Menu

Menu

Secondary Schools Ideas Competition Winning Entry

Delany MacVeigh and Pike Architects

1974

Black and white photographic prints

IAA 2013/51.1-2

Building for Education

Secondary Schools Ideas Competition Winning Entry

Delany MacVeigh and Pike Architects

1974

Black and white photographic prints

IAA 2013/51.1-2

In November 1973, the Department of Education placed advertisements in national newspapers inviting entries into a single stage ‘Ideas Competition’ for secondary school design. Approved by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), the purpose of the competition was ‘to stimulate new thinking’ in the architecture of schools. Entries were confined to architects resident or born in Ireland who were members of the RIAI or were eligible for RIAI membership. A premium of £2,000 was offered for the winning entry, with £1,000 and £500 for those placed second and third, but there was a further lure to attract entries. The Department ‘anticipated that a number of appointments will be made on the results of the competition’.

The competition assessors were architects Paul Koralek, Brian Hogan and Oscar Richardson and educationists Séamus de Buitléir and Diarmaid Ó Donnabháin and the results were announced in August 1974. The first premium was awarded to the entry by Delany MacVeigh and Pike who, as revealed in these photographs of a model of the winning scheme, proposed a deep plan structure with ranges flexibly disposed around a central hall and internal courtyards. The distinctive single-slope roofs, supported by simple trusses, allowed large north-facing clerestory windows to provide ample daylight in each classroom.

True to its word, the Department did award a number of contracts on foot of the competition, and Delany MacVeigh and Pike put their winning ideas directly into practice in six community schools across the country: Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, Ballymun, Co. Dublin, Cabinteely, Co. Dublin, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, Ramsgrange, Co. Wexford and Tullow, Co. Carlow.

Reproduction of architectural drawing by Delany MacVeigh and Pike submitted to Secondary Schools Ideas Competition. 1974.
28.1 Delany MacVeigh and Pike, Secondary School Desing 4, sections and elevation (An Roinn Oideachais, Secondary School Design: Accessor’s Report (Dublin, 1974), 5) (IAA 2015/119)

From crisis to innovation: school buildings in the 1970s

Sandra Andrea O’Connell

 

Two black and white photographs in the collection of the Irish Architectural Archive depict a pivotal moment in the design of educational buildings in Ireland. The photographs show a model of the winning entry by Delany MacVeigh and Pike architects in a Secondary School Ideas Competition, launched by the Department of Education in December 1973 with support from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI).

Breaking away from the tradition of large institutional buildings, the competition-winning  design marks a radical departure. The model photograph shows the linear, single-storey blocks that were to be constructed using a modular system. As this was an ‘ideas competition’, the designs had to be flexible and adaptable to a wide range of future applications, from new buildings on greenfield sites to extensions of existing schools.

The photograph of the roof plan reveals how Delany MacVeigh and Pike produced a series of small courtyard spaces that could be shared by classroom clusters. These shared courtyards were to bring natural light and ventilation into the teaching spaces, while building a sense of community. By far the most striking feature of the model is the angled roof structure, designed by the architects in collaboration with their structural engineer, John V. O’Connor (fig. 28.1). Capturing soft and consistent north light, it was an innovative device to illuminate classrooms, art rooms, workshops, libraries and laboratories.

The Department of Education’s Building Unit had organised the competition ‘to stimulate new thinking in secondary school design’.(1) Yet the competition also coincided with a time of crisis, with the Department under significant pressure to accommodate a sharply rising population of secondary school students.

The State’s secondary school building programme of the 1960s and 1970s arguably constitutes a second wave of educational reform in Ireland. More than a century had passed since the ‘greatest educational reform’ of the nineteenth century had swept Ireland – the establishment of the national school system from 1831.(2)

While primary education was free and well established, Ireland’s secondary school system had come under criticism in a 1965 report, Investment in Education,(3) which had been initiated by the Minister for Education, Patrick J. Hillery, in October 1962 and produced with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) under its Educational Investment and Planning Programme. With most of Ireland’s secondary schools constituted as ‘independent denominational bodies’,(4) the report found that the sector had ‘some of the marks of a private system in that it has a large number of small units and is unevenly spread over the various regions’.(5) The report highlighted ‘significant disparities… in participation in the education sector among various socio-economic and regional groups’ and stressed ‘the need for wider participation in education and for longer retention of pupils in the education system’.(6) Economic concerns and a shortage of educated workers were central concerns with the report noting that ‘there appears to be a gap between the projected flow of qualified manpower and the projected requirements of qualified manpower’ with the ‘particular part of the educational system related to this short-run deficit [being] the junior cycle post-primary’.(7)

The publication of Investment in Education led to the introduction of legislation, from 1967, that ‘largely brought about free secondary and vocational education’ in Ireland.(8) Architectural historian Ellen Rowley believes that the expansion of the secondary school population – together with the development of new school types, such as the comprehensive model – resulted in a climate of ‘architectural experiment’.(9) The Department of Education’s 1973 ideas competition was an outcome of that climate of experimentation, and one that delivered an innovative response to a crisis. It did not seek a quick fix, but long-term design solutions that would deliver ‘new thinking’ in secondary school design.

It is interesting to note that Ireland had joined the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union, in the same year as the competition, and European architects had been developing innovative design responses to new pedagogical approaches. These were arguably sources of inspiration for the architects who entered the competition. Dutch architect, Herman Hertzberger had completed a Montessori School in Delft (1960-66) based on ‘autonomous’ classrooms where each teacher and their pupils decided ‘what the place will look like, and therefore what kind of atmosphere it will have’.(10) The staggered floor plan of the Delft Montessori School has echoes in the winning design.

In 1973 the Copenhagen municipality had completed the open plan Peder Lykke School, where classrooms had no doors and were arranged in blocks with access to courtyard spaces. James Pike, co-founder of Delany MacVeigh and Pike, recalls that the practice had travelled to Denmark as part of their research,(11) and incorporated the courtyard concept into the winning design. Build magazine, which reviewed the competition in 1978, also reported that ‘before embarking on the design work the architects had visited a number of schools in Ireland and other European countries.(12)

Although launched as an ideas competition with no actual site earmarked for the winning design, the competition attracted strong interest from architects in Ireland, possibly due to the Department’s advertised intention of bringing the ideas to realisation. The published competition notice stated: ‘it is anticipated that a number of appointments will be made on the results of the competition’.

The Department had also produced a well-designed and comprehensive competition brief, with a detailed schedule of accommodation for a notional 810 pupil school and an extensive reading list on educational design. The Department’s ambition to move away from institutional settings and develop a new approach to educational design in Ireland – with a strong focus on the welfare of the individual student – shines through the brief:

The Architect’s primary aim must be to provide the quality and character of environment appropriate to the educational aims of the school. The end result should be: a school that will be a workshop or laboratory for intellectual, creative, physical and social activity; a school that will be lively and welcoming and that the children will make their own; a school that will have an atmosphere and sense of scale that is not overpowering, impersonal, or ‘institutional’. (13)

The calibre of the jury – architects Brian Hogan, Paul Koralek, and Oscar Richardson – would have further added to the competition’s allure. Two educationalists, Séamus de Buitléir and Diarmaid Ó Donnabháin, also joined the jury. The RIAI, who approved the competition, would have stipulated an architect majority on the jury, to ensure that designs were adjudicated primarily on their design quality – a practice that still continues. The RIAI also advised the Department on the eligibility of entrants, who had to be ‘architects resident or born in Ireland who are Members of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland or who are eligible to become Members of that body’.(14)

Following adjudication, three entries were premiated by the jury in August 1974. In first place, and awarded £2,000, were Delany MacVeigh and Pike; Andrzej Wejchert and Danuta Kornaus-Wejchert came in second place, receiving €1,000; with John B. Gilroy, Desmond O. McMahon and Denis Handy in third place for which they received £500. The Highly Commended category included architects who all went on to considerable success: Peter Doyle, Mary Doyle, John Meagher, and Deirdre O’Connor.

Delany MacVeigh and Pike’s innovative modular system was based on simplification and rationalisation. Indeed, the practice had brought to the competition considerable experience of modular designs, including housing projects for the National Building Agency (NBA) and for local authorities. James Pike recalls that, together with their contractor Sisk, the practice had delivered 5,000 housing units in Cork city in the early 1970s using off-site production.(15)

Their flexible school plan – based on a central assembly space, clustered classrooms with communal courtyards and an innovative roof structure that provides daylight – won praise from the assessors as ‘an attractive, stimulating and adaptable environment in a simple, direct and unpretentious form. An outstanding feature of the design is its analysis and treatment of the problem of lighting teaching spaces’.(16)

Colour photograph of Ballymun Community School, Co. Dublin, 1977.
28.2 Ballymun Community School, Co. Dublin, 1977 (Delany MacVeigh and Pike archive, O’Mahony Pike Architects)

From their 1974 competition success, Delany MacVeigh and Pike received six commissions for Community Schools in Ballymun (fig. 28.2), Cabinteely, Dunshaughlin, Ballyhaunis, Ramsgrange and Tullow. James Pike recalls that each school or extension was slightly different in design but based on the same modular, prefabricated system. He describes this as a ‘time when we did get things done’.(17)

When the last of the six competition projects – a large extension to Cabinteely Community School – was completed in 1978, just four years after the architects had been premiated, Build magazine appraised the overall outcome:

There is little doubt that the principles employed by the winning architects answered all the Department of Education’s demand. It has proved eminently suitable for a programme of school building, providing good light, and an environment with good space arrangements which appear to work.(18)

Other successful entrants also put the ideas they developed for the competition to practical use. The Wejcherts’ Ballincollig Community School, Co. Cork (1974-76), is derived from their second place scheme (28.3 and 28.4). Des McMahon had worked with Delany MacVeigh and Pike before joining John Gilroy in practice and was subsequently commissioned by the Department of Education to design Ballyfermot Senior College and Library. Peter and Mary Doyle’s St Brendan’s Community School in Birr, Co. Offaly, for which they were awarded the RIAI Gold Medal for 1980-82, has a clear antecedent in their commended entry (28.5 and 28.6).

Reproduction of architectural drawing by Andrzej and Danuta Wejchertsubmitted to Secondary Schools Ideas Competition. 1974.
28.3 Andrzej and Danuta Wejchert, Base Unit, sections and elevation (An Roinn Oideachais, Secondary School Design: Accessor’s Report (Dublin, 1974), 10) (IAA 2015/119)
Colour photograph of Ballincollig Community School, Co. Cork, 1977.
28.4 Ballincollig Community School, Co. Cork, 1977 (IAA Wejchert Architects Collection 2024/97)
Reproducion of architectural drawing by Peter Doyle, Mary Doyle, John Meagher, Deirdre O’Connor submitted to Secondary Schools Ideas Competition. 1974.
28.5 Peter Doyle, Mary Doyle, John Meagher, Deirdre O’Connor, School Design, sections and elevation (An Roinn Oideachais, Secondary School Design: Accessor’s Report (Dublin, 1974), 17) (IAA 2015/119)
Colour photograph of the interior of St Brendan’s Community School, Birr, Co. Offaly.
28.6 St Brendan’s Community School, Birr, Co. Offaly (IAA Peter and Mary Doyle Collection, 2008/16)

The Department of Education’s 1973 ideas competition demonstrates that competitions can deliver fresh thinking and innovative design solutions, and demonstrated that the competition brief and the calibre of the jury are crucial in achieving good outcomes. The Department also used this competition as an efficient procurement system, with multiple commissions being awarded to the prize winners to support the school building programme.

When the Department of Education found itself in a similar accommodation crisis in 2011, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn returned to the school competition model and conducted three competitions with the RIAI between 2011 and 2014. Launching the first, a post primary school design competition for Kingswood, Tallaght, Quinn described it as a ‘real opportunity for innovative design in new second-level schools’.(19) Several schools from this programme are now completed, including the school in Tallaght by first prize winners ARPL Architects (28.7) and schools by joint second prize winners Coady Architects (Naas Community College) and de Blacam and Meagher (Saint Paul’s Monasterevin), the latter being recently nominated for the EUmies Prize 2026.

The 2014 competition was for an ‘Urban Primary School’ at Harcourt Terrace, Dublin. It was accompanied by a ‘Pedagogical brief’ that stipulated an outcome which would allow teachers ‘to provide for an educational experience that is personalised more than ever before to the needs of the individual learner’. The competition was won by a young practice, tún architects, whose completed design was praised by the 2025 RIAI Awards jury as ‘not only a fantastic piece of architecture, but also a testament to the architects in delivering a new school typology’ (28.8).

With the housing crisis continuing to impact deeply on Irish society, the Department of Education’s innovative competition model, one that resulted in multiple commissions and quality design outcomes, deserves another look.

 

Colour photograph of Kingswood School, Tallaght, Co. Dublin, 2021, by ARPL Architects.
28.7 Kingswood School, Tallaght, Co. Dublin, 2021 (ARPL Architects)
Competition image of Harcourt Terrace School, 2015, by tún architects.
28.8 Harcourt Terrace School competition image, 2015 (tún architects)

Footnotes:

1  Department of Education, A Secondary School for 810 Pupils; Competition Conditions, 1973, A.1.1.

2  Frederick O’Dwyer, ‘Schools in the Nineteenth Century’, in Rolf Loeber, Hugh Campbell, Livia Hurley, John Montague and Ellen Rowley eds, Art and Architecture of Ireland, Volume IV: Architecture, 1600-2000 (Dublin, New Haven & London, 2014), 216.

3  Department of Education, Investment in Education: Report of the Survey Team Appointed by the Minister for Education in October, 1962 (Dublin, 1965).

4  Ellen Rowley, ‘Schools in the Twentieth Century’, in Rolf Loeber, Hugh Campbell, Livia Hurley, John Montague and Ellen Rowley eds, Art and Architecture of Ireland, Volume IV: Architecture, 1600-2000 (Dublin, New Haven & London, 2014), 217-8.

5  Department of Education, Investment in Education, 280.

6  ibid, 390.

7  ibid, 391.

8  Rowley, ‘Schools’, 219.

9  ibid.

10  Herman Hertzberger, Space for Learning. Lessons in Architecture 3 (Rotterdam, 2008), 38.

11  James Pike, in conversation with the author, October 2025.

12  ‘Prize Designs: Community Schools’, Build, September 1978, 19.

13  Department of Education, Secondary School Design; General Brief, 1973, 4.

14  Department of Education, A Secondary School for 810 Pupils; Competition Conditions, 1973, A.2.1.

15  James Pike, in conversation with the author, October 2025.

16  Department of Education, Secondary School Design; Assessors’ Report, 1973.

17  James Pike, in conversation with the author, October 2025.

18   ‘Prize Designs: Community Schools’, Build, September 1978, 20.

19  Department of Education, ‘Minister Quinn 56 major school building projects as part of €430m education infrastructure plan for 2012’, Press Release, 19 December 2011.

 

 

Dr Sandra O’Connell is Director of Architecture and Communications at the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. She has an MSc in Urban Regeneration from TU Dublin and an MPhil and PhD in English from Trinity College Dublin.

 

Donate

Large or small, every donation helps secure the future of the collection. We are truly grateful for your support.

Donate now

Donate

Large or small, every donation helps secure the future of the collection. We are truly grateful for your support.

Donate now
Menu
Search this site

Subscribe

* indicates required

The Irish Architectural Archive will use the information you provide on this form to send you its regular Newsletter. Please confirm that you would like to hear from us:

You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at info@iarc.ie. We will treat your information with respect. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices.