Cultural ignorance and lack of dialogue creating a legacy of bleak anonymity

Architecture is a continuing event, its record written into the slowly changing landscape of our daily lives like growth rings in a tree trunk. It is, nevertheless, worthwhile to draw up a balance sheet from time to time, to step back a little and consider what we are doing - because we are all involved, whether we like it or not.

Architecture, more importantly than being a profession, is a primary social need and this supposes that its cultural value is recognised by society. In Ireland, however, low levels of expectation of new buildings - and also of architectural awareness - are exacerbated by a lethal language gap between the professionals and the public that makes debate and communication almost impossible.

Whatever the public's critical attitudes to new development, they are not expressed or heard in an effective manner. There is only so much that can be done by Frank McDonald in the The Irish Times In other countries reputable newspapers are expected to carry a weekly architecture page in their culture or review sections. When will one of our other newspapers take the public and social discussion of architecture and urban design to this next level?

There are other pioneering initiatives in communication - such as the AAI's New Irish Architecture series, now in its 14th year, and the Irish Arts Review, which in recent times has provided extended and accessible commentaries, usually written by non-professionals - and next year there will be a major TV series, Nation Building, tracing the development of Irish architecture since the foundation of the State.

The appointment of Kevin Kieran as Arts Council architectural consultant was also a hopeful sign for the development of an inclusive social dialogue on architecture but contemporary architecture still lacks a popular following in Ireland - in the sense that much of the population is reluctant to identify with the architectural language set before it, seeking refuge in a caricature of the past.

Too often, the act of building is treated as an exclusively economic process, whereas it is primarily a social and cultural phenomenon. The architectural result is determined not only by the design capabilities of the architects, but equally by the cultural zeal of those who commission buildings. The most interesting architecture is produced when those who initiate it are conscious that they also have a social responsibility, and return to the role of "patron" in its original sense: someone who realises that architecture is an essential component of social culture.

Architecture is about an "idea" giving shape to a built form and thus goes further than merely the optimum assembly of construction components. It is about human scale, environmental quality and the appropriate use of building materials and structure. It is about creating spaces which support people working or living together, or being alone, and which facilitate and give meaning to their lives.

Architecture is about ecological and functional appropriateness: long-life, sustainable materials, low energy consumption, flexibility of use. It is about economic appropriateness: value for money in a cost-conscious age. It is about aesthetic appropriateness: proportion of form and line, solid and void, silhouette. And it is about cultural expression: respect for a city or landscape context, a vision of the future or an expression of respect for the past.

This view is shared by the Government. Its draft policy on architecture says that buildings represent either an improvement or a debasement of the quality of life, that they are built not simply for shelter and the accommodation of function but also for identity and continuity, and that architecture, whether of the past or of the present, is a cultural resource developing over time.

It must, therefore, be acknowledged that the "official" context within which Irish architecture operates is improving, even if the spectre of fee-bidding and other pressures surrounding the appointment of private sector architects for public commissions threaten to undermine fatally the long-awaited and welcome policy objectives relating to architectural culture.

It is surely a coincidence that the three most recent RIAI triennial medals have all gone to architects in the public sector - two of them to the Architectural Services division of the Office of Public Works, for the Ceide Fields Visitor Centre and the refurbishment of Government Buildings, and the third to M.V. Cullinan, for the St Peter's Port housing scheme in Athlone, developed by the National Building Agency.

These admirable achievements, undertaken by public bodies, are in marked contrast to the scandal surrounding Aer Rianta's proposed Pier D at Dublin Airport, to be attached to Desmond FitzGerald's original Terminal Building, itself an early winner of the RIAI Gold Medal and one of the first List 1 Modern Movement buildings in Ireland.

An Bord Pleanala's senior planning inspector considered that the new pier "would seriously detract from the setting of this important building and would seriously obscure the remaining uninterrupted view of the airside elevation", and recommended that planning permission should be refused. Astonishingly, the board overturned this reasoned view and granted permission, subject only to two minor conditions.

It is a great shame, and repugnant to architectural custom, that the OPW no longer permits its own architects to be identified formally with the awards they have won; this mean practice must surely change. (For the record, only architects are eligible to be awarded RIAI medals. Martin Cullen, Minister of State at the OPW, claims in his foreword to its annual report for 1998 that he was presented with the RIAI Silver Medal for Conservation. He was not).

The timing of the Government initiative on architectural policy occurs at a critical juncture because Ireland's extraordinary economic growth is fuelling an unprecedented amount of development. The form and character of our towns and cities are being changed at an alarming rate, while the rural hinterland and villages around our cities are being rapidly erased under a blanket of suburban sprawl.

Landmarks and landscapes are fast disappearing, creating a kind of collective amnesia. There is afoot a profound, radical change in the nature of our living and working environments, one that is not being addressed clearly or consciously. There is much to do, and quickly, if we are not to bequeath a legacy of bleak anonymity to our children.

On a positive note, there is a growing interest in urban design, with Dublin Corporation emerging as a significant promoter of competitions for such projects as Darndale Village Centre, Wolfe Tone Square, Smithfield and O'Connell Street. The private sector is also responding; for example, the competition jury for a site at the junction of Church Street and North King Street felt that Grafton Architects' winning entry offered "a new design datum for residential development on city sites".

This shift in mentality still has to break down a great deal of resistance from social forces which, for various reasons, prefer the old dynamics and want to keep on forging short-term profit, easy expansion and unconcerned separation of functions into an "urbanism on demand"; the Spencer Dock scheme for Dublin's Docklands distressingly displays this lack of ambition.

Nonetheless, the RIAI Regional Awards offer an insight into the healthy state of Irish architecture and the outstanding service many architects provide. The scheme is in existence since 1990 and now is the time to take the next imaginative leap forward. By inviting a leading foreign architectural critic (not an architect) to chair the awards jury and contribute a thoughtful review essay, the institute could raise the level of debate in the present context of social change, economic transformation and cultural aspirations.

There appears to be a consensus developing throughout Europe about what can today be considered as valid architecture. In Germany, they talk of Neue Einfachheit (new simplicity), in Switzerland of essentialism and in the Mediterranean countries of minimalism. And although these streams all have their own character, each is part of the same international trend, a style considered by many authors as the characteristic expression of the current fin de siecle. We can see this trend in projects such as Claudio Silvestrin's Donnelly Gallery in Killiney and Ian Ritchie's Millennium Spire for O'Connell Street.

If it is to develop its full potential, Irish architecture - and Irish architects - must begin to contribute on the international scene.

Shane O'Toole is an architect. He has written on Irish architecture in a wide range of Irish and international publications. This is an edited version of his introduction to this year's RIAI Regional Awards in the Irish Architectural Review.