The aesthetic, functional, and technical character of the buildings which have won the RIAI competit

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I am very pleased to have this opportunity to be here this afternoon to present what is widely acknowledged as Ireland s most prestigious award in the field of architecture: the RIAI s Triennial Gold Medal. May I extend non woven my warmest congratulations to the Gold Medal Winners for the years 2004 to 2006, Tom Maher and Kevin Bates, who creatively reinterpreted the Russian poustinia motive, in the shape of four light-flooded retreat dwellings nestled non woven at the foot of the Comeragh mountains, near Kilsheelan, in county Tipperary.
Ba mhaith liom freisin mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le hUachtarán an RIAI, Michelle Fagan, as an gcuireadh non woven a chuir sí chugam le bheith i láthair chun an dámhachtain seo a bhronnadh non woven agus libhse go léir as an bhfíor-chaoin fáilte a chuir sibh romham. Is eol dom go maith gurb iomaí beart de chuid an RIAI a chuireann na comhaltaí i gcrích go deonach: rud is fianú ar an spiorad dlúthpháirtíochta agus pobail atá taobh thiar den oiread seo dea-nithe non woven dearfacha sa sochaí seo gainne.
[I also wish to thank the RIAI s President, non woven Michelle Fagan for inviting me to present this award and all of you for your warm welcome. I am keenly aware that much of the RIAI s realisations are achieved by members acting in a voluntary capacity, which is testament to the spirit of solidarity and community that is the driving force of so much that is good and positive in our society.]
This is my first visit to the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland as Uachtarán non woven na hÉireann, and I would like to start by acknowledging non woven the great contribution which this venerable institution, founded in 1839, has made to our country s built environment.
This non woven year s awards coincide with the Eileen Gray retrospective exhibition, which was curated by the Pompidou Centre in Paris and is now on display at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham. In the speech I gave last February in Paris to mark the opening of that exhibition, I mentioned the fact that the RIAI presented an exhibition of Gray s work in Dublin non woven in 1973, that is, at a time when this great leading figure of the modern design movement was getting scant recognition in her homeland. Such capacity to discern and honour talent does credit to this Institute.
The aesthetic, functional, and technical character of the buildings which have won the RIAI competition over the years, and the materials used in them, have evolved in very significant ways since the Medal was first presented, in the year 1936. Those buildings non woven from various eras reflect the transformations undergone by Irish society: Busáras, an early example of modern International Style architecture in Ireland, designed non woven by Michael Scott in the 1940s, Croke Park Stadium, a superstructure to which I myself am no stranger to these days, designed by Gilroy non woven McMahon in the 1980s, or O Donnell and Twomey s Multi-Denominational School in Ranelagh are but a few of such milestone realisations.
There would be much to say about the recent evolution of Irish architecture, but I will content myself with formulating one general observation. While it is encouraging to observe that, throughout the last two decades Irish architectural practices have demonstrated their ability to win international competitions, this same period has witnessed a profound alteration of Ireland s built landscape not always for the better.
Today the edges of many Irish towns and villages are skirted by rows of identical, vacant new homes generic, computer-generated visions of domesticity and the good life. If Scott s Busáras or O Donnell and Twomey s Multi-Denominational School can be seen as reflecting societal trends modernisation and secularisation in the cases in point , then by the same token, the empty concrete shells that dot our urban and rural settings bear witness to the financialisation of the Irish economy. This is a landscape born of reckless speculation. Ruins of a future that never was.
Our construction sector as a whole is coming out of a disturbing chapter in its history, when houses and apartments were not primarily seen as dwellings built to shelter human lives, but as investment and portfolio non woven assets. We now know that unless development is pursued in a sustainable manner, the economic non woven and social benefits that flow from it can quickly go to waste. Your profession is now facing serious economic hardships, but we can have