Call to Action
Ben James RSUA Climate Emergency Committee Chair
Coinciding with the introduction of building data and energy use data being published with the case studies in Perspective, starting in this issue, the RSUA’s Climate Emergency Committee has been invited to highlight the importance of sustainability in our buildings and the wider work of the committee.
Having worked with Perspective and the RSUA’s Publications Committee, it is great to see the introduction of building and energy use data being published alongside the case studies presented in each issue of Perspective. Across the industry we are still getting to grips with building-related emissions, be that from energy demand or construction, and it is hoped that by making this data more visible we all become more familiar with both the terminology and the actual figures. The inclusion of this information not only begins to raise awareness of how buildings are performing in terms of energy demand and carbon-related emissions, but also allows readers the opportunity to start benchmarking projects against others. Whilst the likes of energy demand targets and data are nothing new, the reporting and measuring of embodied carbon is still in its relative infancy. By including data with projects, this allows readers to begin to understand how much embodied carbon projects produce, as well as getting those presenting case studies familiar with the process of measuring and assessing it. The list of data presented with each case study is also aligned with the RIBA’s 2030 Climate Challenge, which aims to
encourage a shift in the industry; the 2030 Climate Challenge also aligns with the expected legislative trajectory.
The RSUA’s Climate Emergency Committee’s main purpose is to help radically reduce the built environment’s contribution to climate change and to help adapt to the risks of climate change in Northern Ireland. We are doing this by continually engaging with key stakeholders in Northern Ireland, including government departments, councils and other bodies such as NIHE. In recent years, the committee has engaged directly with the likes of the Department for Finance on changes to the building regulations around the energy performance of buildings, as well as responding to various statutory consultations such as the Department for Economy’s recent consultation on ‘Support for Low Carbon Heating in Residential Buildings’.
Having moved to Northern Ireland from England, I was keen to be able to contribute to the conversation around climate change here, exploring how the built environment can respond to the climate emergency we find ourselves in. Joining the RSUA’s Climate Emergency Committee presented a perfect opportunity to have the difficult conversations that are required around buildings and the climate whilst learning from the experiences of other members of the committee. I subsequently became the chairperson of the committee in August 2024, continuing the work of the previous chairpersons and the progress made by the committee on a number of issues in recent years.
With estimates that around 40% of greenhouse gas emissions result from the built environment in some form, it is clear that our buildings and how we construct, use and travel between them has a significant role to play in limiting climate change, as well as adapting to it. Although this is not solely a local problem, architects, designers, clients and contractors in Northern Ireland will have a key role to play in reducing and mitigating against climate change both now and in the coming years. With the likes of the Climate Change Act (NI) coming into force and other targets and
regulations emerging, understanding the impact of what we build is ever more pressing. As new regulations and targets governing the energy performance of our buildings continue to emerge, raising awareness of the performance and emissions resulting from our buildings will be key.
A notable piece of work by the committee, which seeks to drive change in the built environment in Northern Ireland, was the launch of the RSUA’s Climate Action Paper in early 2023. The paper identified changes which are required in the context of the built environment in Northern Ireland, setting out key action areas where changes could be made and who can help deliver these changes. The paper covers aspects of our built environment and how we use, construct, heat and power buildings and infrastructure in Northern Ireland. For example, how we can encourage the reuse of existing buildings and improve their energy performance through to reducing the energy demand of new buildings and how materials are sourced and selected. The paper also identifies the key stakeholders which can help to advance these changes, setting timeframes for the implementation of the changes being called for.
As we expect more from our buildings and built environment in terms of energy and carbon performance, it is important that those designing, commissioning, and using buildings can help to meet and go beyond regulatory targets and ambitions. As a committee, we hope that by making this data more visible, in the likes of Perspective, this helps start conversations around emissions from our buildings but also encourages those responsible for those buildings to be more ambitious and strive for greater carbon savings.
We are grateful to Perspective and the RSUA’s Publications Committee for their support in introducing this here and look forward to seeing these important pieces of information being presented. If you are interested in getting involved with the Climate Emergency Committee, we are always delighted to hear from you; please contact Jude at the RSUA at jude@rsua.org.uk.
‘Architecture 2025: Reuse and Revitalise’ inspires action on building reuse
RSUA hosted a successful Conference, ‘Architecture 2025: Reuse and Revitalise’, which focused on addressing the pressing challenges surrounding reuse in the built environment. The event was held in Riddel Hall, a prime example of building reuse, on Friday 4 April.
The event brought together architects, industry experts, and professionals passionate about revitalising our existing building stock. Discussions were set against the backdrop of emerging policies in Northern Ireland such as the Department for the Economy’s Energy Strategy and the Draft Circular Economy Strategy emphasising the importance of protecting and enhancing existing structures.
The conference proved to be a thought-provoking event, providing attendees with valuable insights and solutions to building reuse. A diverse lineup of expert speakers from the UK and Ireland explored the opportunities and challenges associated with existing buildings and shared insights into policies, approaches, and techniques driving impactful reuse projects. The lineup of knowledgeable speakers and panelists who shared their expertise and experiences included:
• Claire Hanna - MP for Belfast South
• Glenn Patterson - Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre
• Hilary McGrady - Director-General at the National Trust
• Pete Boyle - Business owner and Developer at Argento
• Sara Lynch - Head of Sustainability, Estates Directorate, Queen’s University Belfast
• John Walker - Former Director of Planning at Westminster City Council
• Valerie Mulvin - Director at McCullough Mulvin Architects
• Phil Prentice - Founding Chief Officer at Scotland’s Towns Partnership
• Arthur Parke - Design Director at Like Architects
• Rosie Webb - Head of Decarbonisation, Dublin Technological University
• Jonathan Macauley - Joint Managing Director at Design ID
Many thanks to our sponsors Keystone Lintels and Kingscourt Brick for playing a key role in making this event happen as well as to the following members of the RSUA Conference Sub-Committee for their involvement; Ciaran Mackel, Caroline Maguire, Brian McKervey, Shane O’Toole, Alan Ritchie, Nathan Campbell, Chris Campbell, Alan Jones, Ben Aston, Fiona Brazill and Colin McCrossan.
The event was a fantastic opportunity to inspire increased reuse, discuss the ‘how to’, and foster connections to facilitate action.
Further coverage on this event will appear in Issue 3 of Perspective.
Sponsored by
Early Career ArchitectAisling Madden
In this issue we profile Aisling Madden, a qualified architect who is currently studying for a PhD in Architecture at Queen’s University Belfast.
What was the topic of your university thesis? Why did you choose it and what did you learn from it?
For my thesis, I studied Sailortown, a neighbourhood in Belfast that was virtually all demolished in the 1970s to make way for the motorway. I designed a plot-based, mixed-use scheme to provide affordable housing for people wanting to return to the area.
The project developed from my interviews with a former resident, who grew up in Sailortown in the 1960s. He told me all about the streets where he lived: his neighbours, nearby businesses, and humorous stories from his childhood. From my analysis, I determined that the sense of community was aided by the high density of homes, the mix of uses, the ordered street network and the diversity of residents.
My proposal took the form of three urban blocks. The project was predominantly a plot-based scheme, designed for people to purchase a plot and build their own house or business. I developed a masterplan and design guide for users to follow. I learnt a lot during this project. Mainly, the importance of engaging with local people to get a rich understanding of an area. Secondly, the potential of new forms of mixed-use housing developments to create vibrant and sustainable neighbourhoods in Belfast.
What does the practice of meaningful architecture look like to you?
To continue in the same vein as my previous answer, I believe that architecture is only truly meaningful if it meets the needs of the end user and local people. To do that, architects need to work with communities in an empathetic and engaged way.
What are some of the challenges faced by architects and the wider profession?
Architects are currently working in a very difficult climate. We’re facing a climate crisis, a housing crisis, the aftershocks of the Grenfell Tower disaster and a world in upheaval. For early career architects in particular, this can be a challenging landscape to work in, balancing large workloads and responsibilities with, often, disappointing salaries and working conditions. At ECAF, we aim to create a space where early career architects can share experience and knowledge. It’s important that the profession remains a viable career path for all architects.
If you hadn’t become an architect, what would you be doing?
I realised that architecture was the career for me when I was fifteen years old, while working on a GCSE art project. Before that, I was intrigued by careers as a marine biologist, primary school teacher or being the owner of an old-fashioned sweet shop! However, when I think about it now, my alternative life could have been in fashion, or maybe in literature, as a writer, publisher or illustrator.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m currently doing a PhD in Architecture at QUB. My research focuses on the impact of density on the everyday lives of social housing residents in Belfast. It’s been amazing to have the time to delve deeper into the topics that interested me during my thesis.
What does the next ten years look like?
The short answer is, I’m not too sure! I’m interested in both the worlds of academia and practice. During my PhD, I’ve enjoyed developing my own research interests and doing some teaching. However, I also really enjoyed my time working in practice, particularly designing at a range of scales, from the urban scale, right down to the details. Ultimately, I hope to work in an environment that interests me and where I feel like I can contribute.
The Early Career Architects Forum (ECAF) seeks to support architects in Northern Ireland in their first ten years of practice, consecutive or otherwise; and aims to provide a platform for the society’s newest members to engage on matters specifically pertaining to the development of early career architects.
Over the next year through Perspective, the ECAF seeks to promote the individual profiles of Early Career Architects as well as invite them to contribute to opinion pieces for upcoming editions of the magazine. If you would like to contribute or be featured in future columns, please reach out to Aisling Madden, the ECAF representative on the Perspective publications committee.
Bushmills Courthouse
Due to my unfamiliarity with the north coast town of Bushmills I allowed myself an hour to walk around before meeting Dr Andrew Molloy, the project architect on the recently refurbished and extended Bushmills Courthouse. The Grade B1 listed building, first constructed in 1834, is now home to a non-profit social enterprise championing local arts and crafts known as ‘The Designerie’, a cafe, offices and a flexible community events space. An hour was enough time to circle the town twice, stop for a coffee and take some photos. Bushmills is small; with one street, Main Street, consisting of a series of two-storey pitched-roof buildings almost perfectly mirrored on a central roundabout, known as The Diamonda common component of Ulster towns, where corners form natural gathering places for communities to interact and exchange news.
As well as its proximity to The Diamond, visually the old Bushmills Courthouse holds a heightened sense of importance. Vertically it is one of the few elements to break the two-storey datum. Horizontally, its stone portico juts into the street
interrupting an otherwise generous pavement. It isn’t trying to hide; it is unapologetically present.
The buildings of Main Street back onto the Bush River as it meanders north to meet the Atlantic at Portballintrae. Across the river is Millennium Park, a good vantage point to view the courthouse and new extension together within their wider context. The massing is clever, although internally one continuous building, it is carved to appear as three separate forms. The courthouse retains its sense of priority, marginally the tallest and with a slightly darker and visibly older pitched roof. The white render, pitched roofs, dormers and chimneys of the extension give it a residential appearance typical of the area, helping it to nestle quietly into the surroundings.
The dense frontage of Main Street means there are seldom chances to glimpse behind the curtain of buildings, meaning the courthouse extension disappears from view. One opportunity comes as the street pavers invitingly turn by 90 degrees and tempt pedestrians down the side of the courthouse’s white
THE TEAM
Client Enterprise Causeway
Architect Hamilton Architects
Civil and Structural Engineer Tetra Tech
Quantity Surveyors / Project Manager esc Construction Consultants
M&E Engineers Delap & Waller
Main Contractor Martin & Hamilton Construction
Photography Gareth Andrews Photography
gable wall, now illuminated by the early morning sun. Just beyond this, a slight kink in the path guides you closer and eventually underneath the cantilevering white rendered mass of the extension as it balances above you upon a dark, gently reflective basalt stone plinth. This generous pedestrian route with the addition of the cantilever on the building’s southern edge creates a sheltered thoroughfare that the Designerie will use as an external marketplace in summer months. The cantilever runs the length of building, broken briefly by a fullheight set back curtain wall that divides the massing into two. Turning again to look back at the rear gable of the extension, I notice randomly scattered and perfectly formed holes in the rendered finish. I later discovered these are swift boxes that allow the birds to nest and thus preserving this declining species. A beautiful and playful addition to an otherwise residential-looking façade.
Upon entering through the modest front door of the existing courthouse under the retained portico you are met with a generous double-height volume. A decadent hanging fixture of small sculpted golden birds glint as they catch the morning light pouring through the first-floor windows. The muted tones of the Designerie retail space allow the beautiful local
stage. A central staircase cuts through the centre of the existing building from right to left just in front of the entrance. Its balustrade, a tall chunky painted metal feels institutional by design, perhaps a nod to the courthouse’s original function. The stairs lead to more retail space with some open workshop/studio spaces that spill onto the shop floor. Each studio or maker is identified with a timber swing sign creating a quaint market-street feel. On the top and second floor of the existing courthouse is a generous meeting room and a large flexible space with beautifully restored and exposed timber trusses. Looking in any direction you will feel the past: the sash windows, the carefully retained timber structure, the infill lime render to previous window openings, the timber bench on the external terrace made from parts of the old courtroom and old stone paving slabs demarcating the threshold between the old and new buildings. Undoubtedly the most intriguing is a retained central pole and newel post of an old timber spiral staircase which sits centrally within the triple-height void of the courthouse rear return. The centre pole, believed to once be a ship’s mast, has visible notches where the previous treads have been removed. This tall space provides an opportunity to take a quiet moment and become immersed in the history of the old building.
crafts to take centre
Rear (north) Elevation
Gable (west) Elevation
Primary (east) Elevation
(south)
The new-build ground floor is taken up by a spacious cafe and entrance lobby that connects seamlessly to the Designerie retail space through an enlarged opening that was previously a rear window of the courthouse. On the first floor a central corridor runs the length of the building leading to workshop spaces on either side. Halfway along the corridor is interrupted by a shared breakout space where the curtain wall floods the plan with natural light. On the second floor, set within the pitched roof is a generous and flexible community space that can be used for a range of events, presentation and workshops. The double dormers provide moments of additional height and views across Bushmills to the south.
Ultimately this project in whiskey town could be distilled down to a modest and sensitive addition to an existing listed building, but it is so much more than that. The real heart of
this project is community; its success is undeniable as I watch people of all ages gather here to teach, learn, create, buy, sell and converse. The team at Hamilton Architects have given Bushmills a new diamond.
Richard Kennedy
Project Data
Gross internal area (GIA): 910m2
Predicted regulated energy use: 70.46 kWh/m2/year
Predicted unregulated energy use: 35.99 kWh/m2/year
Predicted on-site renewables output: 0.00 kWh/year
In-use Operational energy use: 117.09 kWh/m2/year
In-use potable water: <90 Litres/person/day
Embodied Carbon: 600kgCO2/m2/yr (A1-A5)
Images
Digby Illustrations
Illustrated in stunning detail, these beautiful prints offer something completely unique. Irish artist Michael Digby produces illustrations of cityscapes, coastal towns and beaches around Ireland. Hand drawn in ink and finished in watercolours. Professionally digitally printed in Belfast.
Michael Digby studied art at A Level, achieving the top mark in the UK, and a BSc in Architecture at QUB. This skill set, natural talent and experience combine perfectly to produce these eye catching maps. He currently lives and works in
London. Digby Illustrations is a small family side hustle, set up by Michael and his sister Sarah, who lives in County Antrim. Michael draws and Sarah does everything else!
We have a selection of Digby illustrations prints available to purchase in the bookshop and in our online shop www. rsua.org.uk/shop. Please contact kerry@rsua.org.uk if you would like to feature your work in our bookshop or online shop.
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Seven projects shortlisted for the RSUA Design Awards 2025
The Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA) has announced the final seven contenders for the best works of architecture in Northern Ireland in 2025.
Ciarán Fox, director of RSUA, commented, “This year’s shortlist is a wonderful blend of the old and the new. It’s great to see innovative architecture breathing life into existing structures. It’s one of the most sustainable moves a client can make. We also have a couple of new builds which are excellent examples of successfully delivering the low-carbon agenda in a beautiful way.”
“We are proud to recognise and celebrate the architects, clients, and wider teams who have contributed to these projects, each demonstrating elements of delight, invention, or ambition deserving of further examination.”
To be considered for this year’s awards, projects had to be in use for at least one year, allowing the judging panel to assess their sustainability and real-world performance more
effectively. This ensures that the RSUA Design Awards remain the benchmark for outstanding architecture in Northern Ireland. RSUA continues to prioritise design excellence that takes into account environmental impact, carbon footprint, and long-term sustainability.
Each project will now be visited by the panel for a rigorous round of judging that will lead to the winners’ announcement in early May 2025. This year, local designer Sara O’Neill joins a distinguished panel of architects from Ireland and the United Kingdom including Trevor Leaker from AECOM, Bob Allies from Allies and Morrison and Charlotte Sheridan from Sheridan Woods.
The winners of this year’s RSUA Design Awards will be unveiled at a ceremony on Thursday 8 May 2025 in the Ulster University Belfast Campus, designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. This building won the Liam McCormack Prize for NI Building of the Year at the RSUA Design Awards in 2024.
This year’s shortlist is a wonderful blend of the old and the new
The seven shortlisted projects are:
Project Name
One Elmwood, Queen’s University
Roddy McCorley Heritage Centre
Silver Bark House
Student Hub, Queen’s Business School
Location Architect(s)
Belfast Hawkins/Brown and RPP Architects
Belfast McGurk Architects
Hillsborough Marshall McCann Architects
Belfast TODD Architects
Light House Holywood McGonigle McGrath Architects
Templemore Baths
New Gate Arts and Culture Centre
Belfast McAdam Design and Consarc Design Group
Derry McGurk Architects
The RSUA Design Awards 2025 judges are:
• RSUA-appointed judge (architect from NI): Trevor Leaker, member of the RSUA Design Quality Panel and director at AECOM.
• RIBA-appointed judge (architect from GB): Bob Allies, partner at Allies and Morrison and member of RIBA National Judging Panel
• RSUA-appointed lay judge: Sara O’Neill, artist and stylist
• RIAI-appointed judge (architect from RoI): Charlotte Sheridan, director at Sheridan Woods and past president of Royal Institute of Architects Ireland
• Architect and sustainability expert: Ben James, chair of the of the RSUA Climate Emergency Committee and PhD researcher at Ulster University
• Architect and conservation expert: Brian Quinn, RSUA Conservation Committee chair & senior architect in Minor Capital Delivery Service, Infrastructure and Capital Development at the Education Authority NI.
Roddy McCorley Heritage Centre - McGurk Architects
Silver Bark House - Marshall McCann Architects
Student Hub, Queen’s Business School - TODD Architects
One Elmwood, Queen’s University - Hawkins/Brown and RPP Architects
The RSUA Design Awards have been running since 1998 and they are recognised as the leading architecture awards in Northern Ireland. The gala evening is the premier event in the calendar for everyone involved in the design of the built environment.
Templemore Baths - McAdam Design and Consarc Design Group
New Gate Arts and Culture Centre - McGurk Architects
Light House - McGonigle McGrath Architects
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Blackmountain Shared Space
THE TEAM
Client Belfast City Council
Architect McAdam Design
Structural & Civil
McAdam Design
Quantity Surveyor
Moore MacDonald & Partners
M+E Engineer
Troup Bywaters + Anders
Mechanical Subcontractor
John Lynn
Electrical Subcontractor
Braham Electrical
Main Contractor
P&K McKaigue Ltd
Photography
Gareth Andrews Photography
Frankie Boyle, the Scottish comedian, once said, “Sectarianism is a real problem, but it should be addressed by people engaging with each other –reconciliation.” If you agree with this statement, then we all need to work together to provide safe and neutral spaces in which that engagement can take place and understanding can flourish. The Blackmountain Shared Space (BMSS) project is a testament to this idea and to the bright future Northern Ireland can embrace when previous historical divides are set aside in favour of a shared vision. It demonstrates that both physical and physiological barriers can be torn down and replaced with a generosity of spirit and willingness to imagine something better. A place where communities can mix and spend time together in an attractive, welcoming and neutral shared space.
The ethos of BMSS resonates perfectly with McAdams company mission statement “Enhancing Local Communities”, so when we were invited to tender for the project by Belfast City Council, we were determined to secure this important project. Following a rigorous MEAT procurement process conducted by Belfast City Council we were awarded the commission in November 2020 as lead consultant for a multidisciplinary team assembled and managed by our in-house project management department. As a practice we have worked successfully on several cross-community projects and therefore were very familiar with the BMSS funding and governance arrangements required by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme. This was managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) with oversight by Construction
CASE STUDY ARCHITECT’S ACCOUNT
PEACE IV BLACKMOUNTAIN SHARED SPACE PROJECT
Site Location
The site is located at the foot of Black Mountain in West Belfast, at the intersection of the Ballygomartin and Springmartin Roads, approximately 2.5 miles from Belfast City Centre. Historically this area has been subject to community tensions due to interface points, security barriers and peace walls located nearby.
Two vehicular access points to the site are proposed; the existing access from Ballygomartin Road is to be retained and upgraded forming a convenient access point for residents from the Springmartin / Highfield area and a new access from Springfield Heights formed for residents of Upper Springfield / New Barnsley / Moyard.
The Black Mountain Shared Space Project (BMSSP) aims to create an iconic shared space to release the full potential of the currently derelict ex-Finlay’s factory site. The facility will promote sustainable and meaningful engagement between communities divided by significant physical and physiological barriers and act as a catalyst to unlocking the social, environmental and economic potential as a new shared space for Belfast and the wider region.
Context
The site is bounded to the North by the the eastern boundary. The remainder Springfield Heights and Springfield Park. Moyard Crescent . To the west of the
The East and South boundaries are predominantly
The majority of the surrounding built infrastructur houses with a few three storey apartment
There are significant level changes across
There is an existing relatively level plateau and densely planted area on the sloping
View from the south east
View from the north east
Elevation
North Elevation
Procurement Delivery (CPD) and included match funding by the Department of Communities in Northern Ireland and the Department of Rural Community Development Fund in Ireland. Together with the Council these agencies provided the £7m which funded the project. These key stakeholders were continuously supportive of the project from inception to completion and their rigorous governance ensured McAdam designed and delivered a value-for-money solution. However, it must also be acknowledged that the unflinching commitment of the local communities, harnessed through the Black Mountain Shared Space organisation which has operated since 2010, ensured the project’s success. These grassroots community groups are essential for securing support across political parties and diverse local communities. In this context McAdam never lost sight of our true “client” during design development and when compromise was required for budget or programme pressures we always explained the rationale to the BMSS and secured their consensus approval.
From inception, the project was envisioned as a modest two-storey multipurpose shared space building of simple but striking geometric form. This deliberately uncomplicated massing expression was driven by two considerations. Firstly, the architect wanted to ensure no unnecessary cost was wasted on over-elaborate architectural expression and that the final shape and materiality of the building would provide evidence of the obvious design quality. Secondly, we did not want the building to detract from the majesty of the Blackmountain which towers over the site and provides a wonderful backdrop of changing colours and textures. The simplicity of this approach and respect for the context and surroundings resonated with BMSS whilst simultaneously providing comfort to the funders that their investment was being managed judiciously.
Designing a simple geometric rhomboid allied to a bronzecoloured modular rain screen cladding was our one small concession to architectural expression. Whilst striving to be cost effective we also wanted the finished building to be unique and place making. Achieving this, given the range of rooms allied to differing internal spaces and volumes to be accommodated, (510m2 Sport Hall) required several stakeholder engagements and space-planning diagrams, however, the result is a compact and logically organised building which optimises every m2 for community programmes.
The building itself is positioned and orientated within the elevated site to provide the maximum aspect across Belfast city. The entrance to the building is on the east façade where double height curtain wall glazing floods the building with natural light and visitors can enjoy the open views of the city. An outdoor plaza welcomes the visitor at the entrance of the building where the site has been carefully landscaped to be welcoming yet also low maintenance. Large perimeter trees and scrub were retained, and a landscaping scheme was implemented around the building, car parking and vehicular routes to soften the appearance of the facility. Internally, all the ground and first-floor spaces are linked by the double-height entrance atrium which helps new visitors to instantly orientate and navigate the building intuitively whilst also providing an exciting exhibition space for community events. This public entrance hall is both welcoming and multi-functional whilst the remaining accommodation is semi-private general-purpose rooms for community use. These rooms are modern, flexible and serviced by a small kitchen. Offices are on the first floor to provide more privacy whilst the sports hall occupies the rhomboid’s tallest volume and is finished to be robust and utilitarian, befitting of its intended use.
Dual access into the site is located off the existing Ballygomartin Road in the north and Springfield Heights in the south.
The success of BMSS has triggered Phase 2 of the project which has already begun, having been carefully master planned by McAdam from inception. It will comprise of eight new office units configured and finished to complement the existing BMSS building. These new offices will be for local community organisations and will operate in tandem with BMSS to breathe new life into this part of west Belfast. This phase is being funded by the International Fund for Ireland, the Department for Communities and the Department of Justice.
McAdam Design
Project Data
Gross Internal Area (GIA) - 1717m2
Predicted Regulated Energy Use: 217.01 kWh/m2/year
Predicted Unregulated Energy Use: 38.38 kWh/m2/annum
Predicted On-Site Renewables Output: 2398.06 kWh/annum In Use Operational Energy Use: Not Available In Use Potable Water: Not calculated. Embodied Carbon: Not calculated.
McAdam
ENHANCING LOCAL COMMUNITIES
ARCHITECTURE ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT
McAdam are delighted to be associated with the Blackmountain Shared Space project. This builds upon our growing portfolio of Community Projects.
BLACKMOUNTAIN SHARED SPACE
Integrated Design for Community and Sustainability
The Blackmountain Shared Space Project (BMSSP), led by Belfast City Council works to improve community relations across Northern Ireland’s peace lines.
Unity and opportunity ran through the project as central themes. Our design focused on creating an inclusive space to encourage collaboration amongst the communities who come together at the Centre.
Sustainability was at the heart of the project and as lead engineering services and vertical transportation designers, we delivered lowenergy solutions through extensive detailed IES thermal modelling to optimise user comfort and minimise operational costs.
This included roof-mounted PV and LED lighting matched with advanced lighting controls, including daylight linking and scene-setting. The MEP solutions are enhanced with a comprehensive BMS system delivering the space’s flexibility, comfort and energy efficiency.
Our designs were delivered in BIM Level 2 working collaboratively with all other designers to achieve the project aims with security features, such as CCTV and
automatic gates providing a safety and accessible environment for all.
Blackmountain Shared Space is an example of how integrated, well thought out design can provide a secure, sustainable, and welcoming environment. Combining community-focused features with modern, low-energy solutions, has created a shared space that brings people together for a better future.
Andrew Campbell Partner a.campbell@tbanda.com
Photo Credit: Gareth Andrews.
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Introducing Pietra Kode: the Italian stones of yesteryear recoded by DEKTON for contemporary architecture and design.
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Ulster University students in Berlin
Ulster University students from the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment visited Berlin in February 2025 with tutor Dr Niall O’Hare, as self-funded, independent researchers. This article presents a series of student reflections.
Katarzyna Laczny – BA3
Berlin Underground Transportation System
The Hauptbahnhof (Hbf)
As an architecture student from Northern Ireland visiting Berlin, I observed how infrastructure influences urban life. What stood out most was the city’s vast underground transport system - an invisible yet essential layer beneath daily activity. Unlike in Northern Ireland, where train stations are separate buildings, Berlin’s U-Bahn and S-Bahn stations blend seamlessly into the cityscape. Nearly every part of the city has an underground entry integrated into its design. The ease of use of this transportation system demonstrates how architecture can enhance both functionality and support sustainability. This seamless connection creates a fluid urban experience, where transit becomes a natural extension of the built environment. Berlin’s underground network exemplifies how infrastructure can unify a city - an inspiring lesson in designing spaces that enhance both movement and everyday life.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Stepping into the vast field of concrete blocks felt as if I was walking into a distorted world. As I entered the memorial, it felt like I was swallowed by the undulating blocks that varied in height - the first few were short but in length resembled coffins. The deeper I walked, the ground began to dip and undulate which allowed the blocks to grow taller, causing the noise of the city to become cancelled out and all I could hear were my footsteps. As I moved between the monoliths, I immediately felt disoriented and overwhelmed as everywhere I turned I saw the same everlasting grid. The memorial evoked such powerful emotion in me, I couldn’t possibly comprehend, whilst the victims felt everything. This experience was incredibly moving for me and ignited my reflection on the destruction that lingers in this silence, urging us to remember and to never forget.
Baraa Salaho – BA1
Baraa Salaho – BA1
Katarzyna Laczny – BA3
Berlin’s history is scattered throughout the city in the form of tangible fragments. These fragments of history remind us of past events and their lasting effects on our architecture. Seeing and feeling the remnants and scars that remain from the war up close evoked deep reflection within me. I appreciate the way in which some buildings have retained the damage to the structures, their porous, dimpled surface catching the light, adding depth to a once-smooth face and revealing their stories. The Berliner Dom’s attempt to conceal these imperfections starkly contrasts with the rest of the building. This approach has created a certain harshness, as the blemishes have been cut out and replaced with squares which fail to blend into the original stonework. This patchwork of repairs serves as a powerful reminder that history cannot be merely erased but rather lingers in the fabric of our environment, waiting to be acknowledged.
Berliner Dom
The Berliner Dom exterior is extensively detailed with the figurative representation of angels high upon the rooftop, surrounded by leafy spiralling motifs merging with the exterior archways of the cathedral. When entering the Berliner Dom I was as excited and overwhelmed with how the expansive atmosphere of the space immediately made me feel, from my very first steps within the array of light and darkness. The main atrium of the cathedral was jaw dropping. I experienced genuine awe comprehending how tall and voluminous the space really was. Looking upwards, it was astounding how evangelical the exquisite the interior decoration looked. Perfectly gilded gargoyles and grotesques interweaved with the sculptural statues presented near the top of the dome - one of which was Martin Luther, who created the Lutheran religion. Energised by my experience I embraced the challenge of 268 steps to the top of the Dom, which rewarded me with staggering views across Berlin as the landscape of the city unfolded beneath me.
Agnese Kaulina – BA3
Mia Henry – BA3
Mia Henry – BA3
Agnese Kaulina – BA3
Órla O’Toole – MArch I
A Dialogue between Architecture and Memory
The Jewish Museum, Berlin left the most profound impact on me. Libeskind’s design epitomises the power of architecture in shaping the human experience. It is a profound architectural statement that seamlessly intertwines memory and space. I felt the sheer weight of the design; its bold deconstructivity utilising acute angles, voids, and jagged fractured lines intensely echoed the disruption experienced by Jewish communities during the Holocaust. The subtly sloped floors disrupted my balance, creating instability as I traversed the building, and left me with a lingering sense of unease. Encountering the Holocaust Tower, a stark, towering concrete void punctuated by only a narrow light from above was overwhelming, evoking a profound experience. Libeskind creates an experimental narrative; his design transcends conventional frameworks. It was masterful in demonstrating how architecture can shape and ignite visceral perception.
John Paul Delaney – MArch I
Framing Berlin: A Perspective in Light and Form
Berlin reveals itself in light, shadow and structure. In black and white, the city’s contrast becomes sharper — the interplay of old and new, the rhythm of towering facades, the intimate details of interior spaces. Angles and forms dictate the frame, leading the eye through structured compositions, where geometry and symmetry find balance. Light carves through walls, shaping shadows that soften rigid lines, transforming architecture into fluid forms, almost transient. In some moments, glass reflects the past against the present, an echo of Berlin’s layered history. In others, the sheer scale of buildings engulfs the viewer, forcing a shift in perception. These images are not just an observation of Berlin’s architecture – they are an exploration of its presence — how it stands, shifts and speaks. I offer my perspective: a city not just seen, but felt through contrast, form and time.
Órla O’Toole – MArch I
John Paul Delaney – MArch I
ON SALE NOW
Built to Last Restoration and Reuse of Buildings at Risk
This latest book from Ulster Architectural Heritage (UAH), Built to Last, profiles 25 bold and effective projects - completed and in progress - right across Northern Ireland where important and distinctive buildings which were once in a vulnerable state have been revived for present and future needs in exciting ways.
The book is generously illustrated and also includes essays providing an overview of buildings at risk, the economic and societal value of built heritage and the potential for investment. The case studies cover a range of building types and record the history of the buildings, why they fell into disuse, the challenges faced, and the new uses found for them.
Built to Last concludes by highlighting the ongoing mission to save good, usable buildings and identifies a few which are ripe for revival.
The Keep: Reclaiming Old Ground
Belfast is a city that has its origins in castles. Historic records indicate that the centre of Belfast, which grew outwards from High Street, sited not one, but in fact three castles – the earliest of which was recorded in 1262. Due to its favourable conditions for a settlement close to the River Farset (now culverted below High Street), the Anglo-Norman motte and keep would have been as a base predecessor to the more formidable castles which were constructed within the vicinity in the 15th and 17th centuries.
The last of these structures – Arthur Chichester’s castle of the early 1600s – became the focus of what would later become the town of Belfast. Located between what is now High Street / Castle Place, Cornmarket and Castle Lane, it was ideally situated to mark Belfast as a trading centre close to the River Lagan. As the Irish poet Paul Muldoon succinctly observes:
“A sandbar near a river mouth” would give Belfast its name. The river where we’ve slaked our drouth and where we staked our claim
from
‘Belfast Hymn’, 1978
Chichester’s Belfast Castle was burnt down in 1708. Yet the influence of the medieval planned settlement can still be discerned today in the angular street patterns of this part of the city. One might say Belfast is a city literally founded on castles.
In 2020, LIKE Architects were approached to develop proposals for the former British Home Stores – a prominent department store constructed in the 1960s and which passed into administration in April 2016. The building’s deep footprint extends from Castle Lane along Castle Arcade to Cornmarket,
Client
Architect
Contract
Structural
Quantity
SBEM
Principle Designer Arcal Ltd
Main Contractor Ganson UK
Photography
addressing three key street frontages within the city. A significant commercial building set within the finer grain of the city’s streets, the building had lain vacant until it was purchased by Alterity Investments, a prominent retail landlord within Belfast city centre. The brief encompassed the reconfiguration and refurbishment of the existing building to provide high quality retail and leisure accommodation over four floors, along with the reuse of redundant roofscape as an external terrace for a bar and entertainment space. Strategically the scheme unlocked the opportunity to revitalise and activate Castle Arcade, one of the narrow historic entries which extend southwards from Castle Place and High Street.
In addressing the ‘as found’ condition of the building a key priority was, where possible, to reuse the existing concreteencased steel-framed structure and composite floors, and only initiate modifications where necessary to suit internal fitout requirements. To reclaim the building for commercial use, removal of the outdated Brutalist precast concrete cladding and singleglazed steel-frame windows was required and new contemporary frontages created along the city’s three primary streets.
Amongst other influences, a central tenet of our work includes the forensic analysis of a site’s historic and cultural context. Prior to the construction of the BHS department store, the site was formally occupied by the ornate and highly decorated Gaumont Cinema which fronted on to Castle Lane and Castle Arcade. Built in 1923, it was the ‘premier’ cinema in Belfast at that time, accommodating a cafe and dance hall. Separate research also uncovered a striking photograph of one of Belfast’s lost gems which was located nearby – an internal shopping street within Castle Buildings which carved a route from Castle Place to Castle Arcade. This highly charged and
unique space was lined with faceted shopfronts which spoke of the commercial optimism within the city in the 1930s.
A broader analysis of Victorian Belfast highlighted the importance of ‘The Belfast Corner’ – an architectural and urban device where the intersection between key streets was celebrated within the city centre. This was particularly notable within the medieval quarter where acute angles between streets generated dramatic corners, such as at the Frames building on Little Donegall Street and Bittles Bar on Victoria Street. The former Gaumont Cinema also celebrated the convergence of Castle Lane and Castle Arcade through locating the building entrance at this focal point. The proposals for The Keep reinterpret and dramatise the Belfast Corner, where the angular form of the building steps and folds outwards and upwards on each floor at the acute intersection between Castle Lane and Castle Arcade, culminating in a covered roof terrace which gives views over the city.
The idiosyncrasies of existing buildings present many challenges, where structures are often irregular and not built to modern tolerances and standards. Working in collaboration with the structural engineer BW Murray, the existing steel frame was modified to create spaces which would suit retail and leisure use. The removal of the former Brutalist concrete cladding panels uncovered a multitude of technical and structural issues to be resolved in order to accommodate the high-performance aluminium and glazed curtain walling systems which clad the building. As well as recladding and re-roofing the existing building, new circulation and escape cores have been inserted within the deep floorplates. Along Castle Arcade, the removal of BHS’s upper level bridge link has opened up this space and created a more welcoming external
Belfast c 1790
National Monuments and Buildings Record
The Gaumont CinemaSamuel Stevenson + Sons Castle Buildings Arcade 1930 - NMNI
Department Store
Ground Floor Plan
Third Floor Plan
Location Plan
Cornmarket Elevation
Castle Lane Elevation
environment which is well lit and utilises high quality paving. Retail operators are intrinsically focused on image and brand – from the products they sell to the spaces they inhabit. It is a significant achievement that the building is fully let where vacancy within the city is a serious issue. Key retailers who have located to The Keep include Apple, H&M and Deichmann, each occupying ground and first floors along Castle Lane, Castle Arcade and Cornmarket. Working closely with Apple resulted in the opportunity to showcase the global brand’s latest retail design which boasts the first Vintage E shopfront to be installed anywhere on the globe. Apple’s demanding construction tolerances, which permitted no deviation beyond 3mm across their fit-out, was an extension of the quality and precision they bring to bear on their products. Roxy Leisure is currently in the process of relocating to the upper two floors of the refurbished building. Their main entrance has been strategically positioned directly off Castle Arcade as a means of introducing activity to a space which has hitherto been plagued with anti-social behaviour and under-exploited as a significant part of Belfast’s heritage.
In contrast to the ‘blank’ frontages of the former department store, The Keep presents a positive and visually permeable contemporary architecture, whilst being rooted in the site’s rich history.
The building asserts a strong and unified identity within its commercial context through its paired back palette of materials
and singular use of colour on the facades. The varied scale and rhythms of the each of the facades recall the former Victorian frontages along the three streets, and the reddish brown hues of the aluminium cladding reference the familiar tones of the red brickwork prevalent within the city. The opportunity to create a dramatic and architecturally assertive building which serves as a retail anchor along Castle Lane and Cornmarket not only speaks of the renewed optimism emerging within the city centre, but most importantly will serve as a catalyst to attract further investment into the area. In its modern guise, The Keep reclaims old ground, once lost to shifting market forces, and secures the future of one of Belfast’s most significant redundant structures for years to come..
Arthur Parke Design Director, Like Architects
Project Data
Gross internal area (GIA): 6,553 m2
Predicted regulated energy use: 130.05 kWh/m2/year
Predicted unregulated energy use: 73.27 kWh/m2/year
Predicted on-site renewables output: None
In-use Operational energy use: Not disclosed
In-use potable water: Not disclosed
Embodied Carbon: Not disclosed
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Realising Vision
TODD Architects director Peter Minnis discusses how lessons learnt in project delivery can inform early stage design development.
There are many components to an architectural service and “traditionally”, of course, we would all look to take projects from inception to completion.
However, in the past number of years changing procurement routes and attitudes to risk transfer have seen clients in both public and private sectors look to split responsibilities. A design team is now commonly typically engaged to progress a scheme to planning and another retained, most often under a Design & Build contractor, to take the scheme through detail design and delivery.
Indeed, a number of buildings covered by Perspective over recent years have featured local architects undertaking this role, referred to as an “executive architect”, including, for example, White Ink and their commissions for McAleer & Rushe in London. Most recently in Northern Ireland we have seen RPP successfully working with Farrans/Sacyr on the delivery of Belfast’s Grand Central Station, designed by John McAslan & Partners.
It’s unfortunately a role still derided by some within the profession, more familiar with smaller contracts and domestic clients, but for larger commercial practices it can at times not only be an important source of fee income, but also more crucially a means for their architects and technologists to gain both a better understanding of how buildings are put together (often including Modern Methods of Construction, MMCs) and to develop knowledge of changing legislation (most recently, of course, being focused on fire safety and the Building Safety Act, that emerged out of the Grenfell tragedy). Perhaps most significantly, we have also found that it allows lessons learnt in delivery to be brought to the benefit of future projects of our own at the earlier stages of design development, as well as opening doors to new clients and opportunities.
We proudly remain a design-focused practice and have been very selective as to the projects where we offer a delivery service, typically looking to schemes that have a design quality, architects whose work we have an affinity with, and an experienced contractor, with whom, ideally, we have an established relationship.
Our approach seeks to ensure that design intent remains intact, underpinned by a practice philosophy that detailing is part of the design process, working collaboratively with the contractor and their sub-contracting teams to ensure that “buildability” is kept to the forefront and that design quality is reflected in construction.
Our engagements have been focused on the London market, and are typically multi-storey residential developments, where we have now successfully completed over 2500 homes, with our service provided through our Belfast and London studios.
Case Studies
1. Royal Wharf, London Developer: Ballymore Design Architect: Howells Management Contractor: Ballymore
This project was our introduction to the executive architect role in London in 2017, where we were given the opportunity by Ballymore, one of the city’s most respected developers and contractors, to complete the design and delivery of one of the final phases of Royal Wharf, a residential-led mixeduse development of 3,500 homes (anticipated to have a population of some 10,000 people) on the banks of the River Thames in east London.
Our two buildings, both composed of individual residential blocks arranged around central courtyards (one with a twostorey basement below) and comprising some 198 and 314 homes respectively, included Build to Rent, affordable and social tenures.
They were located in the northwestern corner of the development, in close proximity to the DLR, which brought its own acoustic and construction challenges.
Undoubtedly the most interesting aspect of the scheme was the construction methodology adopted. It involved a precast system of floors and integrated twin skin external wall panels (manufactured in Holland by Byldis), that obviated the need for a structural frame above an in-situ concrete transfer slab at first floor (sitting above shared/amenity/ plant spaces).
This bought significant benefits both in construction quality, with factory fabrication of the brick-faced wall panels, (complete with glazed openings, vents and even fixing brackets for balconies) and in the speed of erection, where a floor could be enclosed within two weeks.
It did, of course, come with something of a cost premium, where sales prices in London could sustain the additional expenditure over a conventional approach from a development economics perspective.
ROYAL WHARF
The off-site fabrication process placed particular demands on the early co-ordination of structure, services and fabric, where our BIM model was critical.
2. Goodluck Hope, London
Developer: Ballymore
Design Architect: Allies & Morrison
Management Contractor: Ballymore
Following our successful delivery of Royal Wharf, we were introduced by Ballymore into another one of their developments, Goodluck Hope, again on the banks of the River Thames, overlooking the O2 Arena and sitting centrally within the “Eastenders” map!
The development comprised 841 apartments and townhouses, together with 25,000sqft of commercial, education and amenity spaces, including a swimming pool, gym, sauna and cinema.
The £250m contract included sixteen separate buildings, ranging in height from three to thirty storeys, built above a basement car park that covers much of the site.
Its architecture was heavily influenced by the industrial heritage of the area, with each building finished in clay brick, with some twelve different types and colours incorporated to provide visual interest and individuality. Perhaps not unsurprisingly it won the Large Scale Residential Development category in the 2023 Brick Awards.
The scheme, detailed and constructed through the middle of the Covid pandemic (where Teams of course became a critical communication tool between our office and site), combined both the Byldis precast system and traditional construction, where it was fascinating to see both progressing side by side across the site.
3. New Mansion Square, Battersea, London
Head Client: Peabody
Design Architect: Patel Taylor Contractor: Ardmore
We were very fortunate to play a small part in what at the time was Europe’s largest mixed-use development, Battersea Power Station in south London.
Phase 4a, or New Mansion Square as it was ultimately named, was the social/affordable component of the development, comprising 386 units, ranging in size from one bedroom
apartments to four bedroom family homes, and operated by Housing Association, Peabody.
The development consists of seven residential blocks (ranging in height from eight to eighteen storeys), with a linking medical centre and 12,000 sqft of flexible workspaces for local entrepreneurs at ground floor and arranged around a landscaped courtyard.
A relatively conventional construction methodology for multi-storey buildings of this type was adopted, with an insitu concrete frame/flat slab, a Steel Frame System (SFS) internal leaf, cavity and a hung external masonry outer leaf.
Complexities arose in both co-ordinating the variety of components and elements within the façade and in looking to achieve non-combustibility in the face of emerging Building Regulation requirements.
A key component to our successful delivery of these three schemes, and indeed others, (presently including our first “super-prime” scheme in Kensington High Street), is the team of highly skilled professionals we have assembled that includes what in effect are in-house “façade engineers”, technologists who have joined us from backgrounds in curtain walling/rainscreen system manufacture and installation.
There is absolutely no doubt that the skills and understanding of the plethora of issues and considerations surrounding the detailing and delivery of buildings of this type/scale have been crucial to us in the design of our own buildings, including The Loft Lines development that is emerging on the Belfast skyline at Titanic Quarter and our Pottery Lane development that is an under construction in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
See page 64 for a case study on Canalside in Woking by BDP and White Ink Architects.
Peter Minnis TODD Architects
CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION
NEW MANSION SQUARE
With a team of over 150 experts across 8 offices in the UK, we are dedicated to high-quality engineering and solutions that meet the needs of today, while safeguarding resources for the future
Our Belfast office is growing and will soon have a new look and location to allow us to further deliver on quality, so if you’d like to arrange chat - reach out to Gavin today
Championing the Assembly Rooms, Belfast
I never made of a secret of it; my dislike of and unwillingness to recognise the importance of a certain part of our built heritage. During my formative years at university and arguably up until the final years of my Master’s in Architecture degree at Queen’s, I never actively engaged with swathes of historical and cultural references simply because I deemed it ‘not relevant to my future career’. How wrong I was. Through a rigorous and at times difficult final year, the culmination of which was my thesis project, I explored more of Northern Ireland’s existing building stock than I ever thought possible. Though the theme and outcome of my thesis is not the subject of this piece, one important argument I made then is relevant. That is of our need to examine how, and to what ends, we preserve our built heritage for future generations.
Fast forward to 2022 and I was fortunate to enough to partake in the World Monuments Fund Heritage Course in Hyderabad, India. That was a journey that would lead from the sweaty, colourful and often, at times, fragrant streets of the Indian sub-continent directly back to the heart of Belfast. The course in Hyderabad focused on the adaptation and reuse of the former British Residency Building into a Women’s College and University; a new use that couldn’t have felt more fitting as the country grapples with what to do with its crumbling colonial heritage and the dark history surrounding it. As the course came to an end and the group said goodbye to one another in the cold undulating steel frame of Richard Roger’s Heathrow Terminal 5 building to the soundtrack of Liz Truss’s resignation being broadcast around us, I assumed that was the end of the working relationship between myself and the World Monuments Fund. However, for the second time, how wrong I was.
As many things in the 21st century do, it started with a swipe. A post on Instagram from the World Monument Fund was asking people to nominate a building for their 2025 global watchlist. It sounded interesting and, more importantly, it sounded like something I could do with relative ease. After asking both colleagues in the office and the wider architecture community for suggestions, I came upon the Museum of the Troubles and Peace (MoTAP) and Reclaim the Enlightenment, two groups who were leading a coalition looking to protect, preserve and
reuse the crumbling Assembly Rooms in the heart of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. From its original purpose as a meeting venue, the Assembly Rooms has played a significant part in shaping the history of Belfast. It was there in 1786 that plans to establish an Ulster-based slave trading company were resoundingly defeated. It was there in 1792 that it hosted the world-famous Harp Festival and, perhaps most famously of all, it was in the Assembly Rooms itself where Henry Joy McCracken and his comrades of the United Irishmen were sentenced to death following their failed Rebellion of 1796.
After a few emails back and forth (and of course a coffee or two for ‘networking’ purposes), I found myself on the board of MoTAP applying to list the Assembly Rooms, Belfast as a world monument. Months passed and we heard nothing until in January of 2025 it was announced live from the Rockefeller Centre in New York that we had made the listing shortlist. From over two hundred nominations, the Assembly Rooms, Belfast had been selected for the 2025 Watchlist and now proudly sits alongside other world-famous sites such as Petra, the Great Wall of China and Notre Dame. Over the course of the next two years, it is hoped that the building’s place on the watchlist can rally support, both financial and community-orientated, with the aim of saving the Assembly Rooms.
The importance of getting involved in architecture outside the office speaks for itself. Having the Assembly Rooms listed on an international watchlist of key cultural sites is a great opportunity for Belfast and Northern Ireland at large. It provides us collectively with the opportunity to reach out to the world and showcase the immense wealth of our built heritage alongside presenting the city with a cause to rally around. It is my hope that the Assembly Rooms can be seen as a non-partisan, community-led campaign which seeks to restore this nearly lost piece of neo-classical architecture and hopefully, in the not-too-distant future, it can be a place where once again, the citizens of Belfast can assemble and put the world to rights.
Alex Knowles, QUB graduate
All photos courtesy of Joe Laverty
Travelogue - Symi
The Greek island of Symi is perched like a jewel in the cobalt embrace of the Aegean. To approach its harbour by boat is to witness a vision: a cascade of neoclassical mansions in ochre, terracotta and powder blue, tumbling down hillsides to meet the sea. But that image is the introduction and the farewell, the time between offers an exploration of tourism- funded regeneration and the remnants of decay from a troubled past. As both artist and architect, I find Symi’s allure irresistible — a symphony of light, colour, and form that transcends centuries.
Symi’s history is etched into its rugged landscape and has featured prominently in Greek tales over the millennia. In antiquity, it thrived as a maritime hub, its shipbuilders crafting vessels and producing over 500 ships per year. By the late Byzantine era, Symi’s strategic position drew the Knights
of Rhodes with a fortress commanding the main harbour. Ancient monasteries and churches are scattered across the island’s bare landscape.
Symi’s golden age dawned in the 18th and 19th centuries while under Ottoman rule. Merchants, sponge divers and shipwrights amassed wealth, funneling it into the creation of a Venetian-influenced architectural marvel. The harbour town, Yialos, and the route to its upper counterpart, Horio, became a showcase of neoclassical grandeur. Pediments adorn pastel-hued facades, while pebble-mosaic courtyards speak of meticulous craftsmanship. The iconic Clock Tower, a gift from a Symiot merchant in 1881, confirms arrival and affirms the historic prosperity of the village.
The Steps of Kali Strata
A travelogue by Michael Doherty
Yet Symi’s fortunes ebbed. Sponge diving collapsed with synthetic alternatives; world wars and Italian occupation (1912–1943) left scars. By the 1970s, depopulation threatened its soul as a population once over 22,000 strong was reduced to little over 2,000. But like a phoenix, Symi reinvented itself — this time through tourism, luring travellers (and artists) with its untouched beauty. At breakfast or dinner you may meet a Danish rock star with her watercolours or a sci-fi Illustrator pondering the next bestselling book cover.
To wander Symi’s labyrinthine streets is to step into an unrealised sketchbook. The architecture here is a dialogue between human ingenuity and nature. The houses, though grand, are scaled intimately — their verticality a pragmatic response to topography. Steep staircases weave between buildings, their steps worn smooth by generations, leading to hidden gardens brimming with climbing plants.
As an architect, I enjoy the harmony of materials: local limestone, wooden shutters bleached by sun, and roofs of curved terracotta tiles. The palette — muted pinks, yellows, and blues — is no accident. These hues shift with the light:
at dawn, soft gold; at midday, vivid under the Aegean sun; at dusk, dissolving into lavender shadows. Colour choices are enforced by the town council. Windows serve multiple purposes: they frame the sea like living paintings, ventilate homes in the summer heat and help compose the pedimented elevations.
Restoration here is an act of reverence. Many 19th-century mansions, once crumbling, now house boutique hotels and galleries. Craftsmen can be encountered in the back streets repairing facades using traditional paints, ensuring the colours remain as the original artisans intended. The result is a village that feels both preserved and alive — a testament to architecture’s power to adapt without erasing history.
Modern Symi is a study in contrasts. By day, the harbour hums with day-trippers from Rhodes, drawn to tavernas opening onto the harbour serving the local delicacy of Symi Shrimps. Massive yachts compete for moorings abutting the coastal promenade displaying their opulence to those on an evening stroll. Yet venture uphill, and silence reigns. The journey between the harbour and the upper town of Horio begins at an almost secret entrance before opening to the Kali Strata, a street of around 500 steps enclosed with a
Arrival
Opening onto the Harbour
celebration of both renovated and dilapidated buildings reflecting the transitional status of the village. In Horio, elderly women sweep courtyards as cats doze in patches of sun. Empty streets await renovation and provide seclusion for drawing time. The Panagia Church, with its blue dome and 18th-century frescoes, offers a place of cool respite.
For artists, Symi is muse and mentor. The light here, crisp, transforms ordinary scenes. I’ve spent moments in the evening sketching the fishing boats and mopeds, while at the height of the day the narrow streets provide shelter from the blazing sun and generate the geometry of shadows to structure a drawing. Tourism, often a disruptor, feels tempered here. There are no sprawling resorts — only small guesthouses and a reverence for slow travel.
Empty Streets in Horio
The Shapes of Shadows
Symi teaches that beauty is not static. Its history — of rise, fall, and rebirth — is etched into every peeling facade and restored balcony. As an architect, I see the relationship between the vernacular and sustainable design: passive cooling, local materials, and vertical living that modern cities might envy. As an artist, I’m reminded that places, like people, are layered — their scars as telling as their splendor. In Symi, past and present coexist gracefully. To create here, whether a painting or to renovate a building, is to join a continuum, adding a stroke to a canvas that will outlive us all.
Getting there: Belfast to Rhodes for an overnight stop and a ferry the next day.
Michael Doherty
An exhibition of Michael Doherty’s abstract paintings opens in the Engine Room Gallery, Belfast on 7 August at 7.00pm.
Vertical Composure
Smooth Steps
Going Dutch
Queen’s University student Jack Baskin shares his experience of interning in Europe as a Part I Architectural Assistant.
After completing six months at two architecture firms and one urban and landscape studio, I’ve learned a lot — things I wish I’d known before deciding to take the leap and complete my placement in Europe. I chose to do my Part I placement abroad rather than staying in the UK or Ireland because I wanted to immerse myself in a more dynamic architectural scene. The Netherlands, known for its innovation and design-forward thinking, was a big draw. I wanted to experience how studios in Europe approach design, challenge my perspectives, and step out of my comfort zone. Beyond that, the adventure of living abroad — navigating a new city, language and work culture — felt like an opportunity that could shape both my career and character.
That decision wasn’t without hurdles. The application process was a crash course in perseverance. I started applying later than ideal, around August, only to realise that many firms had already accepted interns for September placements. Every day, I was sending out emails to firms across Europe. There were plenty of rejections (and many firms that never replied at all), but persistence paid off. I eventually secured a position at a small Dutch-Japanese architecture studio in Rotterdam, which helped me get my foot in the door of the European architecture scene.
Once I arrived, I quickly discovered that intern pay in Europe differs from the UK. My position was paid, but the stipend was modest — just enough to cover rent and groceries. This isn’t unusual; many European architecture internships offer a basic monthly allowance rather than a UK-style salary. In the Netherlands, for instance, architectural interns typically earn between €500 and €800 per month. Had I known this beforehand, I would have budgeted better to maximise my time abroad.
Adjusting to Dutch workplace culture also took time. The direct communication style was something I had to get used to — feedback was blunt and to the point. If my 3D model was off or my drawings needed changes, colleagues told me straight away. At first, it was a shock, but I quickly realised that this honesty helped me improve far faster than I would have in a more indirect work environment. Over time, I came to appreciate this efficiency — it meant I always knew where I stood.
Language-wise, I was relieved that English was widely spoken in the workplace. The Netherlands has a high level of English proficiency, and most offices, particularly those working on international projects, use English as their primary language. Conversations would often switch between Dutch and English, but I never felt excluded.
So far, my internships have been packed with lessons and unique opportunities. I learned to be adaptable — whether it was picking up new software or cycling through torrential Dutch rain to get to a site on time. I gained a more global perspective on architecture, working on projects ranging from multi-million-euro developments in the Netherlands to schemes in Southeast Asia and Saudi Arabia — projects I doubt I would have had the chance to work on had I stayed in Northern Ireland.
Outside of work, every weekend was an opportunity to explore — from admiring the modernist Cube Houses in Rotterdam to hopping on a train to Berlin and Antwerp to experience their architectural heritage. These experiences broadened my understanding of how architecture responds to different cultural contexts. Now, six months in, I have not only developed a richer portfolio and stronger technical skills but also built an international network of friends and mentors. Most importantly, I’ve gained confidence — having navigated these
Cube Houses Blaaktoren (Het Potlood)
Market Hall Rotterdam
challenges abroad, I feel ready for anything, whether back home or wherever my career takes me next.
Practical Advice for Students Interested in European InternshipsLooking back, there’s a lot I’ve learned — things I wish I’d known before applying. If you’re considering an architecture internship in Europe, here are some key aspects to keep in mind:
Internship Duration and Structure - Internships in Europe often differ from those in the UK and Ireland, where a year-long placement is standard. Most European firms offer six-month internships, though some extend placements for strong interns. Since competition is global, persistence is key — it may take multiple applications, but securing one opportunity is all it takes. Larger cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen and Barcelona have vibrant design scenes and a strong presence of firms accustomed to hiring international interns.
Salary Expectations - While UK year-out placements are expected to pay at least minimum wage, European internships vary widely. Most are paid, but salaries typically range between €400 and €1000 per month — enough to cover basic expenses but often requiring savings to make the most of the experience. Research stipends in your target country and budget accordingly.
Accommodation Planning - Start searching for housing as soon as you accept an offer. Some firms assist with intern housing or can connect you with previous interns. Short-term options like hostels or Airbnb can give you time to find a more permanent place. I moved three times before securing long-term accommodation — be prepared for flexibility.
Visas and Registration - Check visa requirements early, as the process can take time. Ensure your employer can assist with necessary paperwork. Many European countries require local registration — for example, I had to register at Rotterdam’s city hall and obtain a BSN (citizen service number) to work legally. Employers are usually familiar with these processes, so don’t hesitate to ask for guidance.
Best Time to Apply - Timing is crucial. Apply early — ideally by May for an August/September start and by October for placements starting in the new year. Large firms often have fixed application windows in spring or autumn, while smaller studios may not advertise internships at all, meaning speculative applications can be sent year-round.
Final Advice - Interning abroad is a big step, but one that can be hugely rewarding. To maximise your chances:
• Start early and tailor your applications
• Use your network and follow up with firms
• Prepare for visa and housing logistics in advance
• Be open to different work cultures and learning experiences Yes, challenges will arise — from paperwork to flat hunting — but they’re manageable with preparation and patience. Many students from Northern Ireland and the UK have successfully interned across Europe, returning with new skills, professional connections, and a broader perspective on architecture.
With English and a strong portfolio, you can secure a spot in some of the world’s most design-forward offices. Good luck — or as you may soon hear: Veel succes! (Dutch), Viel Glück! (German), Held og lykke! (Danish).
Jack Baskin
Site Visit in Amsterdam
Rotterdam Centraal Station Bike Stop
Tribute to the “Destroyed City” Statue Floating ‘Architecture’ Office
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With new design trends emerging on the market, Forbo has streamlined both collections into a more comprehensive and on-trend offering. Both Modul’up and Sarlon will now be available in 81 colourways, including a series of contemporary woods, materials and concrete aesthetics, with many of these designs created using Forbo’s innovative digital printing capabilities. This ensures a realistic and high-quality finish, with little to no repeated patterns on some colourways, ensuring the product is almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
Donna Hannaway, Head of Marketing UK and Ireland, from Forbo Flooring Systems, commented: “We understand the heavy time constraints our customers and end users can face, especially when it comes to
flooring refurbishments, ensuring that the building or interior space isn’t out of action for longer than necessary. At the same time, we’re conscious of keeping up with modern design trends, providing the best possible solutions for projects. It is for this reason that we have looked to refine both our Modul’up and Sarlon sheet vinyl collections, with 81 colourways now on offer.
“We’re particularly excited to be launching some of our new wood and material designs, which incorporate intricate and realistic patterns, with little to no pattern repeats, that can help to create some eye-catching interior schemes. For example, with this refresh we have new Shaped Wood designs, with an inlaid pattern in different colours, as well as Industrial Parquet, a regular oak design with a playful twist.”
With acoustic versions available for both Sarlon and Modul’up ranges, offering 15 dB and 19 dB impact sound reduction, it is ideal for the busy or noisy interior spaces commonly found within the education or healthcare sectors.
Manufactured in factories running off 100% renewable electricity, both contain 20% recycled content (which is up to a 20% increase compared to the previous collections) and are 100% phthalate free. Forbo also runs a ‘Back to the Floor’ scheme, allowing installation offcuts to be returned and reused within production.
Find out more about this collection on Forbo’s website: www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/fastfit
Canalside, Woking
THE TEAM
Client ThamesWey
Development Ltd
Architects
White Ink Architects
Main Contractor
Gilbert Ash
Structural Consultant
BW Murray
MEP Consultant Kane Group
Landscape Consultant
Tri Landscape Architects
Principal Designer
Nick Perry Associates
Stage 02 Design BDP
Photography
Simon Kennedy
Canalside Phase Yellow is the third and final phase of employer ThamesWeys’ masterplan to transform the Sheerwater estate located in Woking, Surrey. The original masterplan and associated hybrid planning approval by BDP for ThamesWey, a wholly owned subsidiary company of Woking Borough Council, was to be implemented in 15 phases, all defined by colours. White Ink Architects were appointed by contractor Gilbert Ash following their completion of the first phases, Purple and Red.
ThamesWeys 136-million-pound investments in Phase Purple, Red and Yellow has created a total of 404 homes, 256 of which are affordable units including townhouses, mews houses, maisonettes, housing for the elderly and apartments. With a firm understanding of client ThamesWeys’ brief, WhiteInk prioritised the consistency of design quality throughout the
blocks of varying tenure, from conceptual stages to project delivery, ensuring no perceptible difference.
Phase Yellow is located at the heart of the new masterplan and comprises 187 apartments across five blocks, along with retail spaces, a dental surgery and a pharmacy. Blocks Y1-Y4 of Phase Yellow feature a feature a striking stone façade with zinc-clad infill panels situated around a central landscaped podium creating a new civic centre for the development, while Block Y5 is constructed from hand-built brick which references the architecture of Phase Purple and Phase Red.
White Ink worked closely with Gilbert Ash, BW Murray, Kane Group and BB7 to develop the inherited Stage 2 proposal to meet regulatory, performance and client requirements. The integration of structural, architectural and mechanical elements
were workshopped within these initial stages to ensure buildability and inform a rational approach to construction sequencing all whilst maintaining the design integrity. These design, layout and materiality changes were captured in a nonmaterial amendment to the scheme and approved by Woking Borough Council.
With a strong emphasis on collaboration, Gilbert Ash and White Ink engaged with sub-contractors and suppliers at an early stage to ensure the aesthetic aspirations of the approved scheme could be delivered. A particular challenge was resolving the thermal and fire safety requirements of the façade whilst retaining the slender column and beam concept. White Ink worked closely with the precast sub-contractor and structural engineer to ensure a consistent slender grid could be maintained throughout the elevation. The project team visited the Techrete factory where they gained an insight into the façade production process and had the opportunity to review the quality and agree final finishes.
Sustainability was a core value at the forefront of ThamesWeys’ regeneration of the Sheerwater estate. The design team worked closely with Tri Landscape Architects to implement biodiverse landscapes in and around the building, including sedum roofs, native landscaped podiums, tree-lined walkways, bee bricks and bat boxes. The roof tops also house photovoltaic panel zones to aid the project’s energy strategy. Perforated panels, embellished with patterns reflecting their ecological zone, aid resident secure ventilation and passive cooling. Sustainable transport provisions allow residents to benefit from electrical vehicle charging spaces and secure bicycle storage.
During the construction phase of the project, unprecedented financial challenges facing Woking Borough Council resulted in a pause on future regeneration phases and affected the viability of the project. ThamesWey appointed White Ink to redevelop some of the commercial and community aspects of the project to incorporate more housing, as the halt to development meant that existing community facilities were now to be retained. This late change created an interesting design challenge, and we were able to add nineteen apartments to the scheme within the existing envelope and with minimal change to the original aesthetic. The successful feasibility was instructed as a variation to Gilbert-Ash and has been seamlessly incorporated into the original design.
White Ink Architects
Project Data
Gross Internal Area (GIA): 17,746.3 m2
Predicted On-site Renewable Output: 89,048kWh/year
In-use Potable Water: 110Litres/person/day
21 Hamilton Road, Bangor, County Down BT20 4LF Tel: 028 3829 4898
1 Shaerf Drive, Lurgan, County Armagh BT66 8DD Tel: 028 3832 3296
Bridges at Risk
Canal Bridge, Clonfad
significant vegetation growth obscuring the bridge and possibly causing structural issues.
There are some 403 listed bridges across Northern Ireland, ranging from arched stone bridges over babbling brooks to railway viaducts to iron pedestrian bridges. They were essential for the development of our towns and cities and were built commonly with local materials and labour. They also form an important but often overlooked feature in the landscape. As society progressed (or regressed) and we abandoned our railways, many of the bridges suddenly found their purpose surplus to requirement. Similarly, canal bridges and the breakup of estates has led to other unique structures falling into ruin and without a use. There are only twenty-two bridges on the Heritage at Risk register but since 2021 fifteen have been added! This article will highlight a number of those that are atrisk and perhaps some glimmers of hope for the future.
One of the main threats associated with bridges is damage caused by flooding. The 2017 floods in the North-West caused significant damage to bridges across the region, resulting in the B2 listed Glenrandal Bridge collapsing entirely. A Grade A listed “Dredge Bridge” of which there are only a handful in Ireland was also washed away. Bridges that are in a poor condition are more susceptible to decline and collapse. If flooding is indeed a known but unpredictable threat, attempts should be made to monitor their condition, find weak points and think of solutions to mitigate damage. We should also be looking at examples from across the UK and Ireland
where these events have occurred and learn from them. The collapse of an historic bridge in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire split the village in two for over a year in 2015. After a year the bridge had been completely repaired, widened and was still visually impressive despite the modern improvements. This was a costly project and it is important to note that it is still plagued by closures due to the height of water during high rainfall events.
One such stretch of at-risk bridges goes from Omagh to Strabane. There are four former railway bridges here forming a significant landscape feature but also telling the story of the importance of the railway to the area. The bridges were built in different stages and all show the different engineering challenges that were present with the topography and needs of the railway. Blackrock Bridge, for example, is an early twentieth century steel bridge which replaced an earlier wooden bridge. It has a latticed steel trough and is supported by a central lozenge-shaped pier. Upstream is the Broadford Bridge, a double-span bridge with central stone pier and an iron plate girder carriageway. A potential use for these structures comes in the form of a Greenway from Omagh to Strabane. Other such greenways which have utilised railway lines have been successful across the border, for example, the Old Rail Trail from Athlone to Mullingar or the Waterford Greenway which includes some 11 bridges, three viaducts and
Castledawson Railway Bridge, a three-span bridge over the Moyola River which Seamus Heaney would admire.
near Newtownbutler,
a 400metre tunnel. The section from Victoria Bridge to Sion Mills could conserve two of the structures and increase tourism potential in the area.
Some bridges, despite their uniqueness, can struggle to find new uses. Along the Sixmilewater there is a beautiful riverside walk which stretches from the shores of Lough Neagh to Muckamore. At Muckamore there are the remains of an industrial rarity, and in reality, a folly. Overgrown and missing its carriageway, this iron bridge of 1822 is perhaps the third oldest of its type in Ireland. Cast in Glasgow by the firm of H & R Baird, it was constructed by William Chaine of Ballycraigy House as an estate feature. The bridge is connected to a medium-sized island on the Sixmilewater but does not cross the river in its entirety! Restoration of this structure would be low down on anyone’s priority list as the potential social benefits are limited but it could provide access to a quiet green space or be used by anglers.
To date, no bridge has been removed from the Heritage at Risk register. However, there is good news in the pipeline for one such structure. In the grounds of the Woodland Trust’s Mourne Park stands a humpbacked arched bridge with pedestrian refuges. A bridge was in existence in the 18th century and is shown on the Taylor and Skinner road map of the area in 1777. The picturesque surroundings are enhanced by the red squirrels who may be the most frequent users of the
bridge at present. However, continued vegetation growth in the form of large tree saplings are undoubtedly causing issues. In February it was announced that the Woodland Trust would receive £2.5million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to enhance the natural heritage of the woodland, expand public access and strengthen community engagement. This includes restoring the bridge and will ensure that the bridge continues to be a key feature of the woodland. Welcome news.
As in all cases, early intervention and regular maintenance is the best way to ensure that historic fabric is retained. Maintenance can be extremely tricky and specialist but in the current economic climate is good value for money compared to a full rebuild and the spin offs associated with closures. It is pleasing to hear that one of the four key projects for the Dromore Place Plan included a desire to restore the Dromore Viaduct and perhaps make this a useable space. This structure isn’t on the at-risk register but has been rather cut off from the town and not reaching its full potential. You only have to look at the fantastic community take-over of the Randalstown Viaduct and the potential this brings to not only appreciate the structure but bring people together also. Bridges are therefore not just practical heritage assets but have uses that allow other benefits to thrive.
Sebastian Graham Heritage Projects Officer, Ulster Architectural Heritage
The pedestrian footbridge at Muckamore, 1822.
Mourne Park Bridge, good news in the pipeline for this structure.
All of This Unreal Time
by Max Porter Foreword Cillian Murphy
For this month’s art column I have chosen a book. Max Porter’s All of This Unreal Time, a small, size-of-your-palm, unassuming book that I found in No Alibis Bookstore on Botanic Avenue. “It’s been signed by Max,” says David, the owner. There is a black hieroglyphic mark on the inside page. I decide to buy the book. The signature is a good attempt at an upsell, but my decision to buy is based on a previous book of Porter’s, Grief is a Thing With Feathers, a remarkable meditation on grief — a book I have returned to four times to date, and no doubt will again. I take my new purchase with me to Botanic Park. The winter sun, a razor sharpness to the light, it feels like the trees could literally be split. I find a bench. Immediately after which I am joined by a stranger who adopts the lotus position. He meditates. I read. I am, for the short time it takes to read this book, lost — lost and found. I am lost in Porter’s world where guilt, responsibility, and the weight of personal and collective failings collide. I am found, because I recognise this world. I am familiar with its troubles.
Originally conceived as a performance piece for the 2021 Manchester International Festival, the poem has been reimagined. Here, Porter presents a delicate meditation on the complexities of human existence, couched in the quiet, fragmented confessions of an unnamed protagonist. The protagonist is a man who drifts through the pages, caught in the throes of his own remorse. His monologue is not one of clarity or finality but a winding, disjointed reflection on the guilt he carries — a guilt that is both intensely personal and inextricably linked to the broader cultural and environmental crises that shape our world. Porter’s language, sparse yet deeply emotive, mirrors the protagonist’s fractured state of mind. His confessions do not follow a linear path but instead transverse time, touching on moments of individual failure as well as the systemic injustices that plague society.
What makes this poem particularly striking is how Porter weaves these personal and societal threads together. The protagonist speaks not just of his own regrets — his sins of omission, his personal contradictions — but of the larger, often invisible ways in which we all contribute to harm. There is a starkness to the language, a rawness that renders the protagonist’s internal landscape both universal and intimate. The confession of small, private failings — lost time, wasted opportunities, forgotten promises — gives way to larger admissions: the pollution of the environment, the complicity of toxic masculinity, the failure to confront privilege and power. In this sense, All of This Unreal Time becomes not just a meditation on one man’s psyche but a poignant reflection on the broader failings of modern life.
The form of the poem itself — fragmented, elliptical, occasionally disorienting — perfectly reflects the emotional turbulence of the man. Porter’s verse does not follow the neat progression of a traditional narrative but instead mirrors the fractured quality of memory, the intrusion of fleeting thoughts, and the unstructured way in which we confront our own complicity. These confessions spill out in fits and starts, each one carrying its own weight but never quite resolving. The poem refuses easy closure or redemption, which in itself is one of its most powerful gestures. In a world so often obsessed with resolution, All of This Unreal Time stands as an unwavering refusal to offer the comfort of answers. Moments of beauty remind us of what has been lost in the rush of modern life. There is a deep sense of mourning in these fleeting moments, as if Porter is suggesting that beauty is still present but so often overshadowed by the weight of our own collective failures.
All of This Unreal Time does not ask for forgiveness; it does not offer answers. What it offers is an unflinching look at the emotional complexity of guilt and atonement, framed within a world that is as unforgiving as the protagonist’s confessions. It is a work that sits with the reader, unsettles them, and ultimately lingers in the mind long after the last line is read. And it is in this lingering that Porter’s work finds its true power — an invitation to reflect on our own lives and the often uncomfortable truths we are reluctant to face. The bench-stranger unravels himself from his meditation. I from mine. I am under no doubt that I have been confronted by a most beautiful piece of work.
At the time of writing copies (perhaps signed!) of All of This Unreal Time were still available at No Alibis Bookstore.
David Capener
All of This Unreal Time by Max
Porter Foreword
Cillian Murphy
Publication date 25 Oct. 2024
Paperback / softback 110 pages
Publisher: Rough Trade Books
ISBN: 9781914236471
WHY GRANT’S PROFESSIONAL HOME HEATING DESIGN SERVICE IS INVALUABLE FOR ARCHITECTS
Leading heating technology manufacturer, Grant, has been offering a free of charge professional heating design and specification service to architects throughout Northern Ireland for several years. Carried out by Grant’s in-house technical specialists, the service has helped architects save considerable time in the design process and provide reassurance that the new build heating systems specified have been professionally designed and specified using the best suited, Grant heating technologies to achieve maximum efficiency and all required compliance under required building regulations.
Here’s all that you need to know:
Q. Where do I start with having a property’s heating system designed?
A. As soon as planning drawings have been approved by your client, send these, your contact information and the preferred choice of heat emitters (underfloor heating and/or aluminium radiators) for the property to Grant at the following email address – heatpump@ grantni.com
Q. Is the process free of charge?
A. On receipt of planning drawings, Grant’s technical specialists will carry out the full heating design process, which includes indepth room by room heat loss calculations, to ensure the property benefits from the most efficient and reliable heating system – and
Grant heating design service.
yes, the design process is completely free of charge.
Q. What happens once the heat loss for each room has been calculated?
A. Once the heat loss calculations are complete, Grant will develop a fully integrated heating package solution by sizing and specifying the best suited Grant heating technologies for the new build property to ensure compliance with Part F of building energy standards. These technologies are selected from Grant’s diverse product range which have been designed to work together.
Q. What’s included in a Grant integrated heating package?
A. Each Grant heating package is designed bespoke to the property and technologies featured include the Grant Aerona R290 air to water air source heat pump as the main heat source, complemented by a hot water storage system like the Grant Integrated Unit.
Finally, the Grant technical team will size and specify the most effective heat emitters, whether this is the Grant Uflex underfloor heating system and/or Grant Afinia aluminum radiators. For further efficiency, smart controls can also be included.
Q. Why avail of Grant’s professional heating design service?
A. Grant’s heating design service takes the hassle out of designing a heating solution for architects working on new build home projects. Additionally, each Grant integrated heating package is professionally designed by the technical specialists at Grant, meaning you can feel assured that the heating system will help to future-proof the new build property and bring comfort for years to come.
Visit www.grantni.com for more information on Grant’s range of innovative heating solutions, as well as its Integrated Heating Packages offering.
Follow Grant on @myGrantNI or @mygrantni @GrantEngineeringIE
Introducing the Generon Smart Roof. While everybody likes the idea of solar power, very few like the look of solar panels. But now there’s a much more attractive option – Generon roof tiles. Created by leading tile makers Breedon and Terran, Generon is truly unique.
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Breedon Roof Tiles. Powered by Generon.
www.breedon-generon.com productsales@breedongroup.com +44 28 9264 7100
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‘Smart Roof’ by Generon
Perspective
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Banbridge Town Centre
The civic spaces, streets and public realm areas of Banbridge have recently undergone major regeneration, completed in time for Christmas 2024, entailing a £6M investment to aesthetically enhance the built and natural environment of the core of the town. In simple terms, this has resulted in a more walkable and easily navigable town centre, whilst improving its quality, value and condition, but the process of getting to this stage took nearly a decade.
The genesis was the Banbridge Town Centre Master Plan, published in 2016, that set out a vision and associated action plan for Banbridge town centre for the next 15 years. It provided a framework for the promotion, implementation and timing of urban regeneration initiatives in the town centre and how to make sure it retained and enhanced its retail, commercial, hospitality and services core. The authors of this report and the eventual landscape architects (RPS, appointed in 2019) undertook extensive baseline research and consultations to come up with a scheme
THE TEAM
Client Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council
Landscape Architect, Civil and Structural Engineer, Principal Designer, Planning and Project Managers RPS
that would be workable and achieve results to complement the town’s rich heritage, creating a viable and vibrant centre relevant to 21st century considerations.
This heritage stretched back to 1712 when the town developed out around a bridge, over the River Bann, which signalled the start of the development of an extensive linen industry and bleaching yards. The subsequent town’s built heritage is one of its great strengths, with several listed buildings set out along the long (600m) street that characterises central Banbridge. The topography of the subsequent town centre, particularly Newry Street and Bridge Street, is unusual as it rises to a steep hill before levelling out. This has directed the road alignment on the southern and northern approaches to the Downshire Bridge, which is split to provide vehicular access to Rathfriland Street and Scarva Street at higher elevation than the main through route, and due to constraints
Electrical Contractor Braham Group
Main Contractor Fox Contracts
Photography
Jonathan Bradley (RPS)
both vehicular and pedestrian routes are somewhat restricted. In 1834, this underpass was built as horses with heavy loads would apparently faint before reaching the top of the hill and, to be fair, Bridge Street has quite an incline. While officially named ‘Downshire Bridge’, it is also called “Jinglers Bridge” and is set in a 200m long cutting (known as “The Cut”) and forms a main focal point and landmark.
The works were centred along the axis of Newry Street/ Bridge Street and Church Square with local independent retail and hospitality offerings on both sides of the streets. The ground floor properties bounding the streets are predominantly retail and/or commercial, with some community and cultural uses located intermittently. Beyond this, the traditional townscape comprises 2 and 3-storey buildings which vary in respect of architecture and age but give the general centre of town a historic and timeless feel.
The resulting works comprised the following:
• Resurfacing of existing footpaths and spaces in stone paving;
• New and replacement tree planting including replacement of specimen trees on Newry Street/Bridge Street and new pleached trees at new open space off Downshire Place. Tree pits are bound in porous resin bonded paving;
• New/replacement street and feature lighting;
• New/replacement railings and walls including new steel railings on the Downshire Bridge and adjacent to the abutments;
• New/replacement street furniture;
• New roadside kerbs;
• Minor amendments to on-street parking; and
• Improvements to pedestrian crossings.
• New lighting on the Old Town Hall façade.
• New lighting on the underside of the Cut/Downshire Bridge arch.
Simple amendments can sometimes completely change how a townscape works and perhaps the most subtle yet positive alteration was the changing of priority from traffic to pedestrian and cyclists over the Downshire Bridge (as per recent DFI legalisation and this being one of the first schemes
to evidence this). This allowed widening of footpaths and reduction in car parking provision with consequent benefit to those who use the footpaths. Furthermore, it requires traffic on the bridge slip roads to give way immediately for pedestrians crossing at junctions, making this safer and more accessible.
Another development was the repurposing of the area beneath Downshire Bridge. While the underpass remains a busy town centre road, the scheme provided new strip lighting in the arch and power supplies along its (covered) route that means it can be closed for temporary periods and used – as it has been successfully – for Christmas twilight markets.
The scheme has resulted in a new area of public open space being created off Downshire Link with covered hubs, outdoor
seating, pleached trees and paving reflecting the line of the old railway. This area was previously overgrown and seen as an anti-social place and this has served to open it up and contribute to the setting of the town centre.
In summary, the client and design team have delivered a very successful scheme as evidenced by the anecdotal evidence and community feedback suggesting increased footfall and economic activity in the town centre. The project provides a clearly strong base for Banbridge’s evolution and regeneration, giving the townscape an aesthetic boost that will hopefully mean it can thrive in the future.
Andrew Bunbury
ECO-BUILDING
In Focus
Eco-building efficiently uses resources such as water and power, protects the health and wellbeing of building occupants, and reduces the impact of buildings on the environment and the amount of waste and pollution that they create.
Energy efficiency simply means using less energy to perform the same task – that is, eliminating energy waste. Energy efficiency brings a variety of benefits: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing demand for energy imports, and lowering our costs on a household and economy-wide level. While renewable energy technologies also help accomplish these objectives, improving energy efficiency is the cheapest – and often the most immediate – way to reduce the use of fossil fuels. There are enormous opportunities for efficiency improvements in every sector of the economy, whether it is buildings, transportation, industry or energy generation.
REVOLUTIONISING CONSTRUCTION
KORE’s Insulated Foundation System Now BBA Certified Across Northern Ireland & the UK
The KORE Insulated Foundation System received British Board of Agrément (BBA) Certification in 2024, underscoring the high quality, durability, and performance of our innovative foundation system and expansion across Northern Ireland and the U.K. The KORE Insulated Foundation System is designed to meet the needs of low-rise residential construction projects. It offers superior thermal performance, energy efficiency, and compliance with building regulations across multiple regions. The system is certified for use with traditional masonry, timber frame, metal frame constructions, and insulating concrete forms (ICF) for a wide range of buildings, from single-family homes to multi-unit developments.
The Key Benefits:
• Energy Efficiency: The system contributes to near-zero energy building standards with outstanding thermal insulation properties, offering declared thermal conductivity values as low as 0.033W/mK for key components.
• Sustainability: With a lifespan meeting the lifetime of the building, and components that are recyclable, the
system supports sustainable construction practices.
• Regulatory Compliance: The system meets stringent building regulations in Northern Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland, including resistance to moisture, structural stability, and energy conservation.
In addition, KORE’s Insulated Foundation System offers the user many benefits, including maximising efficiencies on-site by reducing labour, concrete and waste, while also offering a reduced embodied carbon
when compared to a typical strip or raft foundation.
For more information about the KORE Insulated Foundation System or to inquire about purchasing, please contact our team at info@koresystem.com or visit our website at www.kore-system.com.
Case Study: Julian Benson Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Project
The Julian Benson Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Dermot Bannon Architects transformed a 162-yearold Victorian house in Rathgar into Tranquility House, a home away from home for cystic fibrosis patients and their families. Ecological Building Systems and supply partners provided technical support and natural vapour open paints and cork lime thermal plaster to enhance comfort while preserving architectural features.
Established in 2018, the Foundation embarked on this ambitious project to offer accommodation for families traveling to Dublin for treatment. The renovation required a sensitive restoration approach to maintain the building’s heritage while ensuring it met modern comfort, health and energy efficiency standards. In early 2024, Michael Hanratty of IHER Energy Consultants invited us to contribute. Our team, alongside Diasen, Auro, and Pro Clima, provided expertise and materials to support the project. Technical Specification Advisor Stephen McGrath guided the process, ensuring effective material application and coordination with trained installers.
Overcoming Challenges
The project faced tight timelines and complex coordination. Expert installers Dave Broderick of DB Plaster and Alan Dillon of Alan Dillon Plastering generously contributed their expertise, applying Diasen Diathonite Evolution thermal plaster-donated by Diasenusing a spray machine for an efficient installation. This expedited the workflow, allowing other trades to proceed without delays.
Retaining the original ornate cornices required careful application. Diathonite’s versatility enabled seamless blending, preserving the building’s heritage while enhancing thermal performance.
Ecological Building Systems supplied:
• 150m² of 50mm-thick Diasen Diathonite Evolution insulating plaster, finished with Diasen Argatherm skim coat.
• Auro natural paints for all walls, ceilings and timberwork.
• Pro Clima Contega Solido SL plasterable window tape to enhance airtightness by sealing the refurbished sash windows back to the brick wall.
Benefits of Diathonite:
• Significant thermal improvement – A 3.5x enhancement in thermal performance, without compromising internal features like cornices and coving.
• Moisture open materials – Unlike conventional materials, Diathonite ensures a moisture balance for the wall, maintaining a healthy indoor environment.
• Elasticity & durability – With up to 10x the flexibility of traditional plasters, Diathonite resists cracking and provides a robust, long-lasting solution.
• Fire resistance – Rated A1 (non-combustible) for enhanced safety.
• High mould resistance – As Diasen is lime based with a high alkalinity it has a natural resistance to mould growth, another important factor in ensuring healthy space.
• Cures twice as fast as conventional lime plaster, allowing for a quicker turnaround.
Auro paints complemented Diathonite by preserving a moisture combination. Their low vapour diffusion resistance (Sd 0.1m) prevents trapped moisture and mould. Exterior lime mineral paint Auro Ecolith, enriched with graphene, offers exceptional flexibility, durability, and vapour diffusion (pH 12).
A Lasting Impact
Completed in early 2025, Tranquility House provides families with a comfortable, supportive environment during treatment. The sustainable materials supplied enhance energy efficiency, moisture management, and durability while maintaining the home’s historic character, in line with the government’s latest guidance.
Architect Dermot Bannon acknowledged Diathonite and Auro’s compatibility with the traditional structure. Louise Doogan, CEO of the Foundation, called the project “a lasting legacy for the CF community, offering hope and comfort for years to come.” Ecological Building Systems is proud to have contributed to this meaningful initiative. We extend our gratitude to Diasen, Auro, Pro Clima, and expert installers for their invaluable support.
Leading the field in sustainable insulation
Gramitherm is a groundbreaking, flexible insulation that’s the first of its kind in Ireland and the UK. This unique product delivers outstanding thermal and acoustic performance, while prioritising environmental sustainability.
Made from grass cuttings collected from public areas, combined with recycled jute fibres
Environmental Product Declaration, European Technical Approval, and Nature Plus certified
High thermal mass and low thermal conductivity enhance comfort in winter and summer
Natural hygroscopic properties help regulate humidity and enhances breathability
SMET ANNOUNCES ITS RECERTIFICATION TO BES 6001
Construction companies are recognising a need to prove their buildings are built with sustainability in mind, and one element of this is in the responsible sourcing of products used in construction. To this end, SMET was recently recertified to BES 6001 by BSI, with a rating of Good. BES 6001 outlines a comprehensive framework covering organisational governance, supply chain management and environmental and social considerations; all vital components in ensuring responsible sourcing in construction. This latest certification joins SMET’s distinguished portfolio of management system achievements, further solidifying its commitment to sustainable and ethical practices.
KEY OBJECTIVES OF BES 6001:
• Promoting responsible product sourcing
• Providing comprehensive guidelines for sustainability considerations
• Offering assurance of responsible sourcing of construction materials and products
BENEFITS:
• Demonstrating SMET’s commitment to responsible sourcing
• Empowering informed supplier selection
• Enhancing overall social and environmental performance
Quadruple-BSI-certified SMET continues to champion sustainability and ethical responsibility in the industry, making
it a trusted partner for conscientious construction.
A new partnership with Inland Waterways Association of Ireland (IWAI) underscores SMET’s commitment to supporting sustainable development, community engagement and preserving Ireland’s rich inland waterways heritage. As a company rooted in quality and innovation, SMET recognises the importance of supporting Ireland’s natural and infrastructural resources. By aligning with IWAI, SMET is proudly contributing to the association’s mission to advocate for the conservation, restoration and responsible use of Ireland’s waterways.
Through its new Corporate Membership,
SMET is also aiming to encourage other businesses to join and donate to IWAI. Supporting IWAI not only strengthens the protection of Ireland’s waterways but also demonstrates a commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility.
SMET sees this collaboration as an opportunity to strengthen connections within the community, promote environmental sustainability and set an example of how businesses can take initiative in safeguarding the environment.
To learn more about the IWAI and how your company can become a corporate member, visit https://www.iwai.ie/corporatemembership/
In addition to the membership, SMET proudly sponsored the purchase of a range of litter-picking equipment for the Newry Branch of IWAI. This sponsorship ensures dedicated volunteers have enough tools to effectively clean and maintain local waterways, contributing to the preservation of Ireland’s natural beauty. SMET’s portfolio includes innovative self-levelling floor screeds, renders, plasters, professional tiling systems and natural hydraulic lime binders and products.
Contact SMET for further information: T: +44 (0)28 3026 6833 E: info@smetbuildingproducts.com www.smetbuildingproducts.com
UNDERSTANDING INTERNAL WALL INSULATION
Internal wall insulation (IWI) can provide a practical solution for reducing heat loss from solid walled properties where external wall insulation (EWI) solutions are not possible due to planning requirements or other restrictions. When specifying these approaches, it is important to ensure the solution is carefully tailored to the property to avoid potential unintended consequences.
Moisture Control
The installation of IWI fundamentally impacts how moisture enters and leaves constructions. It is therefore key to understand the moisture properties of the building. Many solid walled properties feature permeable wall constructions which allow moisture to pass slowly through. However, not all solid walls are permeable, and some may have been altered to become much less so. These factors need to be considered to avoid the risk of interstitial condensation and damp forming.
Open or Closed
Two approaches can be adopted to upgrade the thermal performance of a wall using IWI:
• ‘vapour open’ – using permeable materials that can buffer moisture (although this buffering capacity is limited beyond a certain point); and
• ‘vapour closed’ – using moisture closed materials, such as phenolic insulated plasterboard. The outer construction should be made suitably resistant to the relevant level of driving rain and a continuous vapour control layer (VCL) fitted on the warm side of the insulation.
This helps to limit any interstitial condensation which may form to a safe level.
In either case, an appropriate condensation risk assessment is needed in accordance with BS 5250. In addition, steps should be taken during the pre-planning stage to ensure adequate ventilation is provided (ventilation levels pre-improvement works may already be inadequate) and that any issues or defects are identified and addressed. The system to be installed also needs appropriate detailing at junctions to avoid issues of condensation and mould growth.
The most appropriate solution for a particular project will depend on building specific factors including location, construction, condition, ventilation, moisture load and level of heating. For this reason, the pre-planning
works need to include a proper assessment of the full building to PAS 2035:2023 for domestic work or PAS 2038:2021 for commercial.
These specifications set out a clear process for assessing properties and developing tailored improvement plans. In all cases, this includes a full survey of the building characteristics and any defects. Where an IWI system is being considered, additional assessments must be carried out to consider moisture risk and ventilation.
Installers looking to carry out work under PAS 2035 or PAS 2038 will need to be accredited under PAS 2030. This sets out their responsibilities during IWI installations, including ensuring the insulation is correctly installed (with particular attention to junction details) and that post-completion ventilation rates are no worse than prior to the works.
A Tailored Solution
IWI can be installed on most construction types provided the risks have been well understood and mitigated. By adopting a whole building approach from the preplanning stage, it should be possible to ensure successful improvements which notably reduce energy demand.
For further information and technical support, please contact: Tel: +353 (0) 42 979 5000 email: technical@kingspaninsulation.ie Website: www.kingspaninsulation.ie
FUTURE PROOFING BUILDINGS THROUGH T THICK
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In these challenging times, the drive to achieve a net zero carbon built environment is an ever-increasing focus in the construction industry. Kingspan Kooltherm® K8 Plus Cavity Board partial fill cavity wall insulation can achieve the same U-value as other products but with a much thinner profile.
With its engineered jointing to resist water ingress, Kingspan Kooltherm® K8 Plus can be used with just a 20 mm clear cavity, achieving U-values as low as 0.14 W/m2K in a standard 150 mm cavity.
Visit our website to find out more about Kooltherm® K8 Plus and to use the U-value calculator to work out the thickness of insulation needed for your project.
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Kingspan Kooltherm® K8 Plus Cavity Board
U-value: 0.14 W/m2K
Thickness of insulation: 130 mm (assuming a 20 mm cavity, 100 mm blockwork inner and outer leaf (1.13 W/mK) and 6.6% thermal bridging for the effect of mortar joints.
Classical Architecture –Language, Variety and Adaptability
James Stevens Curl
Having recently visited the robustly dramatic 18th-century pile of Seaton Delavel near Newcastle designed by Vanburgh, I wanted to refresh my memory on the architect and on the development of Classical architecture in England – no better resource to turn to than JS Curl’s Classical Architecture which has been published in a new paperback edition by John Hudson Publishing. (I did indeed find useful contextual information and photographs of other Vanburgh designs – Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, where he worked with the equally remarkable architect Hawksmoor.) This is a richly informative resource on Classical architecture, taking the reader on a journey from thought-provoking introductory section and definitions of terms to describing the Orders and their applications; Greek and Roman architecture; the Renaissance period; later variations –Baroque, Rococo, Palladian Revival – and on to Neo-Classicism, culminating in discussing aspects of continuing Classicism, Post-Modernism and New Classicism.
Curl states that Classical architecture ‘implies a degree of clarity within precise boundaries, and perhaps a static quality, yet with a profound sense of order and of a continuity from Antiquity, and with a serenity, a balance, and a logic that expresses developed intellect’. Baroque, he describes as ‘expansive and full of contrast ... appearing to defy reason and even logic; but in reality very much under control’ while Rococo is ‘light, frothy, elegant’, using the language of the Orders. As the subtitle of the book indicates, the author seeks to demonstrate how various and adaptable the style has been over the centuries.
He does this whilst accompanying his text with an astonishingly generous and wide-ranging sweep of photographic examples, some familiar, some rather less so, including the image of the highly distinctive Befreiungshalle in Bavaria which graces the cover – it is a cylindrical monument with 18 great buttresses capped by statues of female figures representing the German states and a Doric colonnade of 54 columns. Perspective readers will find it gratifying to see a host of Irish examples, from north and south, peppered throughout the book, from the Four Courts, the Custom House and the Marino Casino in Dublin to St George’s Church and the Custom House in Belfast
and Florencecourt, Co. Fermanagh, Castle Ward, Co. Down and Mussenden Temple at Downhill, Co. Londonderry to name but a few.
As a renowned expert in this field, it comes as no surprise that Curl has included an excellent glossary, replete with his own careful drawings, which draws on the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture which he co-authored with Susan Wilson.
Curl has strong views, which ensures that the text is scholarly yet never dull; he is emphatic in his critique of the jettisoning of Classical architecture by the Modern Movement and in his views on the failings of the latter. He points to the creation of the Institute of Classical Art & Architecture and the work of Henry Hope Reed in the US and those convinced that Classicism ‘embraced an architectural language capable of modern use’. Throughout the volume, Curl emphasises that Classical architecture played ‘a hugely important historical role in the creation of humane and civilised surroundings’ and he champions the view that it is not dead.
Curl’s compendium on Classicism is a lively and valuable presentation and examination of an enormous subject, enabling us to look more closely at and understand better the ‘complexities, subtleties and qualities’ of this ancient yet enduring architectural language.
Dr Paul Harron
Classical Architecture –Language, Variety and Adaptability
James Stevens Curl
ISBN 978-1-7398229-5-8
Paperback 312pp
John Hudson Publishing, 2025
The Malone Mausoleum, Kilbixy, Co. Westmeath
The Follies Trust
The Follies Trust (TFT) is an admirable and brilliantly effective group of built-and-cultural-heritage enthusiasts who campaign for – and actually conserve – Irish follies, those quirky, curious, enjoyable structures which bring delight in diverse and intriguing ways across the land. Since establishment in 2006, not only have these volunteers raised funds to work on over thirty follies but they have encouraged the maintenance of traditional building skills as well as increased awareness of the history and construction of ‘joyful buildings which aim to please’ through the publication of attractive illustrated volumes to accompany the restorations. In 2022, TFT produced Fifteen Years of The Follies Trust and in 2024, the latest restoration venture was chronicled in The Malone Mausoleum – a bold and significant Greek Revival 18th-century structure attributed to the designs of James Wyatt, set in an ancient and historically significant landscape.
In her foreword to the book, Primrose Wilson, chairman of TFT, speaks of Kilbixy as ‘a magical place’, ‘surrounded and embraced by layers of history’. The weighty mausoleum sits next to the pretty Gothick parish church and within a place of special importance since medieval times. Alas, water ingress threatened to destroy the mausoleum; however, after explorations and fundraising, in 2023 the Trust undertook work to halt this decline. As she says, ‘it is important that examples of historic Irish craftsmanship such as this with their superb ashlar stonework are there to see and study and are not just distant memories in a photograph album’.
In her foreword to the book, Primrose Wilson, chairman of TFT, speaks of Kilbixy as ‘a magical place’, ‘surrounded and embraced by layers of history’.
The editor of the volume, art historian and curator William Laffan, contributes a chapter on James Wyatt at Kilbixy; State archaeologist Caimin O’Brien provides an essay on Kilbixy before the Malone Family; archaeologist Finbar McCormick describes the crypt of the mausoleum; historian Ruth Illingworth charts the story of the Malone Family – ‘among the most illustrious families in Westmeath for more than eight hundred years’; Richard McLoughlin provides a restoration project description by the conservation architect and, to conclude the book, stonemason Eoin Madigan gives his perspective on pyramids and Pythagoras.
As with all these TFT books, this one is colourful and attractively designed and is bursting with photos and archival illustrations. As Laffan remarks, the Malone Mausoleum – sometimes also referred to as the Sunderlin mausoleum – enjoys a formal perfection and ‘an air of sanctity’. Hats off to everyone involved in its saving and in the production of this book, the ninth in the TFT series – which now form an eye-catching as well as informative set of books which will look good as well as prove useful for reference on any architect’s bookshelves.
Dr Paul Harron
The Malone Mausoleum, Kilbixy, Co. Westmeath
The Follies Trust
ISBN 978-0-9566907-8-4
Paperback 64pp
The Follies Trust, 2024 www.follies-trust.org
The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found
Robert O’Byrne
Robert O’Byrne also styles himself ‘The Irish Aesthete’ in his blog and social media channels which, since 2012, have provided a wealth of insights and images relating to his passion for Ireland’s architectural heritage. A well-known writer, lecturer, RTE broadcaster and a former vice-president of the Irish Georgian Society, he began his visual and written chronicling as he felt that our island’s built heritage was – and still is – ‘insufficiently celebrated and cherished’. He sees himself as a writer who takes pictures (on his mobile phone) rather than a photographer who writes and he has given a set of all his digital images to the wonderful institution that is the Irish Architectural Archive on Dublin’s Merrion Square where many have been exhibited –everyone should visit the IAA for its intriguing exhibitions and to consult its excellent reference collections; it is, as O’Byrne says, ‘a repository of wisdom and information’.
And recently, O’Byrne has, with the help of Lilliput Press, produced a really handsome and fascinating hardback volume of 150 ‘lost and found’ Irish buildings which will appeal to all with an interest in architecture, history, photography - and more - from all four of Ireland’s provinces. It is a beautiful book, full of curiosities and discoveries.
The book is subdivided into six sections. First port of call is country houses, large and small. There are superb glimpses of those buildings which are so often down long private country lanes, frustratingly but wisely well hidden from the main roads. The photos are gorgeously atmospheric, such as the wintry shot of Ardbraccan, County Meath, a ‘cool neoclassical’ Georgian mansion of the 1770s to the amalgamated designs of James Wyatt, Thomas Cooley and Daniel Beaufort, which was once the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Meath (the third most senior of the Church of Ireland bishops). Today, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare resides in a rather modest chalet bungalow but Ardbraccan, now in private ownership, looks dreamily elegant
Ardbraccan, County Meath, January 2021.
Staircase Hall, Ballywalter Park, County Down, August 2019.
surrounded by snowy lawns and ancient trees. Closer to home, the much altered, picturesque Montalto, Co. Down, features, reflected in its big lake; as does the Elizabethan Revival Parkanaur, Co. Tyrone; Castle Ward, Co. Down; and that great Victorian Gothic fantastical confection (possibly by WJ Barre) of Bessmount, Co. Monaghan.
Ancient monuments follow, ghostly and poignant. Among them are the ruins of Grey Abbey, Co. Down, as well as several old friaries and the diminutive yet exquisite ancient Clonfert Cathedral, Co. Galway with its very fine 12th-century Hiberno Romanesque west door.
Interiors are featured next, including the extraordinary first-floor gallery at Crom Castle, Co. Fermanagh; the staircase at Ballywalter Park, Co. Down; the entrance hall at Castle Coole, Co. Fermanagh; the gallery at Clandeboye, Co. Down; the very idiosyncratic staircase at Lissan House, Co. Tyrone; the Gothic drawing room at Grey Abbey House, Co. Down; the inner hall at Mount Stewart, Co. Down and the entrance hall at Prehen, Co. Londonderry. These are fantastic images of houses sometimes open to the public but often not. There are pristine interiors and ones which are now in a somewhat sad state of decay, such as the former See House at Kilmore, Co. Cavan, with ‘a vast imperial staircase’.
The decay features more ominously in the fourth section of the book given over to ‘imperilled’ buildings. Here the book becomes a crie-de-coeur for architectural treasures/buildings at risk, languishingly depressingly.
Less heartbreaking is the fifth chapter given over to details – sculptural details of all vintages and various media –stone, plaster, wood, tiles and glass, including some very old Netherlandish stained glass which has made its way into churches such as All Saints, Ballinakill, Co. Laois.
Chapter six features a selection of ruins – echoes of former human habitation where the ivy and vegetation has now taken over; some have great stories, like the 18th-century hunting lodge, home of the short-lived Hell Fire Club on the southern outskirts of Dublin. The ruined shell of Drum Manor, Co. Tyrone is included, which I remember fondly from childhood and where imaginations can still run wild for today’s generation of children playing whilst visiting its beautiful demesne. John Nash’s Kilwaughter Castle, Co. Antrim also makes a brooding appearance close to the end.
This is a rich, diverse, eye-opening and exciting treasury of buildings and architectural details; highly recommended.
Dr Paul Harron
The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found
Robert O’Byrne
ISBN 978-1-84351-886-0
Hardback
The Lilliput Press, 2024 312pp
Entrance hall, Castle Coole, County Fermanagh, October 2019.
Drum Manor, County Tyrone, August 2021.
Canalside, Woking
Architects: White Ink Architects
Stage 02 Design: BDP
Photography: Simon Kennedy
