse of the first floor; the plan is treated
the viewer’s eye is drawn to the horizon, one is onto the soffit, the effect is to emphasise the as a solid mass that has been carved out to make
pulled towards the abstracted line. horizontal, again drawing the horizon line into the a cruciform circulation space with the bathrooms
interior space. The roof of each form is paved to and bedrooms retained inside the remaining form.
The project is defined in conceptual terms as three make a continuous surface returning from wall to The views from this ground floor circulation capture
discrete forms; garage, house and swimming pool, roof, the detail of the parapet is subsumed beneath framed glimpses to the landscape.
each emerging from the landscape, their respective the material.
heights being determined by the use of each form. 1 The form of the house is cut at each corner to
In the case of the garage, the form rises to allow Internally there are two different conditions; at make recessed terraces

access across its roof to the house. The house is first floor level (entry level) the plan is open with 2 - 4 Timber elements, slipped between floors
and ceiling - add contrast to the continuous
allowed to rise as high as possible to facilitate views the primary living spaces and entrance having an stone floor
at first floor level to the south, to the city and Dublin overlapping relationship. Within the field of the
Bay. The swimming pool emerges from the ground first floor, articulated by a continuous stone floor,
to provide a terrace on the south side of the house. a number of timber elements are slipped between
floor and ceiling planes, placed to allow definition in
The relationship between the three elements is a the flow of the space. Walnut cladding adds richness
casual one, slipped past each other, sliding towards to the interior and clearly defines these forms.
the sea. Each of the three forms is detailed in the The open nature of the space makes a panoramic
same manner and uses the same material, polished connection to the landscape and seascape beyond.
precast concrete. The surface tension across the The depth of the plan is illuminated with three roof
façades is maintained by the flush detailing of the lights, one in the family room, kitchen and living
windows and the glass balustrades. The reflected room. The roof lights act as lenses, tracking the
landscape is visible in both materials glass and progress of the sun while, at night, registering the
polished precast concrete. The form of the house presence of the moon.

28 - AI 246 1 AI 246 - 29
 5 6 7

First floor plan

(entry level)
1 Entrance terrace
2 Main entrance 1 9 8
3 Family room 7
4 Terrace 2 4
5 Kitchen/dinning room
6 Living room
7 Study
8 Bathroom
9 Cloakroom
3

5 4
4

1 5 15

First Floor Plan

8 Model

1 5 15

Ground floor plan

First Floor Plan
1 Gym
2 Terrace
14
3 Bedroom 13 9
4 En suite 5 The reflected landscape is visible in Section
5 Pool 11 the glass doors and balustrades
6 Bathroom/en suite 12 9
10 10
6 Interior spaces connect to the
7 Dressing room
landscape and seascape beyond
8 Master bedroom 1
9 Bedroom 7 The entrance and approach to
10 En suite the house
11 Utility room
12 Bathroom 8 The more introverted ground
3
4 6 7 8 floor spaces
13 Boiler room
14 Garage 2 9 The pond forms a poetic contrast
to the rectilinear geometry

30 - AI 246 AI 246 - 31
1 5 15
Re vie w

Infinite Space By Rory O’Donovan

The invitation to review a modern house built of pre-cast concrete on and gaze at the scudding clouds, the metallic sea. At places (between
panels produced a certain feeling of trepidation. Vague, long-suppressed areas of glazing for instance) the concrete panels are acid-etched, and
memories came back of an architecture school exercise to design a therefore matt with a slightly grainy feel. The architects deny any interest
clip-on pre-cast concrete module for a concrete frame office block, with in composing facades, yet the balance achieved in the use of different
canted sides, exposed aggregate finish etc. Experience has taught me textures cannot be accidental.
that many younger architects are excited by this kind of thing, but it still
makes me shudder. From behind you see how the house rises immediately and directly out of
the ground, the lawn runs almost right up to the walls, no indeterminate
On the driveway leading down to FKL’s house in Howth such fears were paved areas blur this immediacy. The long, narrow swimming pool on the
immediately dispelled. The (structural) insulated pre-cast panels used south side seems to have been cut out of a freestanding stone terrace,
here have no suggestion of gritty urban systemised building toughness one of the architects’ three “emergent forms” (house, pool, entrance
(the house is, after all, in one of Dublin’s finest suburbs). The subtle terrace), which matches the colour of the concrete. The pool, eventually
differentiation in the surface finishes (at some places the panels are to be screened from the driveway by planting, is understated. On the
polished and reflective, at others they have an acid- etched finish) is not other side of the house steps and slabs dotted in a lawn lead to a pond
arbitrarily but intriguingly employed. made by damming a stream, a poetic contrast to the rectilinear geometry,
strengthened by the evocative quality of the existing Italianate pine trees.
This Howth house stands on a steeply sloping site so of course the
views of the Irish Sea are breathtaking. What you see driving down the Inside the play of light and volume intensifies the lapidary quality of the
approach road (soon to be covered in gravel) first appears to be a single exterior, while adding the poetry of sunlight spilling across creamy stone
storey box of reddish brown stone out of which terraces and an entrance floors, walls of dark walnut, large sliding doors, generous circulation
area have been crisply cut. What looks like a low freestanding concrete space. The three steps down in the hall means the space grows taller,
wall on your left (that engages in a dialogue with a box on the flat roof even lighter, towards the view of the Irish Sea in front of you. The
of the house) directs you towards a flight of three steps. These bring you sequence of living spaces also has this lucidity, but roof lights at three
onto a large terrace in front of but also extending to one side of the house strategic points introduce the additional quality of light from above. The
– a moment of anticipation, time for visitors to collect their thoughts south-facing terraces have softly gleaming soffits of the same concrete,
before entering? A bridge connects this terrace to the entrance. On this and expand the living areas towards the horizon and the south Dublin
bridge, at the very latest, you realise you are in fact at first floor level, that coastline. Downstairs the bedrooms have elegantly fitted bathrooms; the
there is a sharp drop in the terrain and below you is a full floor – no hint of full height bedroom doors with integrated light fittings stand proud of
a subordinate basement level, the ground floor that rises directly out of the wall surface, the beds with headboards of walnut also have integrated
the site is in no way suppressed. lighting, in the lower staircase hall light panels are set flush in the wall, all
suggestive of an understandable architect’s wish to reduce and simplify
But before crossing the bridge perhaps it is better to go back and walk but this house could take some clutter in its stride, I think.
around the outside of this house. The reflective smoothness of the
polished concrete panels mirrors the sky and the trees. The flush glazing FKL’s Howth house is luxurious, no doubt about that, but it never strikes
(uninterrupted by mullions in a few large, dare I say it, “picture” windows) a pose or adopts an attitude, there are no laboured complexities in form
underlines the crispness of the building but to call it taut suggests a or plan, just a sequence of loosely interlocking clear volumes in light and,
tension, a self-conscious treatment of skin and surface, whereas this from almost everywhere, a view of the shifting sea with its suggestion of
house is utterly serene. The terraces extracted from the volume have almost infinite space.
glass parapets without uprights, just a comfortably broad handrail to rest

32 - AI 246 9 AI 246 - 33
Architects Structural/Civil Engineers Architectural Conservation Photography 1 The new extensions to the convent reflect Project Size
MCO Architects Barrett Mahony Consultancy Consultant Ros Kavanagh materials and proportions of the adjacent 1,830m2
structures without simulating them
Philip Crowe, Catriona Cantwell Enda Hoey John O’Connell
Duration
Liz Martin, Ciara O’Halloran 2 New and old create a cluster of buildings 15 months
Client Services Engineers Archaeologist 3 Window frames are recessed visually and location
Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, Delap & Waller Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. opening sections are accommodated in
Booterstown,
South Central Province Graeme Donne solid insulated timber panels
Co. Dublin
Sr. Anne Doyle and the St. Anne’s
Convent Community Contractor
Project Supervisor Design Process Allen and Smyth Constructions Ltd.
OLM Consultancy
Gabriela Schovancova

MCO Architects’ Account

Project Description simulating them. Dark stained cedar window frames receed

Retrofitting
St Anne’s Convent is located off Booterstown Avenue in Dublin, visually. Opening sections are accommodated in solid insulated
between the Church of the Assumption and St Andrew’s College. timber panels. The brickwork and lime mortar relates to the brick
The project involved the restoration of a grouping of protected detailing to both the rear of the Church and the new lime render
structures and the construction of two new extensions. The to the original Convent buildings.

St Anne’s Convent original villa on the site dates from 1760 and was extended in
1820. The Sisters of Mercy have been resident at St Anne’s from
1838 when a link corridor and east wing were constructed. The
New circulation spaces are located at the junction of the protected
structures and the new north extension, allowing the distinction
client brief was to provide sustainable residential accommodation between old and new structures to be easily read and aiding
appropriate to the age profile of the community and related legibility. A lightwell is created at this junction allowing light to
archive, workspace and education accommodation for the penetrate down to ground floor and the north façade of the east
community and associates. wing to be read rising up three storeys.

The aim of the design was to create a compact cluster of buildings To the south, the original courtyard has been retained and
that provides coherent and functional internal and external spaces landscaping altered to allow higher levels of natural light to
for the variety of uses required. A number of outbuildings and basement areas. The space between the east wing and the
additions to the protected structures were demolished to create Church has been rationalised and a new extension providing
a simple configuration of the original villa and east wing. A north service spaces for the protected structure was constructed. The
facing courtyard provided a site for the north extension, allowing remaining external courtyard space provides universal access
the Parish Centre, rear of the Church and Convent to form a north from the south and allows increased levels of natural light into
facing street elevation. This new street provides exclusive access the Church and Convent. The new extension to the east courtyard
directly off Booterstown Avenue and the north extension creates has a contrasting self-coloured render finish, responding to the
the principal entry point to the Convent. collection of rendered buildings to the south side. A dark colour
has been chosen to contrast with the colour of adjacent buildings.
The north extension is broken down into two main elements of
similar proportion to the original villa (1760) and west extension The original buildings required extensive conservation works and
(1820). The smaller section is positioned at an angle to register the have been carefully upgraded in terms of services and energy
entry from Booterstown Avenue and the step back to the rear of performance. The configuration of original spaces has been largely
the Church. The building height is designed to read in line with retained and new uses allocated to suit the scale and nature of the
the original villa. Materials and fenestration configuration reflect space. The buildings therefore retain an historic and viable use and
the qualities of the adjacent protected structures without directly their original form can be easily read.

2 3

50 - AI 246 1 AI 246 - 51
 4 5 10 11

Retrofitting ventilation with heat recovery. The north extension uses a Site plan
The Convent is designed as lifetime housing for a community number of high performance building elements including 1 1820 west extension
2 1760 villa 9
of Sisters, providing private and communal spaces in clearly a masonry full fill cavity wall construction with terracotta 3 New north extension
1
defined zones, high density accommodation and shared cellular core block (poroton) inner leaf and brick outer leaf 4 1838 east wing
10
5 New east extension
facilities with flexibility for any future required adaptations. with 120mm of insulation, achieving a U value of 0.2W/sq.mK.
6 Church of the Assumption
2
The east extension also uses terracotta cellular core blocks 7 Parish centre
The re-use of the existing structures avoids significant loss of but with 120mm of external insulation protected by a render, 8 New car park
9 Boiler house 8
embodied energy and the project provides a viable use for achieving a U value of 0.19W/sq.mK. Window units have 10 South court
the protected structures. Conservation works are inherently minimal frames and high performance glazing, achieving U 11 New entrance 4

sustainable in their retention and re-use of original fabric values of 1.3 W/sq.mK. The sedum roof on both extensions New extentions 3
5
and use of natural products and traditional skills to allow also provides high levels of insulation as well as absorbing Existing building 7

the structures to re-establish their original building fabric nitrates and other harmful materials, rainwater attenuation,
performance and appearance. Original building fabric acoustic absorption, and protection of waterproofing. 5

elements such as floorboards, granite rubble and cills (re-used

as steps), windows and doors have been re-incorporated into All types of construction used in the project are detailed to
the buildings where appropriate. Many new products in the achieve an optimal level of airtightness – including use of
extensions are made from recycled materials - for example masonry construction with lime mortar, external and internal
6
fermacell in lieu of plasterboard and eco-block in lieu of lime renders, and timber framed sections incorporating a
11
tarmacadam or similar. breather membrane and airtightness membrane.

The protected structures will have greatly improved energy The mechanically ventilated heat recovery system reduces
performance and comfort. Works included insulation under heat loss and any need for open windows or vents. The
the new ground floor slab, between floors and in attic spaces; system is integrated into all areas of the new and old buildings
new draught-sealed sash windows; careful detailing around excepting the first and second floors of the original villa.
windows and doors; installation of draught lobbies; and new Ground floor plan

external and internal lime render to improve airtightness. A biomass boiler in a separate out-building provides hot water 1 Circulation
2 Community rooms 4 2 2
A controlled ventilation system with heat recovery was to all areas. Meters for electricity and hot water use have been 3 W/c’s
4 2
1 2
1
integrated into the protected structures in areas without intact installed to enable the community to manage usage and bills, 4 Stores
5 Kitchen 1 1
ceilings. The proximity of the buildings clustered together and to facilitate monitoring of building performance. 2 3
1 3
means that surface area and therefore heat loss is reduced, 4

building footprint is minimised and free land is maximised. The landscaping makes extensive use of permeable surfaces 1 5 3 4
including eco-block, nida-gravel and permeable paving in
The new extensions will require minimal heating due to the order to reduce loading on drains.
high peformance insulation, airtightness and controlled 1
2
6 8 9
4 A dark self coloured render was chosen 10 Original building fabric such as
for the east extension to contrast with floorboards and windows was retained
adjacent buildings where possible
2
5 The new extensions are designed as 11 The cluster of the restored buildings
high performance buildings including the 1760 villa and
Church of the Assumption
6 Poroton innerleaf with 120mm full fill
cavity insulation and brick outerleaf
during construction

7 Secondary glazing to internalised

original windows for fire compartment Elevation
separation

8 Vents for mechanically ventilated heat

recovery system installed in protected
structure
7
9 Secondary glazing to original window
to provide fire separation from existing
external fire stair

52 - AI 246 AI 246 - 53
architects featured in this issue

FKLarchitects building types such as commercial, industrial, educational and residential.

(Precast House, Howth, Co. Dublin) We use our knowledge to assist our clients to use space more productively,
FKLarchitects are committed to the application of abstract ideas to built to enhance organisational performance and to develop sustainable design
form and to a pragmatic, first principles approach to environmentally solutions which are flexible over time.
aware design, responding to the specifics of site and program to
formulate a singular concept that informs all aspects of the design. In
conjunction with Culture Ireland and the Irish Architecture Foundation, McCullough Mulvin Architects
FKL curated and designed the Irish entry for the Venice Biennale 2006 (Offices at Lincoln Place, Lincoln Place, Dublin)
SubUrban to SuperRural on the issue of urban sprawl. FKL took part in McCullough Mulvin Architects is a design-based architecture and urban
the Lisbon Architecture Triennale with d-void in 2007. design practice located in Dublin. Projects include the Ussher Library in
Trinity College Dublin, the Model and Niland Gallery in Sligo, Waterford City
Library and the Source Arts Centre and Library in Thurles, cultural and civic
Ronan Rose-Roberts Architects buildings, libraries and schools. Themes include working to define a new
(Garden Room, Castleknock, Dublin) public realm in a changing society, dealing with Ireland’s diffuse light and
Ronan Rose-Roberts Architects is an architectural practice committed stark materiality, exploring the potential for an ordinary monumentality,
to designing high quality buildings which fuse contemporary design, and forming architecture outside and around the brief. The practice has
energy-efficiency and environmental sustainability. We apply our an interest in very particular contexts, making a layered architecture of
creativity, enthusiasm and technical expertise to every project to design sublimated reference which reflects a specific response to site and place,
buildings and spaces which are beautiful, environmentally responsible or forming modern interventions in existing buildings, an open-ended
and sensitive to their context. Our work ranges from new buildings to exploration of materials and form, which can occur at any scale. McCullough
interventions in old structures. The practice was founded by Ronan Mulvin Architects’ work is extended by publication, teaching and research
Rose-Roberts in 2002 and has established a reputation for high-quality and has been exhibited throughout Europe, most recently at the Venice
design, environmental responsibility and a reliable, professional service Biennale 2008.
for clients. We have offices in Dublin and Wicklow. Ronan Rose-Roberts
Architects is accredited in Conservation at Grade III. Ronan is currently
serving on RIAI Council. A2 Architects
(Eurocampus, Clonskeagh, Dublin)
A2 Architects was established in 2005 by Peter Carroll (born Limerick 1971)
Boyd Cody Architects and Caomhán Murphy (born Dublin 1971) and is based in Great Strand
(25 St. James Hollybrook Park, Clontarf, Dublin) Street, Dublin. Joan McElligott was made an associate of the practice in
Dermot Boyd and Peter Cody graduated from Dublin Institute of March 2009. In 2007, A2 Architects co-represented Ireland at the inaugural
Technology (DIT) in 1990. Peter Cody received a masters degree Lisbon Architecture Triennale. Their project in Portobello entitled ‘One
from Columbia University in 1996. Both served as Presidents of the Up One Down One Deep’ won Best House Extension Category at the RIAI
Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) on their return to Ireland. Awards 2008. Eurocampus was officially opened by the French and German
Boyd Cody Architects was established in 2000. The practice won the Ambassadors to Ireland on the anniversary of the signing of the Franco
Monaghan Civic Offices Competition in 2002. Boyd Cody Architects German Élysée Treaty on 22 January 2009. Current projects include a
has received numerous awards since its foundation, including the AAI housing project in Lucky Lane, Stoneybatter, Dublin, a nursing home in the
Downes Medal in 2005 for excellence in architectural design. Their Midlands and a number of houses and house extensions throughout Ireland.
work has also been widely published here and abroad and featured in
the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2006 and the Lisbon Architectural
Triennale in 2007. Dermot Boyd teaches at DIT and Peter Cody at UCD. MCO Projects
The practice is currently working on a series of houses in Ireland and (Retrofitting St. Anne’s Convent, Booterstown, Co. Dublin)
larger scale developments in Dublin and Athens. MCO Projects, specialising in sustainable design and 4D planning, is
an award-winning company providing turn-key architecture, project
management, and environmental engineering services. Through cross-
Anthony Reddy Associates disciplinary knowledge MCO Projects has earned a reputation as a cutting- Simplicity is a dynamic lighting system
The Reddy Architecture + Urbanism Group
(1 Heuston South Quarter, Kilmainham, Dublin )
edge sustainable planning and development practice, providing creative that keeps you positive all day.
and pragmatic solutions across a diverse portfolio of projects. MCO
The Reddy Architecture + Urbanism Group works extensively Projects was established by Laura Magahy and Eve-Anne Cullinan (former
Philips Dynamic Lighting. At the heart of every successful company are motivated
throughout Ireland, directing projects from its Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Executive Directors of Temple Bar Properties) with Philip Crowe, Director of people. One of the major influences on this is the quality of light they’re exposed to.
Sligo and Kilkenny Offices. The Group’s expertise includes architecture, Architecture and Paraic Davis, Director of Environmental Engineering.
master planning, urban design, space planning, and interior design.
Employees who work in natural daylight feel energized and positive and therefore perform
The group has considerable experience working with both public and better. Philips Dynamic Lighting is a solution to support people’s natural rhythm of activity
private sector clients and has successfully completed a wide range of
throughout the day. From cool energizing light through to warm relaxing light, creating a
motivating working environment.

54 - AI 246 www.philips.com/dynamiclighting
Project - UCC School of Nursing, Cork :: Architect - RKD :: Fabricator - Duggan Systems :: MC - P.J. Wallis

Your vision, our solution

P r o j e c t G A L L ER Y
This section profiles innovative products and construction technology as showcased in the buildings featured in this issue

1 3 5

Green Roofs by Bauder (1) Eircom Workstations by Bushell SAS International’s System 600 in
Bauder is one of Europe’s leading Interiors Ltd (3) Eircom (5)
manufacturers of waterproofing In partnership with Anthony Reddy SAS International developed and
membranes. With over 150 years of Associates and the Eircom project team, produced a raft design that fitted within
experience and expertise in the roofing Bushell Interiors designed a customised the building’s elliptical pre-cast concrete
industry, Bauder is widely recognised workspace and storage solution, which ceiling coffers. In this open plan office
for both quality of service and product fulfils the requirements of all the staff. development with exposed soffit,
innovation. Their flat roof waterproofing The workstation desk by Konig & Neurath, suspended SAS International rafts were
systems exceed industry expectations Germany incorporates a progressive an ideal choice as they maximize the
and provide a single source solution. cable management system and is part exposed area of concrete. The exposed
Bauder’s commitment to continually of a suite of freestanding and fitted soffit allows for the thermal mass to be
advancing their products and systems furniture units with a variety of internal exploited, however, acoustics can be a
ensures that they can deliver the right fixtures including wardrobes, lateral particular concern. The narrow raft panels
technical and commercial solution for filing and shelving. The division screen is primarily support the luminaires, house
each individual project. Green roofs were designed specifically to incorporate cable smoke detectors and PIR sensors, but also
installed by Bauder in St. Anne’s Convent, management and hold the computer promote acoustic absorption. The office
Booterstown by MCO Projects and in York VDU, mounted on a Humanscale monitor floor plates are broken up by the core
Street Houseing by SHA Architects arm. The personal desk storage unit was areas for service elements such as lifts,
www.bauder.ie designed by Bushells to satisfy the specific stairs, toilets and tea stations to achieve
requirements of Eircom staff. Bushells also an uncluttered office space. Above the
Philips Light Eircom with supplied meeting room and conference core areas, SAS International’s clip-in metal
Great Energy Efficiency (2) tables with cable management, a variety System 150 ceiling tiles were specified, both
Eircom’s landmark new headquarters of meeting chairs, canteen furniture and in perforated and plain forms.
2 use the latest Philips lighting technology conference furniture. A wireless web access www.sasint.co.uk
including Philips Smartform 1*49 watt area at the rear of the building features
luminaire with an extremely high Bushells’ frameless curved ‘Hotdesks’ with Maximizing functionality at Howth (6)
light output ratio of 92%. In using the a minimalistic look. Bushells maintain an The Precast Kitchen Howth was supplied
special optic, the load is nearly halved ongoing relationship with the facility staff by McNally Living, 44-46 Serpentine
compared to a standard solution. Arup in Eircom, which includes direct requests Avenue, Dublin 4. The handleless Alno Art
services engineer Tom Ascough paid via an internal website as requirements Pro kitchen with real aluminum moulded
much attention to energy efficiency; arise, thereby highlighting Eircom’s needs frames and high-gloss rear lacquered glass
Eircom hq has a load of about 8 watts to our project team immediately. doors creates a brilliant mirrored effect,
per m2, compared to 20 watts per m2 in www.bushellinteriors.com this door won a Red Dot Design Award in
most buildings. A sophisticated Philips 2007. Designed with a streamlined effect
LightMaster control system integrates all D&R Daylight Services in in mind while maximizing functionality
luminaires to have full daylight, presence Precast House (4) this door style was the ideal choice.
and capping control brings the load The Flushglaze and Vision Vent range Complimented by Basaltina worktops
down to 4.5 watts per m2. The simplicity by D & R Daylight Services was used this ties in with the Aluminum recessed
and integration of the luminaires, such as in the Precast House in Howth by handles & moulded frame detail. Behind
the square Latina luminaires and circular FKLarchitects. Opening and fixed flat glass the kitchen doors is a wealth of fascinating
suspended Rotaris luminaires, give the roof lights were specified for this highly new storage features, ensuring the highest
Eircom hq a unique and timeless look. contemporary house. The concept is standards of fittings and construction
A 4 State-of the art floodlighting, using based on an innovative design to achieve not forgetting a high functioning
Philips LedLine, illuminates the exterior. maximum daylight, longevity and high internal layout.
Full architectural design & specification consultation service available. The control system produces different performance. The Flushglaze can be
lighting effects that can be changed easily tailored to meet many shapes and sizes McNally have recently renovated their
AMS : Wallingstown : Little Island : Cork : Ireland to suit the season and a special occasion. from square, rectangular, triangular and Ballsbridge Showrooms & now have 4
Tel : 00 353 21 4705100 : Fax : 00 353 21 4705199. Next time you take a train from Heuston circular. For more information on the roof Floors showing each of their brands in
Or contact Pat O’Hara station, have a quick look out the window light range contact D&R Daylight Services their spacious new showroom. For more
Mobile : 00 353 87 2564504 : Fax : 00 353 21 4705198 and enjoy the architecture and energy Ltd, T 01 409 7834, information or to make an appointment
Email : [email protected] efficiency of this classic building. www.domesandrooflightservices.com please phone 6604856.
ARCHITECTURAL & METAL SYSTEMS 6
www.philips.com/dynamiclighting www.mcnallyliving.ie
CLICK: www.ams.ie
AI 246 - 57
 RETROFITTING

An internal membrane that allows ENERGY EFFICIENCY

vapour diffusion
yet remains completely airtight
IN HISTORIC BUILDINGS
- that’s intelligent! CONFERENCE
Report by Eimear Hearne

The Department of Environment, Heritage and Local rewarded. Equally interesting were findings presented by Dr
Government and Irish Georgian Society conference at Dublin Paul Baker of Glasgow Caledonian University, whose research
Castle in March brought together legislators, regulators, indicates that vertical sliding sash single-glazed windows
designers, contractors, suppliers and building owners and with working shutters have the same U-value as a double
managers to address the issue of sustainable energy usage glazed window.
in historic buildings. The 330 attendees were treated to
a large number of short presentations, some setting the Paul Arnold, of this parish, showed some thermographic
overall context, such as by Minister of State Michael Finneran images which indicated the impact of dampness on heat loss
and DoEHLG Chief Architect Martin Colreavy, who spoke of through masonry walls, and also reported on recent findings
For further information on Intello Plus issues of sustainability at the scale of town planning. Martin from England where a study has shown that 19th century
Vaughan of the DoEHLG described the status of the BER court buildings have yet to be equalled by contemporary
Intelligent vapour check, glues, tapes and seals:
scheme. constructions in terms of low energy consumption. Through
www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com being top-lit, their naturally ventilated spaces are not
Indeed, the subsequent presentation by Dr Nigel Blades of requiring air handling. Robert Barnham of Changeworks
[email protected] the National Trust for England, Wales and Northern Ireland Edinburgh outlined the practical and social issues related
demonstrated how prudent management of energy had to improving thermal efficiency through significant
Tel: 046 9432104 resulted in a 35% reduction in consumption across National engagement with building owners and users while Niall
Trust properties, without any changes to the fabric of the McCullough commented on the relationship between new
buildings: a non-rigid approach to environmental control architectural interventions and sustainability by reference to
allows internal temperatures to fluctuate over a wider range several of his practice’s recent schemes. Edith Blennerhasset
than is normally considered acceptable, from 5 to 22 degrees. of Buro Happold addressed the issue of mechanical and
Relative humidity is controlled within a 15% range, rather electrical services in historic buildings, while Peter Smith

The Passive House Centre

than the 5% range more typically demanded for collections of Ecological Building Systems promoted the use of non-
of historic artifacts. Working with Phillips, a low energy bulb compressing and breathable materials for insulation.
which simulates a traditional incandescent bulb is being
Tr u s t e d Solutions. Beautiful Results. developed, with more acceptable colour rendering than
a more usual compact fluorescent fitting. Responding to
A conference which generates such a large attendance
is clearly addressing current issues for society. While the
questions from the floor, Kevin O’Rourke of SEI denied that overall issue of thermal efficiency in historic buildings is the
any BER assessors had been qualified who had not a building subject of a DoEHLG advice series booklet to be published
related core trade or profession. As the day progressed, it in the autumn, one issue to emerge is the correct means of
was clear that the complexity of the issues related to energy assessing the energy performance of historic buildings, in
performance and historic buildings were such as to challenge the context of the system of Building Energy Rating, which
the fundamental application of the BER system to historic may engender poor conservation practice in the pursuit of
buildings. narrowly conceived energy efficiency goals.

Dr Gary White of the Crichton Carbon Centre presented In this context, it is noteworthy that the conference’s co-host,
findings from recent research into Embodied Energy and the Irish Georgian Society, is promoting sensitive solutions
Life Cycle Assessment of buildings: the results indicate that, for increasing the energy efficiency of historic buildings.
when all embodied energy is taken into consideration, In partnership with local authority Conservation Officers
The Passive House Centre has grown from the success of the brands
upgraded traditional buildings will out-perform modern new and Heritage Officers, the Georgian Society will be holding
Quality HRV and Niveau Ireland.
construction. Further, the lowest level of upgrade was found regional seminars tailored for historic homeowners on this
We provide specialist knowledge, products and advice for those seeking to be more efficient in energy terms than more elaborate, theme in the second half of 2009. Notification of these
to build to passive or near passive house standard in Ireland. energy-consumption-generated upgrades. This leads seminars, as well as abstracts and powerpoint presentations
inexorably to a questioning of the BER assessment system, of the Dublin Castle conference may be accessed on the
Supplying and installing superior quality ventilation systems, windows, where it appears that embodied energy is not sufficiently Society’s website www.igs.ie.
doors and conservatories, we provide long-term guarantees on all
of our products, delivering excellence in air-tightness and home
comfort.

Call us today for more information.

Kilbeggan, Westmeath, Ireland.

Ph: +353 (0) 57 933 36 80 Fax: +353 (0) 57 933 21 06 Concepts for a Beautiful Home
Superior Quality Windows, Doors &
www.thepassivehousecentre.ie Conservatories.
AI 246 - 59
 G oing Passive
in E urope
The International Passive House Conference 2009, Germany Report by Gráinne Shaffrey

“Innovation finds its staunchest opponents in those who were house buildings have plant rooms. Space is also needed to
successful under the old conditions and its strongest supporters accommodate the ventilation ductwork within even the
among those who are successful under the new conditions”. simplest of buildings.
(from Machiavelli)
• Co-ordinated design and planning – there is a greater
So spoke Professor Ludwig Rongen at the 13th Passive House need to plan well in advance for passive house and ensure
Conference, held in Frankfurt in April, which was attended by thorough coordination of ‘services’ and architecture.
a strong Irish delegation, supported by Sustainable Energy
Ireland (SEI). Professor Rongen’s theme was new opportunities • A new on-site culture: the standard of finish we observed
in architecture and he illustrated his presentation with a during the site visits, in particular the mechanical
1
range of architecturally stimulating buildings that also met installations, was considerably higher than that generally
the remarkably low energy standards of the Passive House. seen in Ireland. To have any chance of meeting these
“Architecture must deal with the challenges of its times. Aesthetics standards – and the passive house approach is less forgiving
alone are not enough…yet the Passive House can also be aesthetic than traditional building systems with little tolerance on
and cost effective”. aspects such as air-tightness and thermal bridging – we
need a whole new culture of on site practice which will
The Passive House approach to low energy building1, which require greater responsibility and training of all participants
provides a certifiable standard for energy consumption in the construction industry.
of buildings in use, is now firmly established in Germany.
Frankfurt City Council passed a resolution towards achieving • A new culture of maintenance: While the overall
2
a passive house standard for all city-owned and city used maintenance demand on the passive house is actually
buildings. www.stadt-frankfurt.de/energiemanagement quite low, critical areas such as the cleaning/renewal
of filters mean that maintenance regimes must be fully
There were over 74 presentations during the two day implemented.
conference, presented within a number of themed working
group sessions which offered choice to the delegates. A most • Costs: The German experience is that the total additional
useful publication I picked up at the associated exhibtion was costs for Passive House, amortised over 10 to 20 years, are in
“Wir bauen uns ein Sonnenhaus” (We are building a Passive- the order of 5 to 8%.
House) – a wonderfully illustrated book aimed at the 5 to 10-
year-old and equally useful introduction for clients, contractors SEI and the Irish Building Regulations are directing us
and, professionals. (www.aap.architekten – to order English towards Passive House design and construction standard
3
version at a price of €19.50 plus post). Site visits were to a new or something equivalent. If this is the future, then architects
housing development in nearby Darmstadt; the 2007 winner of and architectural technicians will need training. Other issues
1 Terrace of externally insulated Passive
House dwellings (south facade) located a ‘house of tomorrow’ student competition which was erected which need to be addressed, if adopting this approach,
in a new ‘green’ residential quarter in
Darmstadt. at Darmstadt University (www.solardecatholon.org ) and a include the need to ensure that construction methods and
small community building located in the historic centre of a materials are appropriate for the prevailing climatic conditions
2 Irish delegates enjoy the sunny south side
of the 2007 ‘House of Tomorrow’ winner neighbouring village. of the site – not all systems/materials which might work in
erected in Darmstadt University
continental Europe will be suitable for Ireland. How concerned
3 Externally insulated Passive House parish A number of observations resonated with me after the should we be about the embodied energy of the materials
Community Centre in the historic centre of a
small village near Darmstadt. three days: used? How adaptable is this system for the traditional solid,
breathable wall construction of which most of our older, pre
• Masterplanning/Site planning/Orientation: Orientation is 1950s buildings comprise? These are issues which SEI and
crucial – The housing schemes we visited were laid out on other state departments/agencies (the National Building
a regular north/south grid Building heights and the space Agency perhaps?) can address through research, pilot projects,
between buildings are determined by sunlight angles. case study publications and, critically, monitoring. For those
While this can result in rather bland and repetitive layouts, interested in up-skilling in this area, 10-day accredited courses
the quality of architectural and landscape design overcame in Passive House planning will be available shortly in a number
1. A passive house is a building in which the limitations of the site plan. of European countries, including the University of Strathclyde
a comfortable interior climate can be in Glasgow. SEI is also hoping to arrange a 10-day course
achieved without an active heating and
air conditioning system. The house ‘heats’
• Greater space – wall thicknesses are greater, not just tailored for Ireland.
and cools itself purely passively and the external walls but internal partitions and party walls.
prerequisite is a specific annual thermal While there are some amazing developments in high SEI is to be congratulated for their support of the Irish
heat requirement of less than 15kWh/
(sqm/a). A maximum total specific primary
efficiency thin insulations (vacuum insulations can provide delegation. SEI is also responsible, through its Manager, Paul
energy requirement per sqm of floor space up to 10 times greater efficiency), generally walls will be Dykes, for the first English language version of the Passive
of 120 kWh(sqm/a) for room heating, hot considerably thicker, especially if using more ecological House Planning Package (PHPP). Further information on
water generation and residential electricity
consumption puts the emphasis on
materials. Plant rooms need more space – and all passive www.sei.ie.
renewable energy sources.
AI 246 - 61
 The Passive House Centre has grown from the success of the brands
Quality HRV and Niveau Ireland.

We provide specialist knowledge, products and advice for those seeking

to build to passive or near passive house standard in Ireland.

Supplying and installing superior quality ventilation systems, windows,

doors and conservatories, we provide long-term guarantees on all
of our products, delivering excellence in air-tightness and home
comfort.

1 2
Call us today for more information. 3 4

Kilbeggan, Westmeath, Ireland.

Ph: +353 (0) 57 933 36 80 Fax: +353 (0) 57 933 21 06
www.thepassivehousecentre.ie
PRODUCT NEWS

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
AND RETROFITTING
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into the design or retro-fit of buildings. Thermomax hands leaving them completely dry.
vacuum tube collectors meet the minimum Part L www.dysonairblade.com
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hot water needs. They provide the mandatory (3) Monoslide60 – A Pioneering Moveable Glass Wall
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cent of Space Heating and Domestic Hot Water to Irish U-value of just 1.8 (Uv = 1.8k/m2) and is compatible
homes all-year-round, and help reduce energy bills and with all Low-E glazing units up to 42mm thick including
carbon emissions. Solamax is designed to generate in-glazed blinds with either magnetic or electronic
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represents the best product of its kind available today weather rating. Available from Designflow Spielmanns.
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on the best system, through to providing the most
suitable partners for installation. (4) The Passive House Centre
www.kingspansolar.com. Providing specialist knowledge, products and advice
for those seeking to build to passive house standard
(2) The Sustainable Way of Drying Hands – in Ireland, the Passive House Centre has grown from
Dyson Airblade the success of the brands Quality HRV and Niveau
The Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer has become a Ireland. Supplying and installing superior quality
popular fixture in Irish shopping centres, restaurants ventilation systems, windows, doors and conservatories,
and hospitals and has just been specified for Terminal they provide long-term guarantees on all products,
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seconds to dry hands with a sheet of filtered air. But it is Products include superior quality windows, doors and
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of a single paper towel. Powered by Dyson’s long-life,
low energy digital motor, the Dyson Digital Motor
(DDM) produces an air stream flowing at 400mph.

AI 246 - 63
 the online space for all things architecture
visit architecturenow daily and keep the industry up-to-date with your practice news
in association with:

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

20 09 A A I AWA R D S
Competition Assessors There was standing room only at the annual AAI Awards, Awards
Wilfried Wang, (critic and architect) held at the Irish Architectural Archive in April, but Grafton House in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny (4)
Grainne Hassett,
Hassett Ducatez Architects Architects would otherwise have received a standing ovation Boyd Cody Architects
Eero Koivisto, from their peers as they collected double honours in form of
Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects, Light House Cinema, Smithfield, Dublin (5)
Stockholm a Special Award for 7-9 Merrion Row and The Billets and the
DTA Architects
Dominic Papa, prestigious Downes Medal for Università Luigi Bocconi, Milan.
S333 Architects, London
Tim Robinson, (artist and author), Grafton Architects co-founder, Yvonne Farrell spoke movingly Jig-Saw, Leeson Park, Dublin (6)
Connemara (distinguished non-architect) of the emergence of an “architectural culture that exists in McCullough Mulvin Architects
Ireland today, without which we would not have been brave
Lincoln Place, Dublin (7)
enough to make this kind of architecture”. Farrell said she
McCullough Mulvin Architects
therefore wanted to “share the award with everyone in the
room as well as with her colleagues, staff and co-director The Sleeping Giant, Killiney, Co Dublin (8)
Shelly McNamara who happened to be in Milan on the awards O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects
evening”.
The AAI also awarded 19 Special Mentions including for
O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects received the second Special Eurocampus by A2 Architects, featured in this issue. The 24th
Award for their Sean O’Casey Community Centre in the AAI Awards Exhibition features the 27 entries selected by
East Wall. Assessor Grainne Hassett reflected eloquently on the jury (the highest number ever), and include all the other
a common theme in this year’s award-winning buildings, entries submitted. Details of venues are available on the AAI
namely the “relationship between the citizen and the website. The AAI Awards 2009 are also documented in book
institution, and the choices made by the architects about form as the 24th volume of New Irish Architecture, published
citizenship and communal values”. by Gandon Editions. The AAI Awards are grant-aided by The
Arts Council and sponsored by Tegral Building Products Ltd.
Downes Medal www.architecturalassociation.ie
Università Luigi Bocconi, Milan (1)
Grafton Architects

Special Awards
7-9 Merrion Row + The Billets, Dublin (2)
Grafton Architects

Seán O’Casey Community Centre,

East Wall, Dublin (3)
O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects

www.architecturenow.ie AI 246 - 65
archer heritage planning PRODUCT GALLERy

ROOFING AND
archer heritage planning is a proven partnership of experienced consultants who have delivered
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cost, quality and delivery with the need to protect our heritage. Curtain Walling (1)
Double Skin Façade by Wicona Wicona unitised curtain walling was specified to maximise
archer heritage planning are The double-skin façade for the award-winning Beatson light transmission while reducing solar gain. Each double
We offer the following services
Cancer Research Facility at the University of Glasgow uses skin unitised panel carries a pane of laminated structurally
• Archaeological Test Trenching an innovative system of Wicona unitised curtain walling. bonded glass on the outside, with a double glazed unit behind.
• Archaeological Monitoring
• Archaeological Excavation Designed by Edinburgh-based Architects Reiach and Hall Insulated opaque glass conceals services, and the third face
• EIA (www.reiachandhall.co.uk), the £12m scheme is a world of the external glass is fritted. The pattern was designed as
• Constraints Reports and Route
Options centre of excellence for cancer research. It takes the form of an art piece by artist Alan Johnston, and provides an unusual
• Landscape Survey
• Historic Building Survey
a transparent crystalline cube, which reflects the advanced solar screen, and reduces the amount of UV light entering
• Geophysical Survey nature of the research and contrasts with the historic nature the building. The façade units are up to 3.9m high and 1.6m
Aidan O’Connell BA MIAI Ciaran McGuinness CPA MBA Robert O’Hara BA MIAI
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
of the site and the surrounding walled garden. According wide and were prefabricated and glazed off site, reducing
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archer heritage planning have extensive experience of large and small projects, for public and private sector challenge was to achieve “a high degree of transparency and www.wicona.ie and www.wiconaprojects.co.uk
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� Ensures optimum insulation performance the tradition of slating in Ireland. That process continues today, to roof buildings throughout Ireland since the 14th century.
through the innovative use of a new generation of Tegral Available from LBS (Lagan Building Solutions), these slates
� Complements and surpasses Passivhaus airtightness standards slates. The fibrecement manufacturing process, as used by are universally acknowledged as the best quality slate in the
� Superior indoor air quality Tegral, was developed at the beginning of the 20th century. world and have a lifespan measures in centuries, not decades.
The combination of fully compressed raw materials produced In addition to its own quarries in Wales, LBS also offer a range
� High structural safety a strong, flexible and durable material. Fibrecement has many of slates from other parts of the world including Spain and the
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Available in Blue-Black and Heather colours, Rivendale also
comes with a 20-year colour guarantee. AI 246 - 67
 P roduct G aller y

F urniture N ews
Launched at Milan Furniture Fair
The Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano, which takes place annually in April in the Italian
style capital, is arguably the most important launch pad for new furniture designs. Architecture
Ireland profiles some of the most interesting product launches, available from Irish suppliers
Minima, Bob Bushell and Walls2Workstations.

German furniture manufacturer Knoll New from Alias is Stabiles, a system

celebrated 70 years of its ‘Good Design of tables designed by Alfredo Haberli
is Good Business’ philosophy with (below), with inspiration from the steel
an exclusive evening at their Milan structures designed by Alexander Calder
showroom. The event saw the launch between 1945 and 1985. The lacquered
of new collections by well known hardwood tables are available in
architects and designers, along with different heights and sizes.
the introduction of new products and
finishes for existing collections.

Available from Bob Bushell

www.bushellinteriors.com
Andreu World presented at Milan a
versatile new chair line, entitled Lineal
Confidente (above), which is suitable for
both the contract market (i.e. offices and
conference halls) as wells the private
home. The chair has been designed by Minima’s new Waterfront
Lievore Altherr Molina for Andreu World. Minima (below), which has brought
In the Lineal line, shapes have been such esteemed designers as Bruno
reduced to the essential without lacking Fattorini of MDF Italia and Romeo Sozzi
Known for his ability to anticipate trends luxury. www.andreuworld.com of Promemoria to Ireland has taken
and for his use of innovative materials up a new 200m2 showroom in the
and organic forms, Ross Lovegrove Also designed by Molina, a new outdoor Waterfront development (designed by
has created a radical new collection for range, entitled LandscapeOne is intended BKD Architects) just a short stroll from
KnollStudio. The collection includes for both formal and informal use. The Libeskind’s new Grand Canal Theatre.
a range of circular and rectangular line comes with an oversized sofa, “Despite the recent downturn, people
tables and table desks alongside low tables, chairs and armchair. A specially are renovating and investing in what
level pedestals and credenzas (above). developed new wood ECOLINGUS they have”, says managing director
At the heart of the new collection is a provides an alternative to teak and offers Helen Kilmartin who founded the
commitment to the environment and a similar weather-resistant function. company in 1996. Kilmartin’s vision is
sustainability. The frames are produced to “create an interior of excellence in
from 90% recycled steel which fold flat Dublin, where the best in European
for shipping to save on air transport. design is accessible to everyone”. On

ECOSE™ TECHNOLOGY Available from www.w2w.ie display are pieces by Cassina, B&B Italia,
Emmemobili, Arper, MDF Italia, Flexform,
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touch
1 2 3

P R O D U C T S & T E C H N O LO G Y

P roduct news
1 (Left to right) Ashley Heath, Chairman (1) Award for TileStyle (3) Armstrong Ceilings Recycling Programme
of The Tile Association, Lisa Geoghegan,
General Manager, TileStyle, At The Tile Association Awards in Birmingham in April, TileStyle The Armstrong Ceilings Recycling Programme is a meaningful
Mary Hennessy, Sales Director, TileStyle won a prestigious award for ‘Excellence in Independent initiative from the world’s foremost producer of suspended
and Tom McMurtrie, Sales & Operations
Director, British Ceramic Tile Ltd Retailing’. The Awards recognise excellence within the tile ceiling systems. Their extended ‘End of Life’ recycling
industry and has over 750 member companies across Ireland programme now includes most types of Armstrong mineral
and the UK. Having competed with stores throughout Ireland fibre tiles produced after January 2000. These can be 100%
and the UK, the TileStyle team is very proud to have won this recycled using a highly efficient process which involves
award, which recognises superior retail management and breaking the old tiles down into a slurry and using it as a raw
customer care levels, as well as excellent staff training and material for making new ceiling tiles. Armstrong can and do
product display standards. TileStyle moved from North Wall use 100% of the recycled tiles within their manufacturing
Quay to a new showroom at Ballymount Retail Centre in March process. Armstrong also collects your old ceiling tiles. In 2004,
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Showroom. “Innovative products and displays, as well as a to profile their UK ceiling and grid manufacturing facilities
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always been integral to the TileStyle ethos and it is wonderful environmental impact than the generic norm of 0.22
to have our efforts recognised by the industry”, says TileStyle’s Ecopoints. Additional work since then has reduced Armstrong’s
Managing Director, Robin McNaughton. rating by some 40% to a meagre 0.10 Ecopoints. Armstrong
www.tilestyle.ie continues to be the only ceiling manufacturer with a BRE
‘Ecopoint’ profile.
(2) Alcoa Architectural Products in Award-Winning www.armstrong.com
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AI 246 - 71
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5 6

1 3 4

I nterview with 7 8 9

M anuel A ires M ateus

The Limit as the Centre By Sandra Andrea O’Connell
Manuel Aires Mateus is one of Portugal’s most eminent and practices were joined by Portugal’s new generation such as Nuno 1 House in Alenquer 5 & 6 Design for the new EDP put into the architecture and landscape. He also admits that he that his practice “has learned an important lesson of how not to
by Aires Mateus headquarters, Lisbon by
prolific architects. In practice since the late 1980s, initially with his Graça Moura, Inês Lobo, Gonçalo Cardosa de Menezes, and Nuno Aires Mateus is “not interested in colour” and uses white for all his residential lose control of a project”.
2 House in Literal Alentejano
brother Francisco, his work ranges from the scale of master plans Brandão Costa. by Aires Mateus 7 Sines Cultural Centre by work, which allows him “to work with the light” – one of his core
– having recently won a competition for the urban regeneration Aires Mateus materials. This is even evident in his own studio on one of Lisbon’s Geology, topography and “how a building touches the ground” are
3 & 4 Design of holiday villas
of Parque Mayer and Lisbon’s Botanic Garden – to landmark For the developers, the unique value and selling point of Bom by Aires Mateus for Bom 8 Underground exhibition steep and windy streets. Entered from a modest doorway beside continuous themes in the work of Aires Mateus from his student
Sucesso in Óbidos, Portugal space in the Fairytale
cultural and educational buildings such as Sines Cultural Centre Sucesso is the architecture. In a falling property market, Marketing Museum, Malaga by a green grocer’s, the studio on Rua Silva Carvalho is reached via a residence in Coimbra, where he used the site’s sloped morphology
and the Rector’s Office at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Aires Director Maria do Carmo Moreira believes that these architect- Aires Mateus long narrow corridor that opens up onto a dramatic and spacious in the organisation of the lower levels of the building to his current
Mateus has also just embarked on the practice’s first sustainable designed villas will hold their value like a “piece of art”, offering 9 Manuel Aires Mateus and double-height studio. A void carved out on one end fills the studio projects. The practice recently won the competition for one of
Sandra O’Connell in his
office building for Portuguese energy company EDP, yet the clients the opportunity to invest in “tomorrow’s architectural Lisbon studio with light, which gently illuminates the white surfaces. Lisbon’s most important public parks – Parque Mayer and the
Lisbon-based architect is arguably best known for his one-off heritage”. The strategy received the backing from the Mayor Botanic Gardens. The steeply falling site section is employed to
houses. In projects such as House in Litoral Alentejano or House in of Óbidos, Dr Telmo Faria, who intends to take on the current In the design of his Bom Sucesso villas, Manuel Aires Mateus make a new street around it, which will connect to street level and,
Alenquer – a finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Prize – Manuel Aires economic crisis by making the town and surrounding area returned to some of the major themes of his work. For example at the same time, protect the garden at its core. In his design for a
Mateus demonstrated remarkable skill for reinventing traditional known for innovation, sustainability and its knowledge economy, the dichotomy between inside and outside is reflected in the new ‘Fairytale Museum’ in Malaga, Mateus excavates the ground
boundaries between exterior and interior. Courtyards play an attracting professionals from all over the world. With a population thick walls that provide “a sense of enclosure and privacy” for to house the new museum facilities – a strategy that allows him to
important part in his designs, as the introverted interior spaces of 12,000 in the Óbidos area, he is investing 51% of his municipal the owners – a key objective in an estate of 601 villas. Spaces keep the pure form of the existing 17th century convent building.
open onto outdoor rooms that provide soft indirect light. budget in infrastructure and social intervention (including new open instead onto interior courtyards and “thick solid walls” The underground passage and the “sequence of movement”
international schools), preparing to sell carbon credits on the stock are used as secondary compartments that include utility spaces designed by Mateus will also take visitors symbolically from their
“I like designing houses better than anything else”, admits market, while attracting multinationals such as Philips and energy like bathrooms. However, the presence of these walls is more ordinary lives into the world of fairytale. “It will be an Alice in
Aires Mateus, “it is a program that I prefer”. “What I enjoy is that company EDP. a philosophical rather than a practical consideration for the Wonderland experience”, illustrates the architect.
everyone gets more involved; as a client you care much more architect: “My philosophy is to accept the limit as the centre”, says
about your home than you do about your office headquarters”. Manuel Aires Mateus considers Bom Sucesso a “very positive Manual Aires Mateus. “In the 20th century, we have been driven by At home in Lisbon, the office has just embarked on their first
Mateus believes that it is important to understand how his clients experience” and he enjoys working alongside some of Portugal’s the idea of ‘not building’ and the dream of transparency, which is large-scale sustainable office building – the new headquarters
see themselves living in the space but each house also becomes a best architects, many of which are his friends. He commends only possible in computer programmes like photoshop. A building for energy company EDP, which they won last year through a
personal search: “In each project, I always design ‘my’ new house”, project initiator Paulo Graça Moura for “having the vision” of has to be solid and should work on this specific quality. My work design competition. The practice believes that sustainability
says the architect, “and I feel that every house I design, is mine”. giving architects the opportunity to collaborate and develop new starts therefore with the necessity of having mass. And once you should be achieved through passive measures and design from
ideas on such a large scheme. The project came with a design build it, you have to accept its function and the field of possibilities ‘first principles’. “We should use our weapon – architecture – to
A current project close to his heart and philosophy are the twelve framework, setting out construction methods, materials and increases with the function.” resolve these issues”, explains Mateus and adds that the resultant
detached and seven terraced holiday villas he designed for the finishes. For example, the aluminium glazing system (designed by building should be “very clear”. In the case of EDP, the brise
innovative Bom Sucesso scheme north of Lisbon, near the medieval architect Eduardo Souto Moura) is universal, and only the size of Consideration of mass and solidity were also major themes in his soleil which envelops the building has been designed to also
town of Óbidos. The project is unique in European architecture as the glass panes could be chosen by the architects. The majority design for the Grand Canal Hotel in Dublin Docklands. “The idea act as the structure. The result will be both practical and poetic
a total of 23 architects from Portugal, Spain and the UK, including of the houses on the 219 hectare site are single storey – the was to relate the building to Ireland’s ancient architecture, its – “a symphony of shadow and light”, in the words of Mateus.
Stirling Prize winner David Chipperfield, have been commissioned exception being a dozen or so two-storey villas by Álvaro Siza geology and the country’s position on the edge of Europe”, says Undoubtedly, his work will continue to enthral – from the small
to design 601 holiday villas on a large estate, which includes an Vieira, David Chipperfield and others – and all have green roofs Aires Mateus. “The building was to be contained by the presence scale of his houses to the large scale of urban planning.
18-hole golf course and luxury hotel alongside other facilities. to blend in with the soft contours of this undulating landscape. of rocks. We designed the ground floor as an ‘in-between’
Manuel Aires Mateus praises the vision of developer Paulo Graça Exterior finishes were also restricted to white render and a natural structure and the upper bedrooms were also being held by very The Portuguese architecture magazine DARCO has published a
Moura, who initially approached Pritzker Prize winner Álvaro Siza palette such as the terracotta terraced houses by Gonçalo Byrne. heavy elements. The space in between was to be very clear and comprehensive monograph, focusing entirely on the public work:
Vieira with the idea. Siza Vieira’s first shortlist of seven practices Mateus acknowledges the design restrictions of Bom Sucesso, we wanted to give a feeling of protection”, explains Aires Mateus. www.arcomagazine.com
– which included Aires Mateus and his former mentor Gonçalo yet argues that the savings made by the developers by using the However, he is critical of the completed building and argues that Aires Mateus e Associados www.airesmateus.com
Byrne – began quickly to multiply into 23, as the more established same construction methods and glazing systems, was instead his original design has not been realised. “Our hotel has not been Bom Sucesso www.bomsucesso.net
built; it is just an image in the air”, says Aires Mateus and concludes
72 - AI 246 AI 246 - 73
 1 2 3 4 5

James J ohnson S weeney

in the A rchitecture of
M odernism
6 7
By Raymund Ryan

Fifty years ago this October, Amid the fashionable crowd, also a prolific author. In his 1940 Edgar Kaufmann, Wright’s 1 - 3 Sweeney at inauguration of this beautiful interior, recently that Wright’s design “indicates In Houston, Sweeney made This summer, the New
of the Solomon R.
the Guggenheim Museum looking for the first time at the monograph on Paul Klee, for client at Fallingwater, and in Guggenheim Museum, threatened with modernisation a callous disregard for…the dramatic use of Mies’s interior, York Guggenheim has two
New York, 1959.
finally opened on New York’s ramp spiralling overhead, are instance, Sweeney castigated San Francisco’s V.C. Morris © The Solomon R. yet still a kind of Nordic oasis adequate visual contemplation suspending large canvases celebratory exhibitions:
Fifth Avenue. The realisation Brancusi sculptures, stars in “the inelastic, inorganic, anti- gift shop, built in 1948. To Guggenheim Foundation, with views to Quincy Street and, of works of art.” Curators have from the ceiling so that they
New York
of this “Non-Objective”  dream the firmament of Modern Art vital, machine-attitude” in Wright’s credit, Guggenheim today, a large portrait of Seamus been at odds ever since. hung in pure, Modernist space. Frank Lloyd Wright: From
4 James Johnson Sweeney
of collector Solomon R. yet somehow adrift at the base favour of “the free development and Rebay’s original intent was with Ludwig Mies van der Heaney. The later bequest of He even dug up a strip of Within Outward
Guggenheim, his aesthetic of Wright’s pantheon. The fact of sensibility and intelligence” limited to the 700 or so works Rohe in Cullinan Hall, March Jack Sweeney’s widow, Máire As has often happened with a lawn along Bissonnet to make May 15 – August 23, 2009
1964. Photograph by Hickey
advisor Hilla Rebay and their is that Wright and Sweeney – words with which Wright they had collected in the 1930s. & Robertson. Museum of MacNeill, to the National Gallery high-profile museum project, a shallow reflecting pool in
Fine Arts, Houston Archives
architect, the legendary Frank had had multiple disputes, could scarcely disagree. And, in With Rebay’s exit in 1953, some of Ireland includes work by soon after the Guggenheim’s which he placed statues by The Sweeney Decade:
Lloyd Wright, took somewhat disagreeing on interior colour a rare architectural digression, of her favourite artists were 5 Preliminary Wright proposal Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. inauguration, its Director quit. Picasso. For this the first phase Acquisition at the 1959
for the Solomon
longer than initially planned. (Wright wanted a rich cream, Sweeney co-authored with sidelined as Sweeney began to R. Guggenheim Museum However Sweeney re-surfaced, of Mies’s master plan, the steel Inaugural
© 2009, The Frank Lloyd
Back in the early 1940s – when like the exterior; Sweeney, Josep Lluis Sert, Dean of actively acquire large Abstract Wright Foundation, As the art world in Ireland brilliantly, to lead the Museum was painted white; today, it’s June 5 – September 2, 2009
Wright produced a dazzling set the High Modernist, insisted Harvard’s Graduate School Expressionist paintings, the Scottsdale, Arizona discovered with ROSC ’67 and of Fine Arts Houston for most of black. On October 25, 1969,
of massing studies, each a wilful on white), storage capacity, of Design, a timely study of first U.S. art movement of truly 6 “Pierre Soulages: A ROSC ’71 (Sweeney was jury the 1960s. In Houston, Sweeney accompanied by Philip Johnson
Retrospective Exhibition”
departure from the rectilinear lighting, and – most famously the then marginalised Antoni global consequence. installed in Cullinan Hall, chairman and Patrick Scott inherited the first phase of and Phyllis Lambert, Sweeney
Manhattan grid – Surrealism was – display methodology. The Gaudí. The duo advocated “a March 20 – May 22, 1966. designer for both), Sweeney extensions to the Beaux Arts delivered Mies’s eulogy at Crown
Photograph by Allen
all the rage. Fifteen years later, architect envisaged paintings more sculptural expression Wright canvassed behind the Mewbourn. Museum of Fine had of course his own ideas museum. This curving pavilion, Hall, Chicago. “One has only to
Arts, Houston Archives
Guggenheim was long dead inclined against his sloping in architecture” and “greater scenes, hoping perhaps to have on exhibition design. In an radiating from the original think,” Sweeney declared, “of
and Abstract Expressionism had outer walls; Sweeney retaliated variety in the character of Sweeney replaced by Edgar 7 “Three Spaniards: - Picasso, interview with Selden Rodman edifice and bending to echo Mies’…collage designs for ‘an
Miró, Chillida” installed in
copper-fastened New York’s with prosthetic rods to enable buildings”. Kaufmann jr., then at MoMA. Cullinan Hall, February 6 – published in 1957, Wright Bissonnet Street to the north, ideal museum for a small city’—
March 19, 1962. Photograph
role as global art capital. Wright each work be viewed as an Sweeney was certainly aware by Hickey & Robertson. rationalised his sloping walls was by none other than Ludwig to realize how much he enjoyed
himself had expired months orthogonal unit in this resolutely So what went wrong at the of the situation, as evidenced Museum of Fine Arts, with the argument that “the Mies van der Rohe. Mies, the paintings and sculpture and
Houston Archives
before the inauguration of non-orthogonal, total work of Guggenheim? Wright had never by correspondence with Louis angle of the picture is tilted just Master of Orthogonality, had his respect for them. In these
his East Coast masterwork, an art. built a major art museum and, Carré, Fernand Léger’s dealer as it is on the artist’s easel” and in fact drawn curved plans in projects one is hardly aware
inauguration presided over though knowledgeable about and client for Alvar Aalto brushed aside an objection that the 1930s, proposals for the of the architecture.” After his
not by Rebay but by James Sweeney was a Jesuit boy; one (and a dealer in) Japanese near Paris. In one of many “the modern artist doesn’t use Reichsbank, Berlin (1933) and dealings with so many famous
Johnson Sweeney, the able son of a large family (successful prints, was not tuned to the tangents to his influence in U.S. an easel. At least not the non- the Verseidag Building in Krefeld architects, this, for Sweeney,
of Donegal immigrants. importers of fabric to the artistic vanguard. He also had cultural politics, to this web of objective painters this museum (1937). Also, as shown by such was the highest possible praise.
United States); and one of a tendency to recycle designs. Modernism, Sweeney must also collects.” That same year, as the photo-collages as those for the
We see Sweeney in official the intellectuals gathered The inverted ziggurat on Fifth have been in the loop regarding museum neared completion, a Resor House in Wyoming (1939),
period photographs as the by Alfred Barr at New York’s Avenue – an early sketch is titled Aalto’s commission for the stellar list of artists – including Mies had his own classically
tuxedoed master of ceremonies, Museum of Modern Art, rising TARUGGIZ – has antecedents Woodberry Poetry Room at de Kooning, Guston, Kline and Modern and gravity-defying
welcoming visitors into the now to be Director of Painting and in unrealised proposals for Harvard. His brother Jack – poet, Motherwell – published an ideas regarding the integration
iconic void of Wright’s rotunda. Sculpture in 1945. Sweeney was Pittsburgh commissioned by scholar, collector – was curator Open Letter in which they stated of art and structure.

74 - AI 246 AI 246 - 75
 1 & 2 Colour is an important design
tool in Martha Schwartz’s
work such as in the Mesa Art
Centre, Arizona (1) and Grand
Canal Square, Dublin (2) 1 2

T he D N A of
landscape
Lectures by Martha Schwartz and Partners,
West 8 and Agence Ter By Sandra Andrea O’Connell

Three recent lectures by internationally renowned landscape of stone emerge from the ground to make fountains, a
designers – all with projects in the Dublin Docklands – presented path of cracked glass leads like a red carpet to the theatre
fascinating perspectives on the discipline. Architecture Ireland façade, while the striking red poles mediate between the
spoke with the designers on the occasion of their public talks in mass of the theatre and the human scale of the passerby.
the Dublin Docklands. The landscape designer recalls being “very nervous” when
first presenting her idea to Daniel Libeskind. He, however,
Martha Schwartz has been surrounded by architects all her responded enthusiastically to her concept of an “active
life – her father, uncle, husband, sister and son are architects dialogue between the theatre and the public space” and
– yet she always considered the discipline of landscape both practices have been collaborating ever since their
design a much more creative and experimental field. “I grew introduction by the Dublin Docklands.
up on the floor in my father’s office”, recalled Schwartz, “but
the idea of having to work out all these details did not appeal Martha Schwartz’s striking red poles have achieved
to me; I always wanted to be an artist instead”. Following her somewhat iconic status and feature regularly in TV series
studies in fine art, Schwartz quickly became known for her portraying modern Ireland. She believes that colour is a
large-scale landscape designs. “When I left art school, public highly emotive subject, arguing that “white men are most
art had not yet been invented but I wanted to build big art”, uncomfortable around it”. Schwartz has used colour with
explained the landscape designer. She enjoys the possibility great success in her work, for example in her design for

the discipline offers for bringing about change within a

shorter time-span and considers it a rich subject matter.
Her work is regarded to be on the convergence of fine art
the Mesa Art and Entertainment Center in Arizona. In this
landscape of light and shadow, coloured glass canopies and
raised glass screens cast coloured shadows on the ground.
and landscape design, for example her striking red poles for For New York’s Jacob Javits Plaza, Schwartz designed
Grand Canal Square in the Dublin Docklands are placed in twisting strands of bright green coloured benches, which
carefully arranged compositions with sculptural fountains offer intimate circles for groups and outside curves for those

and vibrantly coloured planters and seats. who wish to lunch alone.

Of the three landscape practices, Martha Schwartz and Schwartz’s landscapes are playful, whimsical and there
Partners are the only practice with a completed project to be engaged with. She is delighted when she notices
in Dublin. Arriving from London for her evening lecture, skateboarders and other urban life taking control. I see

Schwartz took a stroll around Grand Canal Square and was myself as creating “attractive nuisances” in cities, illustrated

“thrilled” how her design is being enlivened by lunchtime Schwartz. One of her difficulties with a recent project for
activities and the new buildings around it: “I like the way the Dubai, where public life is restricted to shopping malls,
buildings enclose the space now; the planting looks luscious was the “absence of street life and spectacle”. She is critical
in the light; the place is lively, clearly people like to be there”, of much of the development in Dubai, which focuses
commented Schwartz. The landscape designer praised solely on the architecture of iconic buildings and not on

the courage and foresight of the Docklands’ Architecture the connections between them. By contrast, Paris where
Department of making an urban space before any of the trees are considered part of the infrastructure – offers her
buildings were completed. “John McLaughlin and the a “spatial thrill”. Schwartz believes that you don’t need big
DDDA had the vision of what needed to happen here”, says spaces to make good landscape design but a big idea. “You
Schwartz. can change the world with an idea”, said Schwartz, and
concluded that she would “rather design an inventive urban
In her design for Grand Canal Square, Schwartz “took the space that lasts only for a short time, than a dull landscape
Libeskind aesthetic and applied it to the ground”. Shards that endures a lifetime”.

AI 246 - 77
 3 4

Take the right steps

3 Agence Ter’s design for
Royal Canal Linear Park,
Dublin

4 Parc des Cormailles, Ivry-

in the race to save water...
Sur-Seine by Agence Ter

5 Parque Lineal de
Manazanares, West 8
urban design & landscape
architecture/ MRIO
IRISH ARCHITECTS FIRST TO RECEIVE
6 Schouwburgplein by West 8 5 6 ISO 14001:2004 CERTIFICATION
in Rotterdam
In contrast to the conceptual approach of a ‘big idea’ discussed by waterside living, Biewenga described Poolbeg as a “spectacular Scott Tallon Walker Architects have an opportunity, for both architects
Martha Schwartz in her engaging lecture, French firm Agence Ter site, close to the city centre yet surrounded by water on three been awarded the International ISO and clients, to innovatively apply new
14001:2004 Environmental Management building practices and technologies to
offered a more research driven approach to landscape design. sides, with fantastic views across the bay and a tremendous
Standard to control and ensure best projects in order to control buildings’
Olivier Philippe, who set up Agence Ter with two other landscape change between low and high-tide”.
practice environmental design for all environmental impact while increasing
designers in 1986, outlined three strands at the heart of
aspects of the design and procurement building efficiency and competitiveness.
www.marthaschwartz.com their design philosophy: expanse, stratification and flux. “We The new masterplan for Poolbeg, on which West 8 collaborated of its new buildings.
www.west8.nl understand location as much more than just a surface”, explained with Urban Initiatives and Cunnane Stratton Reynolds, was “Although this is something that has always
www.agenceter.com
Philippe, “instead there are a series of histories and influences to one of two Dublin projects presented in their lecture. The The Dublin practice is the first Irish been integral to our approach to design, the
The lectures were organised by be unearthed. Each landscape is a field of investigation, offering Rotterdam-based practice was also commissioned by the with the complete rainwater harvesting architectural office to have gained IS0 introduction of a management standard
the Dublin Docklands Authority multiple possibilities of manipulation.” The practice has offices Docklands Authority to prepare a strategy for enhancing the and greywater recycling solution 14001:2004 which they have tailored to such as ISO 14001 puts a formal structure
in association with the Irish in Paris, Karlsruhe (Germany) and French-Guinea and Philippe Liffey waterfront. An essential part of West 8’s design proposal is address both their own environmental to the integration of environmental design
Architecture Foundation and the was able to draw in his lecture on a wide range of projects. to improve the wind-swept climate on the campshires through
from KingspanWater responsibilities as an organisation, as into our work. It also allows us to audit
AAI. Podcasts are available on well as the building design process. and assess the benefits to our clients in
Urban regeneration features strongly in Agence Ter’s portfolio extensive new vegetation, including the planting of 1000 mature
www.architecturefoundation.ie providing buildings which are responsive
such as Parc des Cormailles in Ivry-Sur-Seine, where the practice trees. The practice has a particular view on trees, rejecting the
Scott Tallon Walker Architects believe that to the climate and offer comfortable,
transformed an industrial fringe by the former railway line into notion of ‘perfect’ specimen growing straight “like lollipops”.
the systems they have put in place will and adaptable solutions to the working
an urban park. A series of garden islands emerge from water For a project in Madrid, West 8 deliberately sourced trees with
ensure that an environmental strategy environment” says Michael Tallon of Scott
features. The idea of floating gardens also features in a design for character and asked the nurseries to bend the tries over a period is adopted at all stages of the design Tallon Walker Architects.
Canary Wharf London and in Agence Ter’s competition winning of time to give them a natural wind-beaten look. Enchanting pink 115x152.5
process. 30/4/09
Sustainable design09:46 Page www.stw.ie
presents 1
design for Royal Canal Linear Park in the Dublin Docklands, where cherry trees, which bend down to the ground, form today the
gardens will grow on 17m long floating pontoons. The idea is to centre piece of Madrid’s new Parque Lineal de Manzanares. “The
blur the edges between the banks and the canal. It was a pity that inspiration came from the fact that this linear park forms part Full Product Range Includes:
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Harvesting Systems
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CO N S T R U C T I O N A N D T E C H N O LO G y
GLENN MURCUTT AND
ECOCEM: GREEN CEMENT
E DWAR D CU LLI NAN
FOR GREEN CONSTRUCTION AT D I T B O LT O N S T R E E T
Ecocem is used in the construction
of Landsdowne Road Stadium,
Scott Tallon Walker

1 2 3 4

1 & 2 Glenn Murcutt at his The relationship between architecture and technology and the Sole practitioner Murcutt, who prefers fax over email and slides over
Riversdale Cultural Centre,
Sydney enduring craft of hand drawing were two key themes that emerged powerpoint, also emphasised the importance of hand-drawing as
3 & 4 Downland Gridshell at
at a recent thought-provoking colloquium at DIT Bolton Street. The an integral part of the design process: “To draw is to research; unless
the Weald & Downland colloquium brought together two renowned keynote speakers, you can draw it, you can’t understand it”. Referring to the words
Museum, Sussex by Edward
Cullinan Architects whose design philosophies and approaches to architecture of US Poet Laureate Billy Collins who spoke of the importance of
(Photo: Richard Learoyd)
effortlessly complemented and enriched each other: Pritzker Prize hand-writing in poetic composition in order to see where a poem
and 2009 AAI Gold Medal winner Glenn Murcutt and RIBA Gold is going, Murcutt concluded that the “keyboard makes architecture
Medal recipient Edward (Ted) Cullinan. Described by symposium look frozen”.
Specialist green cement manufacturer Ecocem has reduced Ireland’s carbon In addition to its GGBS cement plant in Dublin Port, Ecocem has another
chair, RIAI President Sean O’Laoire, as “being in the presence of
footprint by more than 1 million tons since its Dublin-based production 350,000 tons per annum production facility in the Netherlands, supplying
plant came on stream in 2004. Ecocem produces cement using ground- the Dutch and Belgian construction markets. The company is also building giants”, their lectures provided a compelling insight into their London-based architect Ted Cullinan took up this theme in his
granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), which is a by-product of the steel a new 700,000 tons capacity factory in the South of France, which is due to method of working, which has resisted architectural fashion lecture, which constituted for a large part of drawing with coloured
industry. Ecocem cement is an environmentally-friendly alternative to come on stream later this year. and trends. felt pens on overhead projector. Cullinan’s moving pen effortlessly
traditional Portland cement but costs the same. In addition to being brought his designs alive, while commenting with great wit on
produced from a recycled material, Ecocem significantly reduces the life Most Sustainable Building Material “Be careful of the new, be suspicious of change”, were Glenn his own learning process of using technology. Cullinan illustrated
cycle footprint of structures because they last longer than those made with According to Ecocem, its GGBS cement is the most sustainable building Murcutt’s introductory remarks aimed at a diverse audience of how he discovered the necessity of solar shading whilst designing,
traditional cement. material in the world, capable of increasing the service life of structures, architectural students, lecturers, practitioners and critics. In the era as a young architect, a holiday home for his uncle Mervyn: “Uncle
while resulting in significant CO2 and other emission savings. Due to its where a building starts life as a computer generated image, Murcutt Mervyn loved playing his Bechstein piano in the nude, but he
Aiming to be Carbon Neutral versatility and strength concrete is the essential building block of the
has remained true to his philosophy of the “architecture of one’s went red because of solar gain from a large opening in the house”,
Conventional cement manufacture is responsible for about 5% of all global construction and civil engineering industry.
place”, responding perceptively to context and climatic conditions. commented Cullinan drily.
CO2 emissions – nearly double the amount generated by the airline industry
He has studied closely how Australia’s indigenous people adapted
worldwide – and a similar proportion of Ireland’s carbon footprint. On “There is no better way of building in a sustainable manner than by using
average, the manufacture of every ton of conventional cement releases a low carbon concrete made from green cement,” says David O’Flynn, their homes to climate and local conditions – from houses raised on On a more complex recent project – the Stirling Prize short-listed
ton of CO2 along with emissions of SO2 and NOx into the atmosphere. In business development manager of Ecocem. “you can install solar panels, piles in the tropics to sun shelters in Australia’s vast desert. Murcutt Downland Gridshell at the Weald & Downland Museum in West
stark contrast, because the manufacture of GGBS cement is far more energy wood pellet boilers and increase insulation but with these you are only has immersed himself in Aborigine culture and was commissioned Sussex – Cullinan collaborated both with traditional craftsmen, the
efficient, every ton produced at Ecocem’s plant in Dublin emits just 45kg of addressing the operational CO2. If you want to build greener, you must to design an Aborigine family home, in which he expressed the Green Oak Carpentry Company, and innovative structural engineers
CO2 – almost 20 times less than conventional cement – and with no SO2 or also consider the emissions embodied in the building, and this can be best all-important need for privacy through large screens that envelop Buro Happold to realise his vision of a roof inspired by traditional
NOx emissions. Ecocem is currently in the process of switching to renewable address by specifying green cement. Our product doesn’t cost any more the house. “In Aborigine culture, visitors should not be able to see basket making. Cullinan’s sketches on the overhead projector
energy, which will make its production plant even more environmentally and achieves CO2 savings from day one, as opposed to having to wait many into a home, but the residents should see out. This is a polite way illustrated the complex roof structure, designed to use as little
friendly, aiming to be carbon neutral without using offsets by 2012. years to get the benefits from the changes that reduce the operational CO2.” of letting visitors know when they are wanted or not, as nobody timber as possible for sustainability reasons. Referred to by locals
can see if you are at home”, explained Murcutt. His perceptively as “the peanut”, the building consists of an upper level light-weight
GGBS can replace Portland cement by up to 95% in ready mixed concrete Concrete made with Ecocem is not only stronger and more durable than
arranged plan also takes cognisance of the fact that “Aborigine restoration workshop, where the museum’s carpenters restore and
but in Ireland, the most common substitution ratio for Ecocem has been that made from conventional cement but has other advantages including:
50% (70% has been used on many projects for a variety of technical, • more resistant to attack from chloride and acid children always sleep east, as they are regarded the future of the build the timber frames that will go into the collections. Sinking
architectural and environmental reasons). Mixing Ecocem with Portland • more impermeable family”. the lower archive level into the ground, protects its contents from
cement improves the performance of the finished concrete. It is easier to • more resistant to sulphate attack and alkali silica attack climate fluctuations. Ted Cullinan’s openness and ability to combine
work with, compressive strength is higher and heat of hydration is reduced. • more resistant to fi re Murcutt’s passionate lecture was a tour-de-force through his cutting edge technology with traditional craft resonated well with
The finished product is generally stronger and has a lifespan, double that of • less prone to thermal cracking philosophy and oeuvre, illuminated by a wealth of examples – from the student audience at the event. “It’s about what turns you on”,
conventional concrete. From an aesthetic point of view it is lighter in colour his award-winning Riversdale Cultural Centre (venue of the annual replied Cullinan when quizzed by a student on his own preferences
and produces a smoother finish. According to Ecocem, GGBS cement is not Not surprisingly, Ecocem has won a number of environmental awards, being Glenn Murcutt Masterclass) to his bespoke residential designs, for either high-end technology or craft.
only far more environmentally-friendly to produce but concrete made from named IBEC Environmental Product for 2007/8 for reducing CO2 emission by including his Sydney home, where he has shown complete mastery
it also has higher performance levels and is more aesthetically pleasing. 300,000 tons each year – the equivalent of taking 75,000 cars of the roads of light by creating evocative patterns of shadow during Australia’s The keynote lectures by Murcutt and Cullinan were inspirational
annually and winning the Environmental/Sustainability Category in the
relentless summers, while channelling light and warmth into and timely, as DIT’s Head of Faculty, Professor John Ratcliffe spoke
As the environmental, engineering and architectural benefits of GGBS Leinster Region of the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Award in 2009.
the interior on cool winter days. Recent work includes a mining of the need for a “new value system in society”. Quoting Albert
cement are being increasingly realised by architects and specifiers, it is
becoming more widely used within the Irish construction industry and With major environmental and energy projects, such as water and waste museum, which uses the archaeology of mining as its theme, and Einstein, Ratcliffe said that “the problems of today cannot be solved
has been incorporated in many prestigious building projects such as the water treatment plants, wind farms and power stations, planned for a new mosque, a project which allowed Murcutt to engage in an by the present mindset, we must learn to understand the world
Jack Lynch Tunnel in Cork, the Luas Taney Bridge in Dublin, the Carton Ireland over the coming years, Ecocem’s green cement could play a central understanding of the patterns and geometry of Muslim art. His anew”. In four subsequent presentations by Cormac Allen of DIT;
House Hotel in Leixlip and the Greystones Harbour development in County role in instantly and substantially reducing the carbon footprint of this contribution to Irish architecture – through his tenure as Visiting Daniel P. Sudhershan of UCD; Máire Henry of Waterford Institute
Wicklow. Ecocem is currently being used in the construction of the new infrastructure as well as providing a stronger and more durable concrete Professor at DIT Bolton – was marked by the RIAI through an of Technology and Kevin McCartney of UCC/CIT, the schools of
stadium at Lansdowne Road as well as the National Convention Centre at ensuring this infrastructure will benefit many generations to come. Honorary Fellowship, which was accepted “as a great honour” by a architecture demonstrated their methodologies on educating the
Spencer Dock in Dublin, where 6,000 tons of CO2 emissions will be avoided. www.ecocem.ie visibly moved and delighted Murcutt. “I operate in a quiet way, like innovators of tomorrow with architecture, technology and problem
Ted Cullinan, and we are just doing our thing, all the time doing it solving intrinsically linked.
80 - AI 246 properly”, said Murcutt in response to this honour. www.dit.ie/faculties/built/architecture AI 246 - 81
 T he D ictionary of
I rish A rchitects
172 0 -19 4 0

By Colum O’Riordan
The Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940 a biographical index of Irish architects. Over several
(www.dia.ie), the Irish Architectural Archive’s flagship years he assembled an immense body of research
project, is an on-line database containing biographical material but his project was brought to an end by his
and bibliographical information on architects, builders death in 1973. In 1980, just before Loeber’s dictionary
and craftsmen born or working in Ireland during the was published, Alfred Jones’s family deposited on loan
period 1720 to 1940, and details on the buildings on in the Irish Architectural Archive nearly 2,000 individual
which they worked. Some 6,000 individual architects files which Jones had assembled, each one dedicated
or architectural practices are included in the DIA, as to a particular architect. The physical nature of the
are more than 40,000 building references. The DIA material presented access and consultation problems:
provides for the first time comprehensive, authoritative the files contain myriad loose file cards, unordered
information on who in Ireland was building what, when, pieces of paper, newspaper cuttings and rapidly
where and for whom. fading photocopies. Moreover, it was obvious that
so much information about individual buildings was
During the last century and a half, there have been in effect hidden in Jones’s material, only retrievable

Adverts
at lease five attempts to write a dictionary of Irish if you already knew the names of the architects who
architects. In the 1870s or early 1880s, Christopher designed them. It was in seeking solutions to the
Clinton Hoey, sometime editor of the Irish Builder, had specific access and information issues presented by
in contemplation the publication of “The Lives of the the Jones files that the project which would eventually
Irish Architects” but received poor encouragement become the DIA was born.
or assistance, so that the project came to nothing.
Then, in the early 1900s, Walter Strickland planned In 1990, Ann Martha Rowan began the task of
to add a volume of architects to his Dictionary of designing a computer database that would adequately
Irish Artists, which was published in 1913, but this too record biographical information on architects and
came to nothing. In 1962 the architectural historian information on the buildings they had designed. An
Constantine Curran, perhaps best known now for his inspiration and point of reference was Howard Colvin’s
seminal work on Dublin plaster-work, started to make Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840,
notes for a dictionary of Irish architects. The project the first edition of which had appeared in 1954.
went no further and the notes are now housed in the Colvin was and is the gold standard for architectural
Irish Architectural Archive. In 1973 an announcement biographical dictionaries and provided the basic
The reading room of the Irish Architectural
Archive at Merrion Square that “Mr Rolf Loeber has undertaken to compile a template for the database design and of the structure
Photographs by Bartosz Kaluzny
Dictionary of Irish Architects under the auspices of of the individual entries. However, it was clear from the
the Irish Georgian Society” appeared in the Society’s outset that a direct equivalent of Colvin for Ireland was
Quarterly Bulletin (Vol. XVI, No. 1, Jan – June 1973, p. 71), beyond the immediate scope of the project. Specific
followed by a request for assistance and information. editorial decision had to be made to suit the source
This dictionary was to cover the period 1600 to 1900 material, the limitations of the technology and the
and was to include artisans and craftsmen as well as expertise of the editor. The decision was made from
architects. The project quickly mushroomed into a the start to be as comprehensive as possible, to include
proposed multi-authored Biographical Dictionary of minor and obscure names as well as the well-known,
Irish Architects, a collaborative effort, in which different and to include all the buildings that could be identified
well-known scholars were to write entries for different for a particular architect rather than just a selected few.
architects and different periods. Pressures of time and In balance with this, it was decided to exclude stylistic
commitment lead to contraction of ambition and, in analysis of an architect’s oeuvre or any interpretative
the end, only the original contributor was to complete comment on the importance or otherwise of individual
a part of the dictionary. Rolf Loeber’s A Biographical architects or particular buildings. The accumulation
Dictionary of Architects in Ireland 1600-1720 was of basic accurate information was prioritised over
published by John Murray in 1981. subjective analysis.

Starting at much the same time as Curran and in Other editorial decisions emerged over time as the
parallel with the efforts of Loeber et al, the retired project progressed. For example, the question arose
Dublin architect Alfred Jones also began to work on as to which professions would be included. The
AI 246 - 83
 Michael Webb Chairman, Irish Architectural
Archive, Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts,
Sport and Tourism and Ann Martha Rowan,
Senior Archivist, Irish Architectural Archive at
the official launch of DIA
1
term ‘architect’, especially as it was applied in the Archive itself. These have been carefully mined and as
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, could be new collections are acquired and listed, information
vague and imprecise, while a great many buildings, in
particular those of the infrastructural variety, are the
work not of architects but of civil engineers. As data
in the database is updated and adjusted. Indeed, so
extensively are the collections of the Archive reflected
in the DIA that the DIA can stand almost as surrogate
P assive H ouse
entry proceeded, it became obvious that inclusivity
should again be the general principle applied. Entries
have been created for every relevant architect from
index to a large part of the Archive’s holdings.

Direct public access to the database was provided first

STUDENT RESIDENCES
the rank amateur to the highest professional. A large by means of a specially designed researcher interface A Roadmap to Green Building Design By Tony Rigg, Kavanagh Tuite Architects
number of engineers are included too, along with a made accessible on two computers in the Archive’s
smaller number of craftsman and builders and some reading room at the start of 2005. Researcher reaction
The foundation of all good building design is getting the basic will have a coffee shop/ light meals outlet, laundry, internet
writers on architectural subjects. Architects from to the database was overwhelmingly positive and it design concepts right. For green building design this involves lounge, and fitness facilities at ground level.
Britain and elsewhere who never resided in Ireland but was immediately apparent that such a limited form considering site micro-climate conditions, orientation, solar
designed buildings here are not given full biographical of access would never be sufficient. The possibility of access, ecology and water regimes. The first aim is to design In line with UCD’s Sustainability Brief, the design team aimed
treatment, and only their Irish works are listed in the publication in book form was briefly explored but the buildings that have minimum energy needs for heating, for a high level of sustainability, a BER (Building Energy Rating)
cooling and lighting as a result of their basic design concepts of at least A3, and an “Excellent” BREEAM rating. The project,
database. Irish-born architects who emigrated are obvious route was to make the database available in its
and construction – the passive elements of building. Passive however, had to keep within current UCD budget standards
similarly treated; their careers after their departure natural environment, the Internet. A special grant from benefits all depend on intelligent architectural design. for student residences, with cost-benefit justified uplift for
from these shores are not described in detail, and only the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism at the end Only then should you use optimal, economically feasible energy and water conserving capital cost additions.
their Irish works are listed in full. of 2006 allowed the Archive to engage Terminal Four technologies for the residual energy demands, preferably
to carry out the transfer. renewable – the active elements of building. While the Sustainability Concepts
Data inputting began in 1991 and in April 1994 the ultimate responsibility rests with M&E consultants, the It was decided to adopt the ‘Passive House’ approach, with
architect needs to understand the options available and guide high standards of envelope insulation, high performance
Department of the Environment, recognising the Despite the heroic efforts of the editor, Ann
their integration into the project as a whole. An integrated windows, and a good level of air-tightness, with heat-recovery
potential of the database to be of value and relevance Martha Rowan, the DIA is not free from errors, both ‘whole system design’ makes the most of both passive and ventilation.
to the work of local authorities, particularly in their typographical and factual. These remain to be routed active components of a building project. However, never
planning function, agreed to provide a grant of out and it is hoped that some of them will be spotted forget that we are here to make ‘green architecture’. The building U-values will be:
IR£8,500 initially for three years. This support, which by on-line readers who are urged to send in their Walls 0.170 W/m2k
was increased to IR£10,000 in 1997, was maintained corrections. It is also hoped that the on-line user At Kavanagh Tuite Architects we emphasise that the process Roofs 0.150 W/m2k
of ‘green design’ is the basis of all good architectural design, Windows 0.800 W/m2k
year on year until 2004. community will be able to add new information to the
not an optional add-on. Achieving it requires committed Ground slab 0.150 W/m2k
DIA content, a process facilitated by the web-interface. integration of the whole design team from the very beginning,
Aside from the contents of Alfred Jones’ files, research And so, the DIA remains, and will always remain, very but it has to be architect-led from the position of informed PHPP sensitivity studies indicated that for this building form,
data was generously made available by amongst much a work in progress. Nonetheless, it is now as professional knowledge, commitment and responsibility. This with relatively small window area, high internal mass and a
others Dr Edward McParland, Alistair Rowan and the fundamental in an Irish context as Colvin’s seminal approach informs all our work, from large commercial office highly insulated envelope, building orientation had marginal
development, such as the Irish Life Centre redevelopment on impact on either winter heating energy requirements, or
Buildings of Ireland project, and Brendan O’Donoghue, work is in a British context. It is the essential first
Marlborough Street, Dublin, to small residential projects such summer overheating potential. For water conservation the
whose study of Irish county surveyors was published in port-of-call for all those interested in the architecture as Gracefield House, Blackrock. project will use rainwater harvesting for WC flushing, and
2007. Collections held in a wide variety of institutions of the entire island of Ireland, an indispensable aid low-flow fittings on all water outlets to reduce hot and cold
provided a great deal of information and as new to the student and an invaluable tool for architects, Passive House Student Residences water consumption. Low environmental impact materials
books and articles appeared, the new discoveries conservationists, planners and other professionals Roebuck Hall II is the second phase in the development of a will be used as far as possible, with eco-concrete for the main
they contain were incorporated into the database concerned with the origins, development and UCD Student Village centred on Roebuck Castle. Roebuck Hall structure, sustainably sourced timber and water-based paints.
I was completed in 2006 and accommodates 300 students.
as well. More recently, the Internet has begun to maintenance of the built environment. More than that,
The new development will bring the total up to around 1,000, Project Design Concepts
make unexpected and intriguing contributions to it is a wonderful resource for anyone and everyone in a number of stages. The plan was developed as ‘buildings in The ‘Hall of Residence’ style accommodation was best served
our knowledge of architects’ lives. But perhaps the with even just a passing interest in their house, their the park’, with blocks 5 to 8 stories high (end-on to a proposed by a ‘hotel’ type plan, with study-bed and common rooms
most important source of information for the DIA has street or the buildings they encounter on a daily basis. motorway), and a long, low 3 to 4-storey curved block on either side of a central access corridor, resulting in a long,
been the growing collections of the Irish Architectural www.dia.ie between them and the Castle, giving a transition of scale. The narrow building form. The first stage building, with six floors,
project concept revolves around the scale and quality of the has two groups of 12 student rooms on each floor, sharing lift
‘park’ spaces between the buildings, and the more formal and stair core. The corridor is enlivened and partially day-lit by
court between the curved block and the Castle. The first windows at each end and the glazed walls of common study,
stage (135 students) is located adjacent to Roebuck Hall I and lounge and kitchenette/dining areas.

84 - AI 246 AI 246 - 85
 ARCHITECTURE IN PRACTICE

B ook R eview

Ground floor plan Typical upper floor plan

While adjacent buildings give a design context, the high heat source for this system will be spare capacity from existing
level of insulation largely determined the façade design. It condensing gas boilers in the adjacent Roebuck Hall.
was not feasible to stabilise and support a 6-storey brick
facing through 200mm of insulation required to achieve the Ventilation: The mechanical ventilation system will be a
desired U-value. This led to the conclusion that rain-screen central, roof-mounted AHU, with an air-to-air heat exchanger Composing Landscapes Dublin Docklands – An Urban Voyage
cladding was the only real option, on a light steel framed, of 80% to 85% efficiency. High-efficiency electronically
Analysis, Typology and Experiments for Design by Turtle Bunbury
full thickness insulated wall panel. This process of design commutated (ECM) motors will give reduced power
through exploration of practical available options, to achieve consumption. Initial studies show a payback period of by Clemens Steenbergen Review by Ruairi Quinn
a new and different standard of building construction and approximately 3.5 years for this HRV system. Review by Desmond Byrne
This well-illustrated book tells the story of Dublin Port and its communities
performance, largely informed the aesthetic design of the
Composing Landscapes makes a welcome and timely contribution to the from the 1700s to the present day. The city’s eastern boundary began with
whole project. Hot Water Supply: Hot water consumption is a major energy
issue, and after adjusting expected demand for water- understanding of landscape, its relationship to architecture and urban the Custom House and was defined by the loop-line bridge over the Liffey.
Construction & Services conserving fixtures, various energy conservation and supply form, and of how this is portrayed in drawings. Drawing, by hand or by Beyond was a place of warehouses, ships, coal yards and introverted port
Building Structure: For cost and efficiency of construction, options were considered. The optimum system for the project computer, still remains the common language of communication for communities such as East Wall and Ringsend. Port cities, like Dublin, have
it was decided to use concrete cross-wall construction, was determined to be evacuated tube solar collectors to those involved in the designed environment. With increasing awareness moved down river as ships got bigger and carried their cargo in containers.
with concrete floor slabs. Eco-concrete, based on ground supply 33% of DHW demand. While the payback on this is not
of the importance and sensitivity of the Irish landscape, it is important Large sections of the old port land were no longer fit for purpose yet
granulated blast-furnace slag, will be used. good (27 years, including SEI subsidy), this will supply 20% of
the combined space heating and hot water demand from a that designers are able to identify fundamental landscape elements and remained a valuable resource at the heart of the city.
External Walls: With this high-mass internal structure giving renewable source, as required by the Building Regulations. characteristics through drawing in order to address them in the design
good thermal stability, it was decided to use a 162mm thick process. Ordnance Survey maps are a common point of departure for Dublin’s down-river journey began in the 1970s. In 1985, an Urban Study
system building panel, integrating a 100 mm galvanised light Water Supply: Water consumption will be conserved through designers but, unlike the historic editions, the modern mapping offers little Conference in the UCD School of Architecture proposed a series of measures
steel frame, with full thickness, pressure moulded insulation. the use of dual-flush, low volume toilets, and low-flow shower or nothing in the way of a description of the landscape itself. to stimulate urban renewal and reuse. The Fine Gael / Labour Government
This provides a fully insulated façade, simple to air-seal to and tap fittings. Rainwater will be collected from the building
introduced a number of tax initiatives, including the establishment of the
the surrounding concrete floor slabs and cross-walls. Fixed to roof to a 15,000 L under-ground tank and used for WC
slab-edge with steel brackets, it has minimal cold-bridging. flushing. Over the years, Clemens Steenbergen has made very informative analytical Custom House Docks Development Authority (CHDDA) on the 27 acres
The panels will be finished internally with an additional and explanatory drawings of historic gardens to accompany texts and adjacent to Busáras and the Custom House. An architectural competition was
50mm insulation and plasterboard lining, and externally with Electric Lighting: High-efficiency lighting will be used illustrate the relationship between villas, palaces, their gardens and the held for the revitalisation of this redundant dockland area. In 1987 Taoiseach
a magnesite board and a proprietary rain screen cladding throughout, with regular and compact fluorescent lights for all larger landscape or urban contexts in which they are located. ‘Composing Charles Haughey established the Dublin Financial Services Centre and located
system, of Trespa or Rieder FibreC boards. The cladding will functional lighting, and LED lights for any decorative fixtures. Landscapes’ contains a selection of the early hand-made and CAD it in the CHDDA. As Minister for Finance, I raised with Brendan Howlin, TD,
have a limited number of ‘earth’ colours, relating to adjacent In common circulation areas the lighting will be controlled by
drawings, with the addition of many recent drawings that investigate Minister for the Environment, the future of the remaining docklands area
buildings and natural context, to help give the building a daylight sensors. It is expected that these measures will give a
domestic feel and scale. 70% reduction in electricity used for lighting. other architectural and landscape themes using advanced CAD and GIS in 1995. This exchange eventually led to the establishment of the DDDA on
techniques. Together, they cover a rich variety of media at many scales of 1 May 1997. The new authority had Statutory responsibility for the Social,
Windows: Triple glazed argon filled glass units, thermally Provisional PHPP Calculation Results at the time of submitting urban, landscape and architectural investigation. Economic and Physical regeneration of the entire area of 1300 acres.
insulated wood frames, and external aluminium facings, with this paper are as follows:
an overall U-value of 0.8 W/m2K.
Steenbergen’s drawings are not drawings for drawings’ sake; they belong Turtle Bunbury expands this story with photos and stories. Five communities
PHPP Category Value PH limit
Air Tightness: The aim is to construct the building envelope Space heat demand 10 kWh/(m2a) 15 kWh/(m2a) to a methodology of analysis and design with a drawing type chosen are explored, described and illustrated with photos of the new contrasted
to air-tightness of <3.0m3/m2/hr for this project. If we achieve Air-tightness – project goal 3.0 h-1 0.6 h-1 to suit each kind of investigation. They do not try to provide a definitive with images of the past. New social programmes, housing and planning
the passive house standard (<0.6m3/m2/hr) we shall be very Total primary energy demand 100 kWh/(m2a) 120 kWh/(m2a) catalogue but aim to inspire designers to invent and develop their own initiatives were developed. A Community Council complemented the work of
pleased, but we do not expect to do so on this first building. Frequency of summer over- method of drawing. For this reason Composing Landscapes makes a strong the Board and the Executive team of the DDDA. Lessons were learned from
heating (over 24 deg C) 0% contribution to the understanding of the making of landscape drawings some early mistakes. Trust and confidence grew as the positive results were
Envelope energy performance: At this stage, final energy
and hence an understanding of landscape itself. It should be added to the shared by the new companies and the old communities. Dublin Docklands is
simulation figures are not yet available, but the preliminary Following thorough analysis of all PHPP inputs and calculated
figures, which are well within the Passive House standards, results, further sensitivity studies will be carried out to library of all landscape architects, architects, planners, engineers and all now the centre of Ireland’s thriving financial and legal services sectors, albeit
coupled with current project budget estimates, show that determine whether some reduction in insulation standards those interested in the designed landscape. struggling in the current international recession. It is also the home of an old
the over-costs associated with higher insulation and window could reduce construction costs, while remaining within the urban cultural folklore and legacy which is now being celebrated. This book
specifications will have a payback period of between 5 and 7 Passivhaus standards. It is anticipated that the air-tightness Published by Birkhäuser, 2009 tells the story of a thriving port that, as it moved down-river, created the
years. will be better than the stated goal of 3.0 h-1, but even with ISBN 978-3-7643-8782-2 €49.90 space for a prospering city centre and a rejuvenated community housed in
this figure the overall Space Heating Demand is well within
www.birkhauser.ch modern buildings and surrounded by exciting civic spaces.
Space Heating: Preliminary simulations of the building PH limits.
performance indicated a space heating demand of 11 kWhr/
m2/yr, and the PHPP 2007 programme indicates 10 kWhr/m2/ Through this design process, we found it is possible to design Published by Montague Publications, 2009
yr, both considerably less than the Passive House standard a project of this type and scale to ‘Passivhaus’ standard within on behalf of the DDDA, €30
of 15 kWh/m2/yr. This represents a reduction of about 80% an economic framework, with all extra costs having a payback
compared to pre-2007 Building Regulation standards. The period of seven years or less, according to detailed cost Desmond Byrne Ruairi Quinn
residual heating demand will be supplied by very small predictions from the project Quantity Surveyors. Desmond Byrne qualified as an architect in 1986 Ruairi Quinn TD, Architect and Planner, is Labour Party
thermostatically limited hot water radiators at the supply air
at UCD and worked for fifteen years in Germany Spokesperson for Education and Science. He has a
location. The radiator will have a shut-off valve, operated if the
window is opened, similar to standard hotel operation. The and The Netherlands. In 2002 he set up practice in deep interest in urban and planning affairs which he
Ireland and since then has also been teaching in has written about in his memoir Straight Left A Journey
UCD in an emerging school of landscape design at in Politics.
undergraduate and postgraduate level.
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 ARCHITECTURE IN PRACTICE

1 0 Q uestions

for... Peter Carroll

Architecture Ireland Architecture Ireland

Where did you study and what did you do next? Which piece of office equipment could you not do without?

Peter Carroll Peter Carroll

One of my abiding memories as a kid was being taught how My trusted scalpel. I love making card models, although we
to say ‘umbrella’ with my mouth as wide-open as possible have started to make metal models of late.
by Ms. Radmell my elocution teacher. Fortunately she failed
in ridding me of my Limerick accent! Having graduated from Architecture Ireland
UCD, I went to work for O’Donnell + Tuomey for seven years What exhibitions have you recently seen?
followed by another three years working for Rafael Moneo in
Madrid before returning home to establish A2 Architects with Peter Carroll
Caomhan Murphy in 2005. I have also enjoyed teaching design I am an avid pilgrim to Eileen Gray in The National Museum
and construction to 2nd Year at the School of Architecture, in Collins Barracks close to where I live. I have spent hours
University of Limerick (SAUL) for the last three years. repeatedly listening to her video talking about the craft of
lacquer or marvelling at her elaborate aluminium cabinet on
Architecture Ireland exhibition. Otherwise, I often visit The Oonagh Young Gallery,
What is your favourite building? a new art space we recently completed in No.1 James Joyce
Street, Dublin 1.
Peter Carroll
For me this would be a piece of infrastructure: walking along Architecture Ireland
the Promenade in Salthill, Galway following its swerving, What books do you read?
wide concrete path elevated above the sheer drop to the
beach, enjoying the brightly painted concrete shelters in the Peter Carroll
foreground and the distant Burren and Aran Islands in the I just re-read Teach Yourself Business Plans for the times that
background, terminating at the diving boards at Blackrock. It are in it. Old Man Goya by Julia Blackburn is another; It vividly
must be the edge condition that I appreciate most. imagines the life of Goya from the time he contracted an
illness that left him stone-deaf, spending the next 35 years
Architecture Ireland in a world emptied of sound but bursting with images of
What is your favourite material to build with? pageantry and cruelty.

Peter Carroll Architecture Ireland

Working with steel is really enjoyable. We worked with James What music have you recently bought?
Healy Steel Founders recently on the fit-out for Smock and
we used weathered steel almost exclusively for linings and Peter Carroll
fittings. It has great depth, yet a reflective blue-black lustre I depend on Caomhan in A2 crew for new sounds. One minute
that is beautiful. it might be Glenn Gould followed by DJ Tiesto and Empire of
The Sun…. Anything goes really….
Architecture Ireland
Which architect’s work do you admire most? Architecture Ireland
Finally, what would you have become if you had not become
Peter Carroll an architect?
I would like to have worked with Robin Walker or Peter
and Mary Doyle. Their built legacy is truly profound and an Peter Carroll
absolute joy to visit. I recently brought 2nd Year SAUL students I was set on being a hotel manager, as I was convinced that
to both the O’Flaherty House in Kinsale and Birr Community the points requirement for architecture was way beyond me.
School and we were so moved by their rigour, making and I spent my teenage years working in hotel kitchens operating
loving occupation. the giant dishwasher and scrubbing pots. Big hotels have
always fascinated me, especially what goes on behind front-
Architecture Ireland of-house operations.
What makes for a perfect client?

Peter Carroll
To be honest, each and every client brings their own intriguing
baggage to the table. For A2 Architects our valued and varied Birr Community School
clients have been both very stimulating and very challenging. by Peter and Mary Doyle Architects
Photo: John Donat /
Gandon Archive, Kinsale
 SYSTEMS FURNITURE Ad Hoc, design: A. Citterio / Vitra

professional worktools

Ad Hoc is a mature system that evolves

continuously. The beauty of the concept is that
as the nature of work changes, the system does
as well, but the aesthetic core remains stable.
In that way new components may be added,
and old components subtracted, without
undermining the essential nature of the system.

ARCHITECTURE
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