Shay Cleary has a track record as an arty architect. He worked on the redevelopment of Dublin's Temple Bar: in the year ahead, he will be central in two major artistic projects. Sitting behind his desk, he appears the quintessential man of culture: refined but just a little eccentric. His choice of pinstripped shirt and polka dot tie tell of an aesthetic nature and influences a little cosmopolitan. Those influences include the cities of Paris and London - two places in which he spent time before returning to Ireland to set up his practice in 1987. From Cork originally, he returned to a Dublin badly in need of reconstruction. Shay Cleary Architects was to play an important part in that process of rebuilding - first of all with the conversion of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham and later through the redevelopment project at Temple Bar.
While there were 12 architects involved in the development of the Temple Bar area, all were involved in the overall design. As Cleary describes their approach, "the whole strategy for the area was to make these particular points of intensity, within the whole area: Temple Bar Square, Curved Street, which cuts through, and then Meeting House Square". But each of those involved in the project had their own particular site of responsibility. "Within all of that, my office was particularly responsible for Arthouse, the multi-media centre," Cleary explains, "but the whole strategy for the area was developed as a consortium of practices."
Cleary's involvement with artistic projects of national interest continues with his design for the new Project Arts Centre, currently under construction and to be finished in March or April. He is also involved in the creation of a new exhibition space at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, at Kilmainham. While the new work at IMMA is essentially adding to what is already there, the work at the Project Arts Centre is of a more radical nature, creating a totally new space.
The new Project will be quite different to the old. The new structure will entail a large auditorium performance-space with a capacity of 250, a smaller performance space with a capacity of 100 (known as The Cube) and an individual exhibition space or gallery. The new art gallery is to be quite different to the one in the old Project.
"In the old Project the gallery was also the foyer. We were very concerned to have a separate, dedicated gallery space, as distinct from the foyer. The foyer itself is a largescale space and I imagine that that will be used as well in ways we can't predict at the moment."
The advantages of the new design include a high degree of adaptability in the spaces available. The main auditorium will be suitable for theatre, comedy, gigs, or any other use that can be thought of.
"The main auditorium is a very flexible space. Essentially it's a big box. It can be configured in any way in terms of theatre: end-on or in-the-round, thrust, or whatever. It can be dismantled. It isn't a fixed theatre space. It's a flexible, multiple space."
Costing £2 million, the new Project Arts Centre will be a welcome addition to the Dublin cultural scene. As Ireland's first arts centre, it is fitting it should get a proper home, Cleary says. "It will give them more scope to do what they've always done really well anyway - be a breeding ground for artistic output."
The new space at IMMA, meanwhile, will be another valuable addition to the country's cultural life. The conversion of the Deputy Master's House into a series of highly serviced, air-conditioned galleries will mean IMMA will be able to borrow works from anywhere in the world. The new exhibition areas will comply with the highest international lending criteria and should ensure Dublin is not passed over by major touring shows. The new extension to IMMA cost £1.7 million and will be open in February.
While Shay Cleary works on many different types of projects, he has a special interest in large-scale public work. "My expertise is in making space, and I am very interested in working in the public realm," he says.
What better man to ask, then, about the way that the capital city should be going? He says he is quite happy with how things have developed, with the city today compared with the Dublin he returned to in the late 1980s.
While he feels there is still "a huge way to go" - citing public transport as a major cause of concern, he says: "I think a lot of things are happening, what the corporation is involved in, the extension of the public realm - like the work that is happening in Smithfield at the moment. Dublin is improving. It even comes down to wider pavements and people sitting outside. Suddenly it feels like a European city. It didn't feel like that three or four years ago."