Opus AwardsCutting-edge buildings are more friendly than they used to be, a fact borne out by the Opus Architecture and Construction Awards, writes Emma Cullinan

The winning buildings in this year's Bank of Ireland Opus Architecture and Construction Awards tend to be light on their feet; they have a human scale, exude warmth through the use of timber, and have lots of natural light. Many of them use sustainable features: notably (and pleasingly) natural ventilation.

The OPW has been careful to point out that the two award-winning buildings it designed have disabled access throughout, something that chairman of the judges, Ciaran O'Connor, OPW architect, said, last year, was missing from many of the winning schemes.

More than 150 projects were submitted this year, with nine winning awards and a number of others being either "highly commended" or "commended". The Bank of Ireland Opus Awards don't have a set number of winners - they are given out on merit and vary year by year.

"There was such a variety of work submitted, from house extensions to city scale projects," said O'Connor. "Small was not always beautiful. Big was not always brash. The best buildings displayed insight as well as intellect; and sensitivity as well as toughness in achieving their goals."

The Bank of Ireland Opus Award judges distinguish themselves from other major architectural awards in Ireland by actually visiting the schemes.

This leads to some surprising discoveries. "The new Kildare County Council Civic Offices appeared more striking in photographs than in reality," says the judges' citation. The building won an award after much discussion.

In contrast, two houses visited by the judges displayed delights not perceived in photographs. In their citation the judges discuss the attributes of the award-winning extension to a house in Dundrum, Dublin, by Bone O'Donnell Architects/Robert Doyle Construction, and pointed out that: "A site visit was necessary to discover its qualities." Of the house in Thor Place, Dublin 7, by ODOS Architects/CKC Ltd, they said: "This is another project where only a site visit can tell the full story."

The fact that the winning buildings are more human and environmentally-friendly than many structures have been in the past hopefully points to a general trend in this direction. The buildings here are probably leading the way but then that is one of the roles of forward-thinking architects.

Along with some exquisite houses and housing (see winners list, right), there are exemplary civic and commercial buildings. People have been catered for with generous civic spaces, including internal courtyards and external public squares. MCO Architecture/M&P Construction was commended for its residential and community building for Sisters of Mercy nuns at the Mater Hospital. This includes a contemplation garden. MCO is run by Laura Magahy and EveAnne Cullinan (Philip Crowe is their director of architecture), whose brother Michael, of MV Cullinan Architects, won an award for a housing scheme in Co Mayo (neither are related to this writer).

The award-winning stone and glass-faced Galway City Museum, by OPW/John Sisk and Sons, is another civic-minded project. It is L-shaped so as to create a new public square, while the highly commended curved Steelworks mixed-use building in Foley Street, Dublin, by Laughton Tyler Architects/Rogerson Redden Associates, has a five-storey atrium with a winter garden and indoor communal area for residents which faces onto a public park.

People are also catered for in the internal layout of winning buildings with both the award-winning Cork County Hall, extensively revamped by Shay Cleary Architects/Rohcon Ltd, and the Marine Institute in Galway by OPW/John Sisk and Sons, having public facilities near to the buildings' entrances, to save occasional visitors from having to walk through endless corridors searching for residents' parking discs, or oceanic intelligence.

The Marine Institute uses calculations of the Golden Section (found in nature) which must surely speak to people's subconscious knowledge of their own proportions.

Some of the enormous winning buildings enjoy a human scale, with Cork County Hall having an overhang at the entrance which cocoons visitors so that they don't feel dwarfed by the tower's height. While the commended diagnostic centre for the Bon Secours hospital, by Burke-Kennedy Doyle Architects/Bowen Construction, has protruding timber boxes on one façade that gives the building a warmth and which shrinks its overall scale.

Douglas Wallace Architects/John Sisk and Sons' commended Scotch Hall, a mixed-use development that includes a shopping centre and hotel, in Drogheda, is a sturdy form externally yet inside there are glass floors, floating roofs, and a sleek footbridge, giving a lightness of touch and which add to the building's enjoyment. The judges chose it because: "Large shopping centres are not renowned for their sensitivity of scale and positive contribution to neglected urban renewal areas, but the Scotch Hall project is a welcome exception."

In Lapps Quay, Cork, a highly commended building by Scott Tallon Walker/PR Hegarty and Sons, people can sit and have coffee on the boardwalk perched over the river. On the building itself the scale is people-pleasing with the glass facade sliced by overhanging shades.

Eco-friendly elements feature in Cork County Hall, with its opening louvres in the facade allowing for natural ventilation. The judges were impressed that: "The environmentally active facade is a fine filigree of glass louvres in stainless steel frames and is a striking counterpoint to the tower facade."

Environmentalists can also breathe easy about the naturally ventilated Nurses Education Building at Waterford Institute of Technology, by A&D Wejchert and Partners Architects/Cleary and Doyle Contracting; the city offices in Naas by Heneghan Peng Architects and Arthur Gibney and Partners/Pierce Contracting; the opening roof in the atrium of Galway City Museum, giving a stack effect; and the vented windows and planted green roof at the MCO's Sisters of Mercy Building.

If these awards are anything to go by, cutting-edge buildings, at least, are more friendly than they used to be.

The winning schemes will be on display at Plan Expo which takes place at the RDS Simmonscourt from November 9th-11th