The lure of the skip can be irresistible. Entire student flats have been furnished with pickings triumphantly poached from piles of junk, under cover of darkness. Luckily, this scavenging instinct was highly developed in Edward McParland and Nicholas Robinson, back in the mid-1970s, when they first began rummaging through skips - in daylight - collecting drawings, plans, photographs, and models for what was to become The Irish Architectural Archive. "When you set out to build up a collection, it is the salvaged items that have a special romance," writes Nicholas Robinson in his introduction to Drawings From The Irish Architectural Archive, the book which accompanies an exhibition opening on Friday at the National Gallery.
The archive's collections have grown steadily since its establishment as a charitable company in 1976: it now holds 300,000 photographs, 80,000 architectural drawings and 11,000 items of printed matter. The material in the archive, housed in No 73 Merrion Square, is freely available to anyone with a professional, academic, or personal interest in the architecture of Ireland from the late 17th century to the present.
As well as plans for country houses, such as Playfair's designs for Townley Hall, Co Louth, and Gandon's drawings for Emo Court, Co Laois, the archive has extensive collections of workhouse designs and artisans' dwellings from the 19th century.
Among the most striking drawings in the exhibition are Jacques Wibault's forts from the early 18th century - abstract complexes of angles and intersections, immaculately rendered in ink and a pale green wash; James Talbot's elegantly intricate plasterwork designs for Castlegar, Co Galway; Deane and Woodward's oddly ecclesiastical stables at Lough Rynn, Co Leitrim; and William White's romantic, turreted and crenellated designs for Humewood, Co Wicklow. A complementary exhibition, "20th-Century Architecture Ireland", opens on Monday at the RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin. First seen at the "Ireland And The Diaspora" festival in Frankfurt two years ago, it is an extensive survey, from the Ivy Buildings in Dublin's Liberties - considered innovative in their day - to the Civic Offices and the work of Group '91.
The aim, according to Kevin Kieran, architecture consultant to the Arts Council, is to exhibit the seminal works of modern Irish architecture, making them as accessible as possible through photographs, perspectives and elevations, as well as plans. "It's important that we emphasise the continuum between our architectural heritage and contemporary work, and that we don't freeze our heritage. What we're building now will be the architectural heritage of the next century."
"Designs From The Irish Architectural Archive" opens on Friday at the National Gallery Of Ireland.
"20th Century Architecture Ireland" opens on Monday at the RHA GaLlagher Gallery, Dublin.