O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects win RIAI Gold

Woo-hoo!
Congratulations to O’D+T.
They got my vote in the poll here (he said smugly). Other buildings were close in my mind, but I think this one will age really well- will possibly get better over time.

Sorry to be a damp squib, and I really know nothing about architecture except that I know what I like, but I find this building really ugly and I’m flabbergasted that it’s won such a prestigious award. I passed it only a couple of weeks ago and was surprised to see the weathering damage to the timber in the building etc. Am I alone in being underwhelmed?

sue, your’e entitled to your opinion that the building is ugly. but there is more to architecture than the current (modern) obsesssion with facile beauty and immaculate appearance. this trend towards the abstract and infinate is bordering on irrelevant to the nature of building architecture and the human condition which are both in a state of perpetual decay and renewal. What ODT do in many of their buildings is allow this deacy to be an intentional part of their buildings so that they can exist in time and not in some unachieveable, abstracted realm.

yes, buildings that are made to exist in some abstract world which deny both the beauty and complexities of life lack the integrity and awareness that a building like this possess. they are focused on being a fixed image of perfection. These images end up betraying their inadequacies by the very fact that they can never achieve what they set out to be, immaculate, infinite and immaterial. Time makes these buildings look sad and disillusioned, whereas the ranelagh school has the potential be enriched as it ages.

Very nicely put what?.
It will mellow very well over time, indeed this is the greatest appeal of it for me even now – it’s a lovely ‘soft’, subtle building that sits in its environment exceptionally well.

It is also eye-catching on another level too, as when you see that sandy brick for the first time in the coner of your eye, you immediately dismiss it as just another structure that’s been clad in ‘quality’ brick to compensate for a complete lack of design or innovation.
Realising it is much more than this simply adds to the appeal of what is a thoroughly attractive building.

Somebody once told me that the selection of any winner in any competition is a reflection on the assessors who make the selection. This result is a surprise, not necessarily by what was included but by what was left out. As for the school this is a building designed by and for adults. The details, scale and organisation are less about the direct experience of the young and more about the rarefied air of the adult.

ODT are a joke, as James Krenov says people get away with bad craft by calling it art.
I went to visit the new gallery in Cork a few months after it opened, hadnt seen it before but heard lots about it. Glucksman more like yucks man didnt like it all, all that rubbish they went on about in the press releases, award winning, ‘respecting the site, inserting into the woodland’ totally crap if you ask me, I struggled to find a redeeming feature.
It doesnt work as an art space, or lend itself to viewing or interpreting anything. It already feels like it needs a facelift. The only plus side for me was that seeing this cluttered junkheap helps me to understand better what terms like, form, function, design, detail, craft style are about, cos its certainly not present here. Id love to have seen some of the other submissions. It was a lovely location, I spent many summer evenings lazing by the river here listening to the water and the tennis balls, we used go ‘bushing’ by the tennis courts on the river there..
Are they really the leading architects of this generation? Whilst browing in the bookshop the register girl and an attendant were talking, he was saying that ‘ its only a open a couple of months and already its leaking all over the shop’ (he was from Cork after all) . Did they learn nothing in letterfrack, capillary action. treated timber, bare concrete. I cant get this building and everyone else does. Dont good architects take an interest in the minutiae of their buildings, ODT look like they gave a bad mockup to the builder and moved on, everything in it was distasteful and badly laid out. For instance you have to look askew at items in the sealed room, wheelchairs need to get the lift from the cafe (which feels like a bunker and not a woodland cafe) to the loo (whos style is out of step with the rest) , the stair rail look likes a leaving cert metalwork project, the doors they found in a skip, I ran out of the place. Oh i also heard someone turned down a job in the Glucksman because there are no offices for people to work there, have a look next time you visit theres no space for anyone located in the building to work in, one person ended up having to work out of their car.
They also screwed up the Letterfrack furniture college, completely inappropriate, non-functional design for its location and purpose. And that piece of crap they sent to the biennale in Vienna was embarrassing.

I’m interested to know which Architects mickletterfrack likes? And which buildings?

Ok so we have gone from being critical about everything to being critical about nothing. Raising up various candidates on pedestals is not a progressive way forward, especially when you see the quality of work that appears daily in Europe and in the new accession countries. For the most part most of the work here is by and large pedestrian intellectually and suffers seriously from an inability to bring the complete composition to a meaningful relevant conclusion. The Ranelagh School, while being one of the better works by ODT it certainly has major questions over its relationship to it s subject. So too does the Glucksman. Just because it is different does not grant it absolution to be merely wilful. Regardless of stylistic preferences we should be working toward a critical position that can discuss these matters without relying on accusations of snobbery or axe grinding. The work has to present itself without the cloak of favouritism or influence and be seen in its true state as is. A case in point is Henngean.Peng’s Kildare Offices that will likely receive awards but is a seriously flawed work conceptually and materially. Yet we will get threads extolling the adventurousness, the “dynamic” facade, the “social” ramps and the crisp brutal detailing. There will be little time for the mundane-ness of the curtain wall, the uncomfortable ramps or the unresolved joints and corners.

I totally agree;

and would further request a detailed critique of the Ranelagh School from Shadow