An anglers' facility, a hospital and an arts centre were among the nine winners in the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) annual awards announced yesterday. Five of the winning projects were publicly funded, while eight of the prizes went to projects outside Dublin.
The awards, now in their 19th year, recognise the highest achievements by Irish architectural practices.
The chairman of the judging panel, Robin Mandal, said the judges were "both humbled and very impressed" by what they saw. However, some categories, such as the best conservation project, did not attract projects of high enough quality to justify an award. "In particular, we felt that the conservation submissions lacked perceptive clarity," he said.
The house/extension category had "worrying orthodoxy of sameness", but there were exceptions.
RIAI president James Pike said standards in the quality and design of buildings had risen significantly in recent times and this was increasingly at the behest of clients.
"By 2030, there will be another 1.6 or 1.7 million people living here so we cannot afford to repeat some of the mistakes that we have been making in the great boom," he added.
A number of measures introduced in the Building Control Act would improve standards, Batt O'Keeffe, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, told the awards ceremony.
He said building control authorities would have to be "hyper-active" in enforcing regulations.
The best housing project in this year's awards went to a mixed-use development on a former wasteland at Dublin's Hanover Quay. The judges said the mix of residence types and the internal planning of the apartments broke new ground.
Architects at the Office of Public Works won the best accessible project award for the Marine Institute headquarters in Galway, while a second Galway building, the Bon Secours day hospital and chapel, won the best health building award.
An anglers' facility in Ballina, Co Mayo, won the best leisure building for its innovative design, which blends into a bridge over the river Moy.
The architects of the nurses' education building at Waterford Institute of Technology took the best sustainable project award, while Cork Institute of Technology won the best education building award. Other awards went to Keith Williams Architects for a private home in London; the architects of the Source Arts Centre and Library, Thurles, Co Tipperary; and the architects of the office development at 15 Henry Street, Limerick.
