Gibney is probably now best known for the distinctive housing schemes he designed from the late 1940s for Bord na Móna but, in a prolific career addressing the issue of rural housing, he was also responsible for over seventy-five local authority housing schemes across at least fifteen counties. Nor was housing his only interest, as his papers reveal. He researched construction techniques and material, including the use of wood and clay as a building material in building. He investigated air travel and the requisite infrastructure this emerging technology required. He was an advocate of alternative power sources including tidal power. And he was a pioneer of town planning, producing details planning reports on several towns including Ballina, Drogheda, Killarney, Navan, Tullamore and Tralee.
Explore the Frank Gibney Collection catalogue here: https://iaa-apw.adlibhosting.com/ais6/Details/archive/110087188. Use the hierarchy browser at the bottom of the page to reveal the full contents.
The original material can be consulted in the IAA reading room. Plans to digitise elements of the collection, including the architectural drawings, are being drawn up.
