Re: Re: AAI Awards 2008

Nothing much to see there, the panel was disappointed with what passes for Architecture in Ireland and had t0 give their main award to some shed in the wastelands of Tallaght. Interesting that with what is coming down the tracks in terms of recession, energy/food shocks and carbon tax, architects can’t take the time to look over their 21″ flat screens and see the freight train heading our way. Do Architects know how to calculate the 0.60 Energy performance coefficient ,for dwellings submitted for planning after July? Do they know how to model the feasibility of alternative energy systems for commercial buildings, will they just farm this out these integral design tools to mechanical consultants? Are the committee’s set up in the RIAI actually doing anything to educate us, all new houses will be passive by 2011.
Awards? Look at the state of the built environment we have created in the last 15 years then tell me that the half a percentile of buildings which could be called Architecture represent a job well done. Why do all our wealthy peers build neoclassical macmansions, the backslapping that goes on at these love-in awards ceremonies, is like the band playing on on-board the titanic as she sank, its time to rearrange some deckchairs. The Institute president and past-president O’Laoire and Pike are doing a great job but we need to rfundamentally reappraise what we want architecture to be in the next couple of decades, Must we have the owners of the large commercial ‘architecture factories’ representing the ideals that sustained us through 5 tiring years of college and years of hard slog late night and weekends.
Have your say at the Irish Architecture Foundation’s tpublic consultation exercise, called Conversations about Architecture and the Built Environment. Public meetings are scheduled for Galway (May 29th), Waterford (June 3rd), Cork (June 4th), Limerick (June 5th), Carrick-on-Shannon (June 9th), Athlone (June 10th), Swords (June 11th) and Dublin (June 12th).