The Irish Times

Architecture students graduating this summer must be reassured by the fact that they chose the right course. During their time at college their job prospects have improved and so has the general quality of architecture in Ireland: we now live in a country where local authority offices are winning design awards and where people are becoming more au fait with the idea of light, spacious, contemporary homes. The building boom which helped nurture this has also spawned dull buildings in which profit has been the motivating factor rather than appropriateness of use or location, longevity, and with no concern for clever use of materials, well-detailed joints or pleasing shapes. It's clear that some architects can and do design rubbish. So will any of those emerging from the Faculty of Architecture in DIT at Bolton Street display such a careless attitude, despite all they've been taught, or will they grasp the greatest opportunity that any generation of architects has ever had in Ireland?