Growing acceptance that good design is more than worth it

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Archiseek / Ireland / News / 2005 / April 14

After 20 years of the Architectural Association of Ireland Awards, it seems that the torch for cutting-edge design has finally been passed to a younger generation of Irish architects, with two awards - including the Downes Medal - scooped by Boyd Cody Architects. Dublin-based architect Denis Byrne, a previous AAI award winner, likened the process of choosing the winners to Hitchcock's concept of "five strangers meeting for a ritual purpose and then dispersing". It might also have had to do with the presence of no less than three foreign assessors providing new perspectives. In any case, the final cut was characterised by "projects of autonomy, detachment, materiality and a cool rigour", including the Downes medal winner, which Byrne described as "a miniature gem". So whatever about the "accidental alignment of jury and projects . . . it may simply be that this year their time had come".

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