Presenting architecture: 20th century drawings and models from the collections of the Irish Architectural Archive.
This exhibition spans one hundred years of architectural representation. Each decade of the 20th century is represented by at least one – and in most cases two or three – drawings. A number of models have also been included.
Some of the buildings represented here are themselves of outstanding importance in the history of Irish architecture. Dublin Airport and the Aspro Factory were both awarded the RIAI Gold Medal for architecture, while the Dublin Corporation Civic Offices at Wood Quay were by far the most controversial architectural development of the century. Other drawings in the exhibition are for buildings that were never actually built. These include the Liffey Bridge Gallery, the two Shannon Town Centre schemes and the proposed office block at Harry Street, Dublin. Some of the architects whose work is displayed – for example R.M. Butler, Michael Scott, or Stephenson & Gibney – are among the most prominent to have practiced in Ireland during the last century. Others – Herbert Symes, perhaps, or Noel Moffatt – are more unsung.
What all these architects shared was a need to convey their architectural ideas, and the most obvious methods for achieving this are architectural drawings and models. All of the drawings and models in this exhibition, whether for grand buildings or prosaic, for built schemes or unrealised, have this common purpose. Most are in fact presentation or client drawings, created to sell an architectural proposal to clients or potential clients, to competition judges, or to the public at large. Accessible to the lay person, they depict the finished appearance of a building in an obvious, straightforward and attractive manner.
