February
Dwell
What we saw, by Virginia Gardiner
For an exhibit titled SubUrban to SuperRural, nine Irish architecture studios suggested ways to reverse the urban sprawl that has tainted Ireland's landscape and quality of life in the past decade. The walls were awash with relevant statistics ‚ eg, the per capita driving average in Ireland is 25,000 kilometers per year, versus 19,000 in the United States. Imaginative proposals ‚ such as Dominic Stevens' Fluidcity, which carries a floating urban infrastructure to villages along the river Shannon ‚ brought forth the exciting prospect that architects might change the country's future, as they did with Dublin's Temple Bar in the 1990s
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20 January
El País
Babelia: El tigre celta, de Luis Fernández-Galiano
In the recent Architecture Biennale in Venice, the country touted as the world's most globalised economy explored some local scenarios foreseen in the near future as a result of spectacular urban growth during the past decade… [and] a construction boom that has colonized the Irish countryside with a sprawl of single family residences – a huge spread of housing that brings with it long commutes from home to work, making the automobile an essential part of daily life – due to a lack of efficient public transportation – and thereby increasing the country's energy dependency. It is the threat of these dysfunctional forces that the organizers of the Irish entry address with proposals that would change [the island] from SubUrban to SuperRural, a well chosen motto where the modern regeneration of nature replaces the fragmentary degeneration of the city. More...
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January
PLAN Architectural Review 2007
Comment, by Denise Maguire
FKL architects, curator of the Irish entry, described it as a model that shifts suburban sprawl to a more sustainable model that ‘provides alternatives’... How feasible is it for a country so rooted in the notion of low-density home ownership to break free of this destructive pattern and embrace the idea of a ‘SuperRural’ life?
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January
Architecture Ireland 223
President’s Column, by James Pike
The Annual Conference in Venice proved very successful with more than 260 delegates, a wonderful venue on the waterfront, a very stimulating Biennale exhibition, and perfect weather. The conference itself focused on urban development and included a presentation by Gary Lysaght of FKL architects on the Irish Biennale exhibit SubUrban to SuperRural, which showed nine highly inventive alternatives to our current sprawl, and the launch of the vision study of Irish Gateways, Twice the Size, by myself and Henk van der Kamp, President of the Irish Planning Institute, which offers an opportunity for further thinking ‘outside the box’ on the future of our cities.
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January
Architecture Ireland 223
Review of RIAI Annual Conference 2006, by John Dobbin, winner of the Forbo student competition
Gary Lysaght of FKL architects opened the second phase of the conference, which focused on the issues raised by Ireland’s entry to the Biennale, SubUrban to SuperRural. This indictment of current national planning and development was reinforced by RIAI President James Pikeís address on the Gateway concept for the development of Irelandís major cities... An afternoon spent wandering in the Giardini della Biennale, visiting the pavilions of the 50 participating nations, concluded with the Italian pavilion, where in a darkened room the Irish exhibit was on display. The popularity of the exhibit seemed evident from the debate and discussion both of the visiting architects and wider audience; a young group seemed particularly fascinated by Dominic Stevensí stop motion video of the population and depopulation of the Shannon in his Fluidcity project.
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December
Select: Architecture, Winter 2006
Venice Architectural Biennale: SubUrban to SuperRural, by Wendy Grant
It could be said that we, like some other nations, are unlucky not to have our own independent pavilion; however, this yearís impressive entry may pave the way forward for us to have our own permanent pavilion one day... Now letís hope that the exhibition makes its way to the Irish public and that the powers that be will hopefully recognize and reap the benefits of the ardent research and inventive solutions that this yearís entry has had to offer as to what Ireland may look like in 2030 if we donít open the door to the broader business of shaping our little green isle before it shapes us! Let us become true custodians of our lands.
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December
PLAN The Art of Architecture and Design
Comment, by Denise Maguire
2006 was also the year that we all became a little bit Italian ‚ Ireland’s much anticipated and then much praised entry in the Venice Biennale dominated the architectural press throughout the summer.
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December
Irish Arts Review, Winter 2006
Irish Architectural Design, by Eleanor Flegg
Although previous Irish exhibitors at the Venice Biennale have presented built structures, this year's entry by nine architects comprised a multimedia exploration of Ireland's possible future landscapes, complete with cautionary tales. At the launch of Suburban to Superural, the Irish Commissioner, Shane O'Toole said: “The theme that Ricky Burdett has chosen for this year's Venice Architectural Biennale ‚ Cities, Architecture and Society ‚ has created a situation where for the first time, architects can be idealistic and realistic at the same time. There is a small window of opportunity for us to rise above the urban/rural divide and truly examine Ireland as a entity.” More...
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December
Circa 118, Winter 2006
Venice Biennale 10th International Architecture Exhibition, by Gemma Tipton
What SubUrban to SuperRural did was underline the idea that architecture is about how we think about how we live, as much as the buildings that actually go up. Deciding to dispense with the usual reams of paper, much of the really gritty (and interesting) information was not in the elegantly executed exhibition, but in a book, published by Gandon, which will hopefully be available long after the Biennale is over. Unfortunately, this had sold out its original delivery to the Biennale after the opening weekend, and the exhibition made less sense without it. But if I was angry with the US pavilion, where was my sense of disgust at the Irish government? Their historical corruption, which has led to a blighted countryside and appalling problems for suburban commuter families, has also led to Dublin being singled out by the European Environmental Agency as a ìworst-case scenarioî of urban planning so that newer EU member states such as Poland might avoid making the same mistakes.
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31 December
The Sunday Times
Apocalypse now, if we are not careful, by Shane OíToole
The yearís most important architectural event was Ricky Burdett’s Venice Biennale devoted to Cities: architecture and society. The biennale was a global wake-up call and a reminder that societies need to be self-aware. That is precisely what we are not, although FKL architects ‚ who curated SubUrban to SuperRural, Irelandís successful entry to the biennale ‚ took important steps towards setting an agenda that would, if heeded, transform the development of Ireland for the better over the next generation, when the population is expected to increase by up to 1.6m people. More than 1,000 Irish planners, designers and policymakers visited Venice to learn from the Biennale. FKLís exhibition will tour Limerick, Cork, Dublin and Belfast in the coming year. The questions it poses are simple. Where are we going to live? How are we going to get around? The choices are not simple, however, and cannot emerge from our current fragmented planning system. So who is going to create a planning framework that will permit us to join the dots before it is too late?
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1 December
Urban Land, November-December 2006
City Challenges, by Penny Kay
“ The Venice Biennale is sometimes seen as an exotic day out for the world of architecture, but the theme of cities, architecture, and societies provides an opportunity for architects to influence real policy change,” notes Shane OíToole of the Irish Architecture Foundation... ìArchitects have generated visions. Now they must be joined by the rest of society to turn them into actionsî... The challenge now is how to connect architecture with cities as key places for major new social, political, and environmental change, says Saskia Sassen, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago and a leading theorist on globalization and its impact on cities. The challenge will be to focus in depth on social dynamics and how cities are used by the people who live and work in them, and how to understand their needs and prepare for the expansion of new communities. More...
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1 December
Werk, Bauen und Wohnen
On the demands and needs of cities, by Ros Diamond
The most successful were those few national exhibits directly addressing urbanisation either by commissioning architects to make projects on a relevant topic, or where a predominant condition has been tackled. The Irish exhibition SubUrban to SuperRural showed propositions by nine young practices on the problem of Irish suburbanisation, where the latent home owning aspiration has encouraged territorial profligacy and the cult of ‘cash crop housing’ in speculative developments. One third of Irish homes are under 11 years old, the population will increase by one third of its size in 25 years, encouraging a‘super-sprawl condition’ between Cork, Limerick and Dublin, devastating the countryside and destroying the traditional sense of community... The architecture implied by this year’s cities theme is as a possible mechanism, a catalyst rather than in the form of abstracted utopian propositions. But how might they be reconciled? ... Density and dispersal / Shrinking and suburbanised cities: the proposals for densification of urbanism in Ireland to alleviate the spreading suburbanisation of the rural (see above), and the contrasting dilemma of a city like Detroit, in which the urban centre with its residential population has been shrinking and building density declines, whilst suburbanising sprawl spreads over south Michigan. More...
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November
PLAN The Art of Architecture and Design
Inspiring the Inspired: PLAN architecture and design conference 2006, by Richard Conway
The Bucholz Biennale entry, Learning Landscape, flashes up on the screen... ìWe looked at what is happening in the Irish landscape. Itís an urban place. Even 150 years ago it was much more densely populated and used a lot more,î he says... Paul Kelly... is describing his Venice Biennale entry, Hinterland. Tantalising images of a lush green future grace the screen. Bathers sit in a swimming pool on top of their wooden house as combine harvesters till the land. ìIf you look at the way people live we need to ask: are they in love with the car or are they forced to do it?î... But he says itís futile to try to change it. Hinterland didnít aim to tell people ìwhat they canít haveî ‚ but rather to ìgive them what they want, sustainably.î
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November
Perspective, vol 15, no 6, November-December 2006
Architecture versus society, by Marianne OíKane Boal
Irelandís entry, SubUrban to SuperRural, is courageous and is the countryís first group exhibition. It is an indictment of the countryís failings to date, self-critical of current developments and yet the nine exhibiting practices are prepared to posit aspirational and reparative visions for progress... As Michelle Fagan posits: ìThere must be a massive shift to sustainable attitudes. This is coming. With this exhibition, we are essentially planting seeds ‚ ideas intended to present possibilities and stimulate debate. We want the public to consider other ways of living.î
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November
Il Pasquino, anno 2, numero 15, novembre-dicembre 2006
A Venezia per la 10ma mostra internazionale di Architettura, di Giampaolo Proni
La mostra ha un altro spazio molto interessante nei padiglioni nazionali, nella sede tradizionale dei Giardini. Uno dei pi˜ stimolanti Ë quello dellíIrlanda. Paese emergente in Europa, PIL in rapida espansione, popolazione in crescita (nel 2025 sarý il 25% in pi˜), líIrlanda Ë un territorio a bassa densitý, quasi tutte le abitazioni nuove sono casette con giardini fuori della cittý. CosÏ un gruppo di architetti Ë stato incaricato di pensare a un modello urbanistico ibrido tra cittý e campagna, e lo hanno intitolato ìDa SubUrbano a SuperRuraleî. E questo Ë il dilemma urbanistico che percorre tutta la mostra, sotto il telo immaginifico delle foto satellitari: cittý dense o cittý diffuse? More...
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November
House and Home, November/December
TravelBite
If you have never been to Venice and feel the need to justify your trip, then you can use this yearís group entry to the Architectural Biennale as a mighty fine excuse. The Irish contingent are doing us proud this year with an impressively ambitious display on the theme SubUrban to SuperRural, exploring our native obsession with land and the motor car. Nine leading architectural practices have looked ahead to the next 25 years to imagine how our preoccupation with living on the edge (SubUrban) or beyond (SuperRural) the cityís hold will impact on our landscape and the way we live. The result is a series of designs to respond to these visions of change in a smart and efficient manner.
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November
Building Industry Bulletin
Venice Biennale, by Jerome Casey
Irish architecture is currently on an upward curve in terms of contracts, confidence and self-esteem... Henchion + Reuterís plan to concentrate most of the future increase in population within a ìpenta-zoneî linking Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo and Belfast with high-speed trains, had real substance. It built on work by economist Constantin Gurdgiev, who argued that Irelandís economy and settlement patterns would only become sustainable when Irish policymakers learned to cherish cities and ceased to ignore them.
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November
Architecture Ireland 222
10 Questions for Ger Carty, Grafton Architects
I accompanied the School of Architecture at UL to the current exhibition at the Biennale di Venezia. Richard Burdett is to be congratulated on one of the most engaging, in my opinion, of the recent exhibitions at Venice. The Irish exhibit asks some really fundamental questions about our current state. Hopefully aspects of this form of strategic thinking will have an impact here on the ground and go some way towards finding a solution to the way we project ourselves into the future.
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November
Architecture Ireland 222
From the Sublime to the SubUrban: Venice and SuperRural Ireland at the 2006 RIAI Annual Conference, by Sandra Andrea OíConnell
Among the diverse contributions ‚ ranging from a historic focus by Venetian architect Paolo Tocchi to Richard Murphyís highly engaging talk on Carlo Scarpa and Venice and Gary Lysaghtís challenging presentation on Irelandís official entry to the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, SubUrban to SuperRural ‚ a common theme began to emerge: the pressing need for both stagnant Venice and sprawling Ireland, to continuously reinvent themselves in the new century to ensure a sustainable future.
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26 November
Sunday Tribune
SOT i/v, Brenda McNally
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26 November
Tulca Festival Talks, NUI Galway
SubUrban to SuperRural lecture by Paul Kelly, FKL architects
For years Dublinís suburban expansion has been springing up in places as far away as Wexford and Cavan. We are building houses at seven times the German rate. The evidence is visible from space. Will we be happy with more of the same between now and 2030?
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18 November
Irish Examiner
Throwing Shapes: The visionís the thing, by Des OíSullivan
Ireland must have come close, but the Golden Lion for national pavilions at the Venice Biennale went to Denmark, for its collaboration on sustainable urban development in China... Like Denmark, the Irish exhibit focused on an immediate and pressing problem, one that is uniquely our own. And it drew critical praise from beyond our shores. No other country in Europe comes close to Irelandís tally of building one-third of its entire housing stock in the last 10 years. This is as extraordinary as it is sprawling... The Irish exhibit at Venice demonstrated that there is no shortage of architectural practices in this country willing to be innovative, radical and brilliant... It is worth pointing out too that architects who are prepared to be innovative and radical need clients who are like-minded.
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18 November
The Tuam Herald
Sky is the limit for Ballinasloe-born architect
The 10th Venice Biennale which is currently running at the Arsenale Di Venezia features the work of a young architect from Ballinasloe... Darrell O'Donoghue... At the official opening Ricky Burdett of the London School of Economics and curator of the Biennale described the Irish presentation, Sub Urban to Super Rural, as one of the key exhibits addressing the issue of rapid urbanisation in the context of globalisation, social justice and sustainable development.
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18 November
Irish Times
Another Life: Leaving Venice, come hell or high water, by Michael Viney
If one's tour of the Doges' Palace is an awed meander through centuries of power and glory, a day at the Biennale is a march through a future as urban ant... Among 50 competing countries, Ireland performs exceptionally well, its team of architects widely congratulated for actually doing what the Biennale promised on the tin. Confronting what they call "a global case study in extreme suburbanisation" and Ireland's lack of co-ordinated national planning, their polemical pavilion offers alternative, "super-rural" visions. More...
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October
The Architectural Review
The Punk Biennale, by Catherine Slessor
This year's Venice Biennale eschewed the usual trophy architecture in pursuit of the soul of the city, with mixed results... the geographer's zeal to flatten everything out into comparable statistics made for a somewhat reductive viewing experience. Far more compelling were the assortment of shows in the Italian Pavilion, which had a less obviously curated, strange bedfellow quality. Here you could explore different sorts of urban phenomena, from shrinking cities (Leipzig, Detroit, Manchester) and Ireland's fast breeding SuperRural landscape (the terrifying suburbanisation of the Emerald Isle), to a video survey of totalitarian Pyongyang, perhaps the Biennale's most physically inaccessible city, in the absence of the Baghdad war zone.
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October
Architecture Ireland 221
FKL to Celtic Tiger: The Future can be Lean, Organic, Networked, by Raymund Ryan
If in 1980 architects were drawn to cities with historical cores and urban memory, this year's Biennale documents such sprawling, often chaotic megacities as S“o Paulo, Mexico City, Istanbul and Shanghai. In this context, Ireland responds to the sprawl andÝcomparative chaos of the Celtic Tiger... SubUrban to SuperRural has affinities with critical issues raised by Burdett yet goes further by exhibiting provocative proposals... It's alluring scenography, offering first a moment of dark respite; then drawing visitors to the light and an engagement with visions of Ireland in 2030... There is fantasy in SubUrban to SuperRural yet the data and imagery are largely harnessed to collective purpose. A quarter century after the fight for Dublin's survival, might Venice turn the tide of Irish suburban sprawl?
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October
Architecture Ireland 221
10 Questions for Shane O'Toole, Tegral Company Architect and IrishÝArchitecture Foundation's Commissioner for the Venice Biennale'sÝ10th International Architecture Exhibition
Cities, Architecture and Society
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3 October
Venice Superblog
Politics and prejudices, by Gemma Tipton
I brought politics with me to the Biennale... but it was to the United States pavilion that I brought my real prejudices... And it was only later, after I had visited, been engrossed in, and generally applauded the presentations in the Irish pavilion that I realised how unfair I was being. SubUrban to SuperRural showed the responses of nine Irish architectural practices to Irelandís growing urban and suburban sprawl. Some of the presentations were sensible, some fantastical, some extremely clever and some thought-provoking. So where was my sense of disgust at the Irish Government? Their historical corruption, which has led to a blighted countryside, and appalling problems for suburban commuter families, is currently being investigated by a tribunal of enquiry. More...
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September
The Visual Artistsí News Sheet, Issue 5, September-October
Ireland, Architecture & Venice
Presenting a group show for the first time, Ireland has responded to the 2006 theme. Cities, architecture and society, with an exploration of Irelandís obsession with the land and the car...
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September
DesignBoom
Snapshots from the 10th international biennale - Ireland at the Italian pavilion More...
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September
Architecture Ireland 220
SubUrban to SuperRural
On 10 September, Irelandís entry to the 2006 Venice Biennale ‚ located at the heart of the Biennale in the Padiglione Italia ‚ opened its doors to an international audience. Irelandís most challenging entry yet... examines Irish peopleís obsession with the land and the motorcar.
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22 September
Western Mail
Bridging the gap between Wales and Ireland, by Sam Burson
Designers from Ireland believe a crossing between Fishguard and Rosslare would better link the Emerald Isle with Europe, and are showcasing their proposals at the Biennale Architectural Show in Venice. The idea, put forward by the Heneghan Peng firm, Dublin, is part of an extensive plan they claim could make a trip from London to Dublin possible in just two hours, and replace the need for less environmentally friendly planes. New rail links across Mid Wales and England would be required. More...
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19 September
Venice Superblog
The Giardini: the micro tour, by Rowan Moore
Italian Pavilion ‚ The best part of the Biennale, where different institutions pick up the Cities theme and play with it. Highlights include Domus magazineís study of Pyongyang, North Korea... Ireland, a study of the Super Rural, or how to create urbanism in the countryside; Royal College of Art... C-Photo... OMA/AMO on the Gulf States. More...
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16 September
Mousse Magazine, numero 3, settembre 2006
Tranquilli i fautori delle Grandi Opere: il cannone di Richard Bourdett spara a salve, di Lucia Tozzi Cittý.
Architettura e societý Ë il bellicoso titolo prescelto dal direttore Richard Burdett per la X Biennale di Architettura di Venezia: un manifesto contro le archistar e líestetismo imperante nella disciplina, Ë stato detto, un monito a dare prioritý al contesto fisico e sociale degli edifici progettati rispetto allíossessione di lasciare un ìsegnoî tangibile del proprio genio in ogni centro abitato... Il padiglione irlandese, infine, Ë líunico che pone il problema del consumo di suolo, mettendo líaccento su una questione fondamentale: con ogni probabilitý non cíË niente di pi˜ futile che affidare le sorti del mondo a una rete, seppure popolosa, di venti cittý. Il territorio Ë di gran lunga pi˜ importante. More...
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15 September
Venice Superblog
Charles Jencks talks to Rowan Moore
Iíve seen many, many brilliant works and moving works [in the Biennale]. I have to say that the overall theme, of course, is very positive ‚ on the city ‚ and for that reason I think everybody here is in a mood of positive feelings because we needed an exhibition on the city that wasnít focused on celebrity icons... There is very interesting work in the Ireland exhibition in this [Italian] pavilion on how suburban structures can disappear and reappear. There are many worthy individual things, like the northern cities of Scandinavia, because we know the north is where sustainability will be fought out... So there are many really good, provocative, individual things but they get, I think, put into the margins again partly because the Biennale... shows very creative things but it doesnít synthesize all this vast information in a pointed way. I mean one always hopes that it will be doing that, but it seems to me that this exhibition is the beginning of the next exhibition for which it will form the background. More...
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9 September
Venice Superblog
Bogs to blogs, by Nathalie Weadick
Dermot Boydís wellies Ricky Burdett i/v More...
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9 September
Neue Z¸rcher Zeitung
Weltreise durch die Megast”dte von morgen, Hubertus Adam
Zu den attraktivsten L”nderbeitr”gen z”hlt der irische, der Bez¸ge zwischen Bev–lkerungswachstum und Umweltproblemen aufzeigt. (Among the most attractive national contributions is the Irish, which highlights the price paid for population growth in environmental problems.) More...
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8 September
Venice Superblog
4 good reasons to visit the Irish pavilion, by Sam Causer
More...
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8 September
Donegal News
Plan to tackle holiday home problem with houses that sink, by Kate Heaney
A Letterkenny based firm of architects have come up with a novel idea of overcoming bungalow blight on Donegal's shoreline by designing houses which can disappear from the landscape... "The technology we are proposing to use is already in daily use in different ways. The pontoons to float the houses would be like those in the marina in Fahan, only they would be much heavier and made of steel. Instead of putting in normal foundations a pit of around two metres deep would be constructed and a ram similar to that which moves the bucket on a JCB would be used to raise and lower the house," Mr MacGabhann said... "When people leave a holiday home they turn off the heating and water. With these homes they would also turn off the valve for raising and lowering the house and over the six hour period of the rising tide the house would disappear into the ground, showing only its thick grass roof," he added. Mr MacGabhann suggested that such a design could allow up to 15 to 20 holiday homes per acre instead of the two to three presently built.
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6 September
The Irish Post
Plans on track for Dublin-to-Paris train, by Niamh Hennessy
Forget planes. Forget ferries. We could soon be traveling from Dublin to London by train. Well, that is if a group of Irish architects have their way... A spokesperson for the project said: ìDublin to London is the worldís second busiest air route and short-haul flights are fuel-inefficient. Build a bridge from Rosslare to Fishguard and high-speed trains which travel Dublin-London in 2.5 hours and on to Paris. The power of this ëmagnetí turns Dublin into an elastic, stretched city along the Irish Sea, instead of a blob spreading out over the midlands,î he added.
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6 September
Circa
Sprawling to Venice: Irelandís suburbia lagoonside, by Jessica Foley
The Irish entry to this years Venice Architectural Biennale challenges the Irish government's infrastructural response to the impending population surge of up to 38% - which is to build more roads and remain car-dependent. More...
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5 September
Irish News
Sinkable homes could solve bungalow blight, By Sarah Hilley
Holiday homes that vanish in winter and rooms with changing views sounds like life in another solar system. But such topsy-turvy living could be the way to beat the planning permission blues in Donegal if architects get to lay their foundations for the future.
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30 August
archiseek
Architects imagine a ìSuper-Ruralî Ireland in 2030, by Paul Clerkin
One third of all homes in Ireland have been built since 1995, the great majority of them outside the major urban centres. This free-market, unsustainable solution to housing throughout the island has resulted in sub-urban sprawl: choking our urban centres, devastating the countryside and destroying our traditional sense of community. But are there new models for development that have been overlooked? More...
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11 March
Irish Examiner
Throwing Shapes: Concrete design ideas, by Des OíSullivan
By encouraging young Irish architectural practices ‚ the ones that will be at the helm of architecture in this country in the decades to come ‚ to focus on the problems of unfettered sprawl, this biennale is giving Ireland a wake up call it badly needs.
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November
Blueprint 248
Venice Architecture Biennale: The not-so-far pavilions, by Tim Abrahams
Burdett’s exhibition does triumph in one respect however. It is now impossible to imagine the Biennale as a whole without the solid foundation of a serious exhibition in the Arsenale. Lawrence Alloway wrote that the competitiveness and diversity of the international pavilions at the Art Biennale undermined the idea of ‘works of art as symbols of permanence.’ Burdett’s exhibition prevents this very thing from happening to the Architecture Biennale. It also leaves the pavilions to get on with the task of showing off, having fun and sucking up to the Chinese... And there’s some fantastic architecture here too, particularly in the old Italian Pavilion. Domus in Pyongyang, OMA in the Gulf and the Irish fighting their way out of their bungalows. More...
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October
Specchio Economico
Decima Biennale di Architettura: esposizioni, eventi, convegni, a cura di Marco Burrascano
I Giardini mostrano le partecipazioni dei singoli Paesi che contribuiscono in modo molto eterogeneo al tema della mostra; la loro efficacia è tuttavia affidata alla chiarezza del messaggio, data la quantità di contenuti della Biennale. In tal senso spiccano i padiglioni di Germania e Irlanda, relativi rispettivamente alla conversione della città su se stessa e alle alternative alla dispersione urbana.More...
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October
PLAN The Art of Architecture and Design
Postcards from Venice, Ros Kavanagh
Parties, sore feet, beautiful weather and a beautiful setting. Oh and architecture. Ireland's exhibiting architects soaked up the atmosphere at the Venice Biennale, with the Irish entry widely acknowledged as one of the highlights of the show.
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October
Magill
Designs for living, by Deirdre Conroy
The presentation of Ireland's nine contributions to this year's Architectural Biennale in Venice is a Swiftian modest proposal to counter the ruination of our landscape in the name of housing, and to find sustainable solutions to accommodate our burgeoning population and preserve this island... The combination of architectural skill and intellectual vision evidenced by this presentation can be linked with the general debate about the sustainability of our cities and our landscape... We are the only European country with the concept of agricultural land as "development land": this has to change... The catalogue accompanying this exhibition should form the basis of a joined-up policy initiative for planning authorities. Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government: take note.
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October
Architecture Ireland 221
SubUrban to SuperRural, by Sandra Andrea O'Connell
The Irish exhibition... provided a welcome opportunity to withdraw and contemplate: a darkened space with glowing light boxes, film projections and delicate models, suspended from the ceiling and beautifully set in scene by atmospheric lighting. Unsettling demographics and statsistics about pressing issues such as our high car dependency rate, lack of infrastructure and house-building explosion, provided the backdrop for Ireland's probably most challenging presentation to date... Particular attention was drawn to Ireland's exhibit when, on opening day, Biennale Director Ricky Burdett joined the line-up of guest speakers and described Ireland's entry as "one of the key exhibits" in the 10th International Architecture Exhibition.
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29 October
The Sunday Times
Thinking outside the envelope, by Will Alsop
Mainland Europe is busy planning an integrated rail network to connect the Continent with fast trains and I would like Britain to be part of that. Imagine a tunnel under the Irish Sea connecting Dublin to England and then a second Channel tunnel increasing capacity to Europe. At the moment nobody in their right mind flies to Paris or Brussels. They use the Channel tunnel rail link. I really do envisage a day when it will be almost as quick to take a train to Vienna.
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28 October
Irish Examiner
Throwing Shapes: Biennale lacks scene-stealers, by Des O'Sullivan
The nine young architectural firms comprising Ireland's entry look at different aspects of urban sprawl in this country and propose ways of dealing with it. It is a powerful entry... one of the best national entries insofar as it addresses the serious questions posed by the biennale's organisers about all the ways in which architecture can improve cities. Many countries dismally failed in this challenge... Yet despite such disappointment there is an enormous volume of ideas here. The Irish architects who travel to Venice for the RIAI annual conference have much to look forward to. But, be warned: there is serious work to be done and lots and lots of walking.
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16 October
Gabion
Surely not the last words on the Tenth Venice Architecture Biennale, 2006 (published in October's RIBA Journal as That sinking feeling)
by Hugh Pearman
Thank heaven for Japan's gentle examination of ordinary, unconsidered objects: for Hungary's charming, beautiful celebration of its Chinese immigrant population; for Greece for exploring the notion that the Aegean islands form one great polis; even for Belgium, for saying - yes we're boring and we don't care. But if France wins the prize for getting noticed, Ireland does best when it comes to tackling a real, knotty urban problem: its own. Ireland is undergoing a population surge. People are building little bungalows all over the countryside. Commissioner Shane O'Toole has brought together nine practices (one of them, FKL Architects, also curates the show) to produces nine solutions. Some of these - such as Heneghan:Peng's bridge across the Irish Sea, or ODOS Architects' "Vertical Sprawl" are merely provocative. Others, such as Tom de Paor's modern reconsideration of the medieval tower house in order to densify rural development somewhat, are immediately realisable. Medium-term, Boyd Cody's proposal for an eco-city threaded into the worked-out bogscape of central Ireland, is highly promising.More...
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7 October
The Irish TImes
Deathless in Venice: Several Cities in a Weekend, by Gemma Tipton
From the fantastical to the eminently buildable, the Irish pavilion captures the idea that makes the biennale so exciting: architecture is about not only what we build but also how we think about the way we live. Richard Burdett, the biennale's director, agrees when he speaks at the Ireland launch. It is one of the best explorations of the theme he has seen, he says... I wonder why more non-architects don't go to the biennale. Why hasn't architecture caught up with art as being something you might go to an exhibition of for interest, for pleasure? You can take or leave most contemporary art, but we all have to live in and with the results of architecture.More...
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20 October
The Architect's Newspaper, Issue 16
Architecture Between the Cracks, by Toshiko Mori
The Irish have the most to show in terms of their efforts to balance Ireland’s fast economic growth, ecology, large planning efforts, and sustainability. It is unfortunate that their room, in the old Italian Pavilion, is painted black, since their projects are realistic and send a positive message about the robust engagement of politicians, planners, and architects to make the semblance of utopian future possible. The relationship and balance between the obvious and visible “architectural” quotient of a city versus the support fabric of its infrastructure is the point of this Biennale. I was not so worried that there was not enough architecture. A lack of buildings does not mean architecture is absent. There is a territory where architects can take over creatively, as is demonstrated by the Irish group show, which is filled with strong case studies. More...
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6 October
Pembrokeshire TV
Missing link for Fishguard, by Becky Hotchin
A firm of Irish architects have come up with an innovative idea to join Fishguard to Rosslare and create the missing link in the European travel network. More...
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5 October
The Complexity of the Ordinary Conference, Copenhagen
The Rise and Fall of Context in Recent Irish Architecture
by Dr Hugh Campbell
In the projects of the 2006 Irish Pavilion, the value of the historic urban fabric is no longer an issue. If there is a context for these projects, then it is that created by the generalities of a global economy, an expanding population and shrinking resources, rather than by the particularities of place... For Ireland as a whole, the imperatives of identity, the careful mining of the collective past for clues about the shape of the future no longer seems as compelling or necessary as it did ten years ago. We have become more comfortable in our skin. To the architects of a younger generation, working in what has been characterised as ‘the most globalised nation on earth’, it no longer seems possible only to be local. Nonetheless even among the necessarily sketchy propositions seen in the pavilion, the most potent are those which derive from an understanding of their historic and geographic setting. As long as architecture proceeds from the given, there will always be context. More...
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30 September
ARCH'IT
Natura morta con città globale, di Pietro Valle
La cifra finale di questa Biennale è quindi il silenzio, silenzio della città sul suo farsi, silenzio delle sue relazioni con le tecniche che la influenzano, silenzio sui processi decisionali che la modificano. Essa rimane ieratica, presenta dati non discutibili, formule non controllabili e buone intenzioni generiche come nei sei punti per il futuro presentati da Burdett alla fine delle Corderie. Questa Biennale non sembra avere bisogno dell'architettura o, perlomeno, l'ha ridotta a fenomeno ininfluente sugli eventi urbani. Poco si dice su chi fa le scelte che condizionano i cambiamenti ed è implicitamente dato per assunto che il grande capitale speculativo e la crescita spontanea siano fenomeni naturali. Nulla è detto della dimensione politica delle scelte come nulla è lasciato a un'interpretazione critica o proiettiva verso un futuro altro (l'unica eccezione è forse l'Irlanda con la sua proiezione territoriale nel Super Rural). Allo stesso tempo, è dato a tutti il potere della comunicazione senza far capire che le sue redini sono tenute da pochi.
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21 September
Business & Finance
Venice Biennale
The Irish exhibit was devoted to presenting the imagery of the ideas - sometimes whimsical (ODOS Architects), sometimes sub-practical (Boyd Cody Architects), occasionally hyper-realistic (dePaor Architects), humourously referencing de Valera's ideal of self-sufficiency (FKL Architects), intra-connecting meaning with functionality (Henchion+Reuter Architects), challengingly intellectual (heneghan.peng.architects), futuristically maritime (MacGabhann Architects), and simply mobile (Dominic Stevens Architect). With Jennifer Keegan's Detached - a film commissioned for the exhibit - providing an unobtrusive, yet formative, background, the Irish contribution to Biennale was wonderfully different from the more traditional drawings-plus-stats shows prepared by other countries' curators.
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17 September
Il Manifesto
Planimetrie di orientamento metropolitano, di Gabriele Mastrigli
E’ questo infatti il paradosso della città contemporanea: ridotta sulla carta a una serie di astratti diagrammi di trasformazione degli usi, dei programmi e delle funzioni, essa abbandona sul campo la concreta realtà della sua consistenza architettonica e spaziale. A partire dalla produzione di edifici firmati dagli architetti dello star system o costruiti dai developers, sino al pulviscolo dei mezzi di trasporto, delle attrezzature e dell’arredo urbano la città contemporanea è oggi un mondo sempre più popolato di oggetti ai quali chi la abita è sempre meno in grado di dare un senso. E’ la questione posta nel padiglione dell’Irlanda, paese in cui un terzo di tutte le abitazioni è stato costruito negli ultimi dieci anni e di queste l’80 per cento è stato realizzato al di fuori dei centri abitati con politiche di ampliamento della rete stradale e incremento dell’uso dell’automobile. Il gruppo di progettisti invitati dai curatori (FKL Architects) affrontano l’emblematica reiterazione delle tipologie abitative suburbane, proprio in termini di cosa viene costruito, attraverso una inedita alleanza tra nuova architettura e dimensione rurale. Nelle proposte più interessanti la città-campagna non è raccontata come un generico scenario del futuro ma come selezione di progetti concreti e operabili, oggetti discreti che si offrono di rappresentare possibili vie di uscita verso un nuovo immaginario della città (come la utopia «realizzabile» della città-portaerei completamente autosufficiente che Hans Hollein nel 1964 lasciava atterrare in un paesaggio di campagna, riproposta alla Biennale di Venezia nel padiglione austriaco). More...
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16 September
Irish Examiner
Throwing Shapes: Beyond the crystal ball, by Des O'Sullivan
The young architectural firms representing Ireland at the Venice biennale have addressed the issues of suburban sprawl in differing ways: variety's important in a country that seems to believe the way forward is to build more and more identical houses; variety's also vital in terms of future growth: unless we change, half the country's destined to be covered in row after bleak row of more of the same. There has to be a better way - and Venice is about finding it... Some of these solutions may strike you as fanciful, but the issues underlying them are as real as they are pressing. Ignoring them isn't an option.
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15 September
Building Design
City city, bang bang, by Ellis Woodman
Best of the rest: The standard of Irelandís entry has been consistently high over recent biennales and this yearís submission didnít disappoint. Entitled SubUrban to SuperRural, the FKL Architects curated show addresses the effects of the current Irish property boom. One third of all the homes in Ireland have been built since 1995, 80% of them outside the major urban centres. Nine practices were asked to make proposals for steering this wave of construction, among them Tom de Paor. His Tall House scheme envisaged all further development in the Irish countryside being curtailed leading to the replacement of existing houses with taller, multi-dwelling properties redolent of castles. More...
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15 September
Venice Superblog
Wake up call, by Peter Murray
Architects have slept through one crisis; letís hope they donít ignore this one. The problem with Venice is not Burdettís display in the Arsenale, or his curation of the Italian pavilion which had some excellent contributions – it is the feeble effort of many of the national pavilions to provide a creative response to the biennaleís theme. The Danes and Irish did, the Japanese elegantly ignored it; the Dutch lazily trawled through their drawings collection; the Israelis made a political statement. Even the much lauded ëBig Brotherí French Pavilion was a bit of a cop out. In contrast Nigel Coates and the RCA in their Baby-Lon:don brilliantly illustrated how creative thinking and not a little humour can be brought to bear on urban issues. How refreshing after Rem Koolhaasís laissez faire take on Dubai and Abu Dhabi. More...
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15 September
County Echo, Fishguard
260mph railway link to Rosslare? by Dylan Davies
A group of Irish architects is looking at the possibility of building a high-speed railway link between Rosslare and Fishguard with trains travelling at 260mph. Their designs are currently on display in the world's most prolific architecture exhibition in Venice, where they propose, among other things, to build a bridge between the two countries and continue the high-speed railway line into mainland Europe. The pioneering idea would drastically cut the travel time between Dublin and London and would also give greater access to and from south and west Wales. Fishguard and Goodwick mayor, Mike Lloyd, welcomed the news, saying: "Technology is advancing so quickly, who knows what will happen next? A project like this would open up a whole new dimension. Who knows what the future holds?" More...
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September
Irish Examiner
Throwing Shapes: Concrete design ideas, by Des O'Sullivan
Over half of the world's population lives in cities. A century ago, it was less than 10%. Download PDF...


14 September
The Irish Times
A tale of 16 cities at Venice architecture-fest, by Frank Mc Donald, environment editor
Ireland's entry, SubUrban to SuperRural, which pulls no punches about what's happening at home, was described by Ricky Burdett as "one of the key exhibits" of the entire Biennale. Speaking at its official opening last Friday, he applauded its polemical tone and the ability of Irish people to "turn yourselves upside down"... The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland will be holding its annual conference in Venice in November before the exhibition closes on November 19. Check out reactions on More...
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11 September
The Irish Times
Ireland's entry on suburbanisation a 'key exhibit' in Venice, by Frank Mc Donald, environment editor
Ireland's ambitious entry in the Venice Biennale has been described by its director, Richard Burdett, as "one of the key exhibits" of the show... Speaking at the official opening of the Irish exhibition, "From Sub-Urban to Super-Rural", Prof Burdett decried the "erosion of rural space" by suburbanisation and warned that this would lead to "many problems" in the future. But he applauded the nine architectural practices which had collaborated on Ireland's Biennale entry for the "polemical quality" of their presentation..."To see this exhibition that hits right on the mark of the 'Cities, Architecture and Society' theme makes me very happy, and I feel it is one of the key exhibits in this year's Biennale," he told the delighted Irish participants. More...
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8 September
The Biennale of Architecture
Richard L Rubens
As for every Biennale, there are exhibits in the various national pavilions that are located in the Gardens. Many of these were rather disappointing, but a few were worthy of note. The Irish pavilion exhibit, “SubUrban to SuperRural,” was an extremely thought-provoking one. Commissioned by Shane O’Toole, it begins by noting that private home-ownership is a reality for 80% of Irish citizens, and that this fact has led to a high degree of suburban sprawl throughout the country, and an extremely heavy reliance on the automobile. The exhibit poses the question whether, “accepting the road-based infrastructure and low-density housing, can Ireland evolve new conditions in which to live?” More...
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8 September
Driver Consult
Plans On Track For Dublin-To-Paris Train
Well, that is if a group of Irish architects have their way. The Irish group has designed a bridge connecting Rosslare to Fishguard as well as highspeed trains which would travel from Dublin to London in two and a half hours before heading on to Paris. The project entitled ElastiCity is being showcased in Venice as part of the world-famous international Biennale Architectural Show. It forms part of a major exhibition which has been hailed as one of Ireland’s most ambitious architectural shows ever. More...
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8 September
Emigrant Online
Suburban Ireland shipped to Venice for Biennale
Responding to the pressures of contemporary life, including migration, urban sprawl and social change, FKL's exhibit examines the case of extreme suburbanisation in Ireland. The exhibition, called "SubUrban to SuperRural", begins by accepting that the emerging sprawl surrounding our urban centres is driven by a national obsession with the car and an innate desire to live on the land, as much as by rising house prices. The universal solution to housing in Ireland is the successful product of a national psyche and the free market, reinforced by a lack of infrastructure, strategic planning, regulation and political will, unique in the developed world. FKL invited nine emerging firms of architects to speculate about the future confronting a rapidly growing Ireland by 2030, a generation hence. More...
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6 September
The Irish Post
Plans on track for Dublin-to-Paris train, by Niamh Hennessy
Forget planes. Forget ferries. We could soon be traveling from Dublin to London by train. Well, that is if a group of Irish architects have their way. The Irish group has designed a bridge connecting Rosslare to Fishguard as well as highspeed trains which would travel from Dublin to London in two and a half hours before heading on to Paris. The project entitled ElastiCity is being showcased in Venice as part of the world-famous international Biennale Architectural Show. More...
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6 September 2006
The Guardian
Vanishing trick for Ireland's second homes, bu Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondent
Removing blots from the landscape could become far easier thanks to an improbable vanishing act conjured up by a team of Irish architects: their houses simply disappear into the ground. More...
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5 September
The Times
Steeled for a fabulous future? by Tom Dyckhoff
Belgium won in 2004. But Germany and the Netherlands came close. Ireland has been good recently, this year featuring its magnificent new wave of architects. Japanís Surrealist Architecture sounds interesting; France is promising something Big Brother-ish; and the US mourns New Orleans. Britain kicks more ass, though, with Sheffieldís The Long Blondes performing at its party. More...
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4 September
La Repubblica
Megalopoli, di Laura Larcan
I Padiglioni nazionali raccontano i progetti di 50 paesi, tutti concentrati sull'attualità della vita contemporanea, fatta anche di pressioni socio-politiche, come la suburbanizzazione estrema in Irlanda, lo sviluppo urbano in Asia, l'esclusione razziale nel Sud Africa del post-apartheid, una nuova visione della città in Italia. More...
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4 September
Tesserae
Shane O'Toole on Irish Architecture
None of the scenarios FKL and its team have produced are predictions, however. They are stories whose importance lies in the conversations they will spark and the decisions they inform. While continuing to celebrate our rugged individualism, Irish society must come to grips - now - with the fact that our futures are interconnected. A new disposition towards the land is needed, ditching the old urban-rural divide in favour of a vision that treats our small island, town and countryside, as an integrated entity. Let the debate begin. More...
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3 September
The Sunday Times
A great development, by Shane O'Toole
Architects are not soothsayers, but somebody needs to fill the visionary vacuum and illustrate some of the characteristics of success that should mark our society a generation hence. FKL has joined nine of Ireland's leading architects, now in their 30's and early 40's - the generation who will shape the Ireland our children will inherit - to the task, alongside economist Constantin Gurdgiev, editor of Business and Finance, environmentalist Frank McDonald and independent filmmaker, Jennifer Keegan. More...
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2 September 2006
The Irish Times Magazine
Building sight, by Frank Mc Donald
Fifteen years ago, a collection of young architects won the competition to rebuild Temple Bar. Since then, Group 91's practices have gone on to design everything from libraries to skyscrapers. Download PDF...
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September 2006
PLAN The Art of Architecture and Design
Glimpse of the future, by Denise Maguire, editor
As well as essentially acting as a competition, the 10th Venice Biennale is also an opportunity for artists, curators and architects to gather and ponder the endless questions of art and design. The Irish line-up for this year's event is like a wish list for the brightest, youngest and coolest architects around... With urbanisation such a prevalent issue, the SuperRural theme seems particularly apt and has produced an outstanding collection of projects from some of the country's most exciting architects.
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2 September 2006
RTE Lyric FM Artszone
AedÌn Gormley
SubUrban to SuperRural is the title of Ireland's most ambitious ever entry to the Venice Biennale's architecture strand. It involves nine of Ireland's most prominent architectural practices... You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was all a cause for celebration but this would be far from the truth. AedÌn finds out why from Shane O'Toole, the Commissioner of Ireland's entry to the Biennale, Michelle Fagan of FKL Architects who curated the entry and Roisin Heneghan of heneghan.peng.architects, who are one of the firms involved in Ireland's Group.
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31 August 2006
Dean's Journal,
The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture
Biennale Reflections, by Fritz Steiner
Inside the Italian Pavilion, I meet Robert Hegeler and Sven Ulrich from Berlin, who are constructing the armature for our exhibit. Barbara introduces me to our neighbors: the South Africans and the Irish. For the first time, in an architecture biennale, the Italian Pavilion features the work of foreigners. We also meet two young Swiss architects from the ETH exhibit, who seek Barbara's advice about how to mount their work without creating air bubbles. The maze of exhibits projects considerable positive energy and collaboration. More...
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30 August 2006
The Irish Times
Architects envision Ireland in 2030, by Frank Mc Donald, environment editor
Sinkable holiday homes in Co Donegal that are only visible when occupied, high-speed trains linking Dublin and London and a new city in the midlands are among the ideas Ireland will be showing at this year's Venice Biennale. Download PDF...
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30 August 2006
Irish Examiner
Visions of Ireland: Ideas to end sprawl of suburbs, by Stephen Rogers
Seasonal sinkable homes in the sea, ëcaravansaraií boats bringing people to cities along our rivers and planning laws which forbid building outwards in favour of building up or down. Those are just some of the ideas created by nine of Irelandís top architects as means of halting the ever-increasing suburban sprawl in Ireland. Download PDF...
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17 August 2006
The Evening Herald
Floating cities? Welcome to Ireland in the year 2030, by Isabel Hurley
This is what an alternative Ireland might look like by 2030… By then, we could be living in floating cities and invisible seaside holiday homes, enjoying a railway system that halves commuting times across the country. Those are among the imaginative ideas of the next generation of leading Irish architects set to turn heads at the world’s foremost architectural exhibition in Venice in September… Ireland was one of just five countries specially invited to exhibit in the main Italian hall – a sure sign of the prestige attached to the Irish entry. Download PDF...
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19 August 2006
Irish Examiner
Throwing Shapes: A new vision in Venice, by Des O'Sullivan
There is a damaging sameness about Ireland’s rapid development… Yet without vision we will have more suburban sprawl, more devastation of our countryside, more commuters, fewer communities, longer journey times and more pressurised lifestyles… If this biennale can serve as a reminder to Ireland that the country is composed of people, not battery hens or worker ants, then it will have done us a very great favour. “The show FKL has created for Venice is intended to offer plenty of food for thought and to spark debate here at home among the general public,” said O’Toole. Download PDF...
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30 August 2006
Irish Independent
Daring entry for Venice Architectural Biennale
Ireland's most daring and ambitious entry yet for the Venice Architectural Biennale is being prepared for this prestigious international event.
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24 August
The Village
Suburban sprawl to 'super rural', by Colin Murphy
One of Ireland's leading young architecture firms, FKL, is curating the Irish entry in the Venice Architecture Biennale and has brought together a group of young Irish architects to predict how Irish cities, suburbs and the countryside might look in 30 years. Download PDF...
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12 August 2006
The Irish Times
Artscape: Filling the visionary vacuum, by Deirdre Falvey
“Architects are not soothsayers, but somebody needs to fill the visionary vacuum and illustrate some of the characteristics of success that should mark our society a generation hence,” says architect Shane O’Toole of the Irish Architecture Foundation, nominated by Culture Ireland to commission our participation in the Biennale. Download PDF...
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August 2006
Architecture Ireland 219
SubUrban to SuperRural:Ireland's presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale, by Sanda Andrea O'Connell
According to FKL architects, ìat the heart of the project is a thorough exploration of our obsession with the land and the motor carî... Burdettís Biennale will be dedicated to the future of the city and Irelandís research-driven project, which tackles extreme suburbanisation, is expected to sit well in the Padiglione Italia alongside research by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, ETH Studio Basle and the Berlage Institute... For the curators, the project is more about asking questions than arriving at specific solutions. ìWe might not yet fully understand the factors that shape our culture and this is a unique opportunity to design not for the present but as part of an open investigation into the future,î explain FKL architects. Outside of the Architecture Biennale context, it is highly likely and desirable that this innovative research ‚ due to be published in both book form and on a dedicated website ‚ will become an invaluable resource for future generations of architects, planners, Governments and citizens alike. Download PDF...
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July 2006
Le Biennale di Venezia
Cities, architecture and society - curated by Richard Burdett
50 countries have already confirmed their participation in the 10th International Architecture Exhibition, providing a unique overview on how architects, planners and designers are responding to different urban complexities in different parts of the world. The national Pavilions will feature a range of urban and architectural projects responding to the pressures of contemporary life: migration, urban sprawl, de-industrialisation and social change. The examples presented include the case of extreme suburbanisation in Ireland, exponential urban growth in Asia, racial exclusion in post-apartheid South Africa, the effect of new architecture in the urban regeneration of towns and cities of northern England and a new vision of the city in Italy. More...
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26 June 2006
RIAI
This year’s annual conference venue has been chosen to coincide with the 10th Architecture Biennale in Venice. The Biennale will for the first time focus on the design of cities, their urban infrastructure and social dynamics, providing an international perspective on the relationship between architecture, society and sustainability. More..
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28 March 2006
RIAI
Design a Gondola Museum floor and win a trip to Venice & €2000 cash. Next November 12th - 15th, at the same time as the Architecture Biennale, the annual RIAI conference takes place in beautiful Venice, Italy. Forbo Ireland are giving you the opportunity to win an all expenses paid trip there as guest of the RIAI, plus €2000 in cash, The Forbo Trophy and your profile in Architecture Ireland. More...
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5 October 2005
Architecture Foundation.ie
Irish Architecture Foundation launch curator competition for 2006 Venice Biennale. View the Call for Proposals PDF| More...
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5 October 2005
Architecture Foundation.ie
Steve Simons' documentary film of Ireland's award-winning exhibit at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004, when Shane O'Toole selected O'Donnell + Tuomey's unfinished transformation of the former industrial school at Letterfrack, Co Galway, into a furniture college and community resource to represent Ireland at "the Olympics of world architecture". This film documentary will be shown tonight (Wednesday, 05 October 2005) on RTE 1, at 23:20. More...
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3 October 2005
The Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism
John O'Donoghue T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism today (Monday 3rd October, 2005) welcomed the decision by Culture Ireland to appoint the Irish Architecture Foundation as Commissioner for the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, which will take place from September to November next year. This is the first time that Ireland's Commissioner will be an organisation rather than an individual. The decision is intended to stimulate the development of greater interest in Ireland's participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale. More...
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