Madam, - The British architect Melville Dunbar has some nerve, coming over here and telling us our houses "lack any sense of place" (The Irish Times, April 11th).
Our houses do have a sense of place; and that place is Britain. In general, what Britain builds on Monday and discovers is a bad idea on Tuesday, Ireland will build on Wednesday (Ballymun flats were an excellent example of this unfortunate Irish tendency).
If Irish houses are dreadful (and most of them are) it is only because British houses are dreadful. The sole difference is that the standard designs seem to deteriorate even further when crossing the Irish Sea. Why British houses are dreadful is hard to say, but it is obvious that a virus began to attack them during the last century.
On recent motor car tours of England, I was struck by the beauty of the countryside, dotted by lovely old houses and villages. As one approaches towns or cities, however, one reaches the awful 20th-century suburbs. At this point, if one is Irish, one begins at once to feel quite at home. - Yours, etc.,
COLIN BRENNAN,
Nutley Square,
Dublin 4.