Sir, – Una Mullally’s article on the quality of modern buildings in Dublin (“Slamming the door on decent design”, Opinion & Analysis, January 6th) cannot go without some response from an architect. As one who has been involved in designing buildings for 50 years, particularly housing, I feel the need for a riposte.
Before the last two decades, architects had a limited role in designing housing in the capital, as speculative builders, with a few exceptions, did not employ architects. Liam Carroll of Zoe Developments did not employ one until the late-1990s.
The public sector did employ architects and this was reflected in the fact that the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland’s housing silver medal was for many years awarded to public housing projects, and from the 1970s Dublin City Council built many attractive schemes of terrace housing in the inner city, following the pattern of previous generations. It was only in the boom years that three private projects in the Dublin Docklands have been awarded successive medals.
It must be admitted that many architects until recent years had not been involved in large-scale housing, which is the most difficult design task for an architect.
This, combined with the lack of experience across the construction industry, resulted in a high percentage of poor design and construction during the boom.
However, there have been some benefits from the boom. Some good projects have been completed and statutory standards have been raised well above those in the UK.
Incidentally, the next phase at Clancy Barracks is all about the preservation and adaptation of the historic buildings.– Yours, etc,
JAMES PIKE, FRIAI,
O’Mahony Pike Architects,
Milltown, Dublin 6.
Sir, – Una Mullally spoke the beams and bolts of my own long-held views regarding the torrent of disastrous builds and deconstructions of the past 60 years in our cities and towns. She rightly pointed out the professional ire to which mere plebs find themselves subjected when daring to discuss building design. If the non-versed (architecturally speaking) can recognise the ugly, poorly crafted and cheap nature of nearly all current builds, then surely our design elite should too. I do not wish to plead for a return to Georgian or even Edwardian pomposity, merely that current public and commercial buildings not stand in sheer defiance of their neighbours’ and ancestors’ charms.
We may well lament the lost architecture and beautification projects, well documented on the excellent Archiseek website, or even the joined-up thinking that our cities’ leaders were once afforded, in an age where the only link between different schemes seems to be either “eclectic” or “incarceratory”, at best. I grant that the some excellent schemes have been initiated, Opera Lane in Cork being a personal favourite. The new quayside Courts of Justice in the capital also deserves an honourable mention. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN BEHAN,
Cahirdown,
Listowel,
Co Kerry.