The number of places to study architecture here has nearly doubled this autumn with two new courses. Emma Cullinan talks to Maire Henry, programme director of one at the Waterford IT

You wait years for a new architectural course and then two come along at once. With the University of Limerick all set to kick off its School of Architecture this autumn, run by Merritt Bucholz, the Waterford Institute of Technology has just had its new architecture course sanctioned by the Department of Education and Science.

It's taken the best part of two years to get the go-ahead, and the course has been mooted for nearly 20 years, says programme director Maire Henry, who began teaching at WIT in 1995.

The college has run a well regarded architectural technology honours course, backed by a "great team which is strongly motivated to provide the best education for students", but technology students who wanted to go on to study architecture have had no choice but to go abroad. "We've watched so many graduates from here, who were talented technicians, walk into schools in England due to a lack of resources in Ireland," says Henry.

Indeed, the two new courses should effectively double the number of places in the Republic. At the moment UCD (University College Dublin) and the DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) train roughly 50 students each year. WIT will begin with about 30 first and second-year students in September.

The new course is timely; Ireland needs more architects, not least to meet the requirements of the National Development Plan. Henry also points out that Ireland would benefit from having those trained in architecture working in all sorts of areas.

"Our overall mission would be to improve the built and natural environment. Some of our more recent problems could have been avoided if people had more design awareness," she says.

Henry sees the course as a natural progression from what the college has already been doing, and it carried out surveys in preparation for what to offer: findings included the advantages of having a more diverse student base, both in terms of nationality and background; taking a more holistic and interdisciplinary approach to teaching architecture; a need for more specialist teaching in certain areas, such as conservation and sustainability; and the continuing importance of studio-based teaching.

WIT is also gearing its course towards the Bologna Agreement which aims to internationalise third-level teaching to facilitate the movement of students and professionals between countries.

Addressing the interdisciplinary approach, WIT will promote a crossover between subjects at the institute with, for instance, engineers and architectural students working together, bringing those with both scientific and design-based knowledge together.

The modular-based course will also allow architectural students to try other subjects and those from other courses to study, say, a module in architectural history. The hope is that all sorts of people will take some architectural knowledge into their professional life which, says Henry, should lead to better decision making.

The crossover between disciplines will also benefit architecture students. "Our research found that architectural schools are perceived as being isolated from other disciplines on campus, and of being seen as a bit of an elite course. That's not a good thing to take into professional life," says Henry.

Apart from offering this broader approach, the WIT School of Architecture will also be taking in a wide range of students. While 50 per cent of students will come from the traditional pool, through school, 50 per cent will come through other routes, perhaps having done a related degree or diploma course, or having had relevant work experience.

They will be assessed by interview and portfolio. "The current system inhibits a lot of students because of the high points required," says Henry. "Some of our students who just missed the entry requirements here have done extremely well in the English system."

While it is already possible for technicians to go on and study to be an architect in Ireland, Henry says that it is still extremely difficult for them to get a place on a course in Ireland, due to a lack of places.

These new students will up the age of qualification, bringing the school more into line with the rest of Europe where many don't qualify until their late twenties: at the moment, Ireland has some of the youngest architectural graduates in Europe.

And WIT architectural students, as well as doing lots of projects in Waterford itself, will be linking up with their Continental cousins, something that has been facilitated by Henry's time working abroad. A graduate of UCD, she spent a year with Scott Tallon Walker in London before heading to Paris where she spent nine years working in Renzo Piano's office, known for its multinational workforce.

"It was a wonderful place, and inspirational for the way I work," says Henry. "Every project is unique and involves a lot of model making, studying history, exploiting materials and perfecting the structure and design."

Leaving Paris was one of the hardest decisions of her life, but the birth of her first two children changed everything, as it always does. She and her husband, Fintan Duffy, who was also employed by Piano, mainly worked on projects outside Paris; travel and long hours led to the children spending a lot of time in creches and with friends. "I like to do anything that I do really well, and that includes being a mother," says Henry.

Originally from Cavan, she applied for the teaching job in Waterford and moved there 10 years ago, academia lending itself nicely to parenthood. She also runs an architectural practice with two partners, including her husband, called DHB Architects. "It's really important to keep working as an architect when teaching, otherwise you lose touch," she says. "Waterford is a very nice place and is undergoing huge change which a lot of good people are involved in," says Henry, who praises Waterford city architect Rupert Maddock. The future of any town depends on the collaboration between academia, professional people, the community and the state. If they work as partners in a positive way, then that will lead to growth.

"If you look at Ireland as a whole, it's been divided between Dublin and the rest of Ireland. In Dublin, design has really accelerated: there is a tremendous design culture. It's beginning to happen in the rest of Ireland and we want to be a part of that."

Along with student projects in Waterford, which include surveying listed buildings and doing drawings of them where none exist, WIT also has links outside the country.

WIT is also one of 12 institutions worldwide which are invited to send students for a six-month scholarship to Renzo Piano's office in Genoa, Italy, along with a €12,000 bursary.

A student who completed his time in Italy is working for Richard Rogers in London, and another is on her way to Genoa. WIT also has an exchange programme with Ecole Architecture in Marne la Vallée outside Paris.

As well as the "great team" in WIT, there will be visiting lecturers, including Niall McLaughlin, who has a practice in London; a director from Renzo Piano's office; and conservation specialist James Howley, who is based in Dublin.

"The new course builds on years of architectural teaching at WIT," says Henry. "It's not something that has appeared out of nowhere. There's still a lot of hard work to be done though. When devising a programme in architecture you can't just look at the needs of today; a good institute will continue to evolve and improve."

Having won accreditation, Henry hopes that others will follow. "In a perfect world there would be a school of architecture in every major city."