A new School of Architecture at the University of Limerick aims to put environmental issues at its heart, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

Setting up a new school of architecture is not something that happens very often; the last one to be established in Ireland was at the University of Ulster, in Jordanstown, Co Antrim. So it is a cause for celebration that the University of Limerick (UL) is following in its footsteps.

There's also a buzz about the fact that the new school is being headed by Merritt Bucholz, a young (38-year-old) Chicago-born architect who, along with his partner Karen McEvoy, has produced such award-winning buildings as Fingal County Hall, in Swords, and Limerick County Hall, in Dooradoyle.

Bucholz McEvoy Architects also designed the glazed "welcome pavilions" for Government Buildings in Merrion Street and, more recently, Leinster House.

And however opaque government may be at local and national level, all of these projects were imbued by ideas of openness, transparency and accountability.

If there is one thing that characterises this practice, it is a strong environmental commitment - and this will be carried through to the new school in UL, where students will explore architecture as an element of the broader environment and develop a real understanding of how to work within it.

Most architecture schools are located in urban areas, but what impresses Bucholz about UL is its location in an otherwise rural and beautiful setting along the banks of the Shannon. He sees the school's place in the landscape reinforcing his commitment that the environment will play a strong role in its ethos.

"The labelling of 'environmentalism' as a left-wing thing is a problem. But the truth is we all have a huge environmental responsibility that's even more urgent now. So architecture can't be just about aesthetics and technique; it needs to be grounded in philosophical and cultural understanding."

The location on the edge of Limerick will enable the school to consider natural landscape, man-made landscape and infrastructure together, so that architecture is understood in the context of flux. Themes to be explored will include ecology, territory, isolation and regional identity, to name but a few.

"Architecture is generally very object-orientated, dealing with buildings as fetish-ised objects, and I'd like to get away from that," Bucholz says. "In UL, we are surrounded by a different kind of landscape, so the idea of 'place' is important because it will allow us to deal with that environment very directly."

The school aims to become "a leader in thought on environmental issues by situating them within a strong philosophical, technological, cultural and historical context", as the prospectus says. Its teaching would also be "sufficiently abstract so that complex and difficult problems can be tackled".

Over the five-year course, the design studio would be a laboratory through which other subjects are taught - structural engineering, environmental engineering, history (of architecture, society, technology), philosophy, sociology, law and management, all as aids to sound professional practice.

Students would also learn skills in hand drawing and sketching, model-making and workshop techniques, photography, computer-aided drawing, three-dimensional visualisation, audiovisual and verbal presentation, and core skills including problem solving and working with other people.

Bucholz sees architecture as "a way of thinking, taught through a design studio - a creative laboratory where experimentation and reflection are the essence of the learning process". Indeed, he wishes everyone could study it so that society would become more attuned to the built environment.

He envisages that the UL school will become "a strong voice in rural Ireland for the built environment", forming links with local authorities and other local institutions in a place which is "far from provincial in that narrow sense". It would become "the centre for debate about the built environment and landscape".

Bucholz wants to develop a "master class" system to make the most of the location and attract the best talents from all over the world to teach in Limerick; Ireland's international reputation for contemporary architecture and the fact that UL is within easy reach of Shannon Airport should help to pull them in.

An international advisory panel already includes David Lewis, director of graduate studies at the Parsons School of Design in New York; Matthias Schuller, principal in Transsolar environmental engineers, and Elizabeth Hatz, professor of architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Bucholz, who says UL has given him "complete autonomy and discretion" in starting the school, envisages lecturers and critics, both visiting and in-situ, involved with students in a "perpetual studio atmosphere", where the studio will be the physical centre of the course and all of its activities.

And though his goal to get it started in September seems somewhat ambitious, Bucholz points out that Leaving Cert students have until July 1st to change their preferences for the CAO's annual lottery. "The UL admissions people are very flexible and there'll be no problem getting 25 students."

He accepts that the study of architecture is "very demanding" and requires students to be "firmly committed". He's also looking at ways to bring people in "outside the CAO system", including mature students "of diverse backgrounds and life experiences" as well as students from overseas.

The five-year BArch degree course will have to be accredited by the RIAI, and he has had informal discussions with the institute's president, Tony Reddy; its director, John Graby, and the chairman of the RIAI's board of education, Martin Donnelly. Their initial response, not surprisingly, has been enthusiastic. "We welcome the establishment of this new school of architecture under an eminent, well-qualified professional architect," Tony Reddy says. As things stand, more than half of all new members of the RIAI in the past years are either non-nationals or Irish people who have studied abroad.

Merritt Bucholz intends to continue in practice while he is running the UL school, just as Cathal O'Neill did when he was professor of architecture at UCD. He seems to work a 17-hour day and, along with Karen McEvoy, has been flying to Boston regularly to lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Bucholz McEvoy Architects are busy with work, too. The practice has doubled in size in recent years and now employs 25 people working on such projects as the huge mixed-use scheme of apartments, offices and sheltered housing now under construction on a site adjoining Elm Park golf course in Dublin 4.

It is emblematic of his environmental commitment that he gets around on a collapsible Brompton bicycle - and that he bought 12 of them for other architects in the office. "You get into a certain way of doing things," he says. "If you're in Ireland, you're busy. Everyone is, if they want to stay in the game."