Design really matters to new generation of students

Three students from DIT's Faculty of Architecture talk to Emma Cullinan about their professional ambitions and observations of the profession

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?

"Everyone coming out of our course would really care about design and be aware of the planning issues. When you see some of the stuff being built it is depressing and there is a sense of them perhaps being developer-led," says Cian Curren from Galway, who chose to study architecture because of a lifelong interest in art and design.

Yet he originally planned to train as an engineer but didn't get enough points in the Leaving Cert. He took a year out to try again and, given time to think, decided that engineering was too mathematical for him. A friend, who had started on the architecture course at Bolton Street, told Cian that it would be perfect for him.

Cian's classmate - Gemma Ginty from Galway - also started with engineering but she, too, switched to architecture after a year.

"I felt engineering was too restrictive whereas as an architect you can put more of your personality into the role. I thought it would give me a broad education because it's a career that covers a lot of areas.

"We learnt at college just how much is involved in the job, including things that you don't often associate with architecture such as talking to reps who are trying to sell you things, making sure all areas are covered legally, dealing with builders and running on-site meetings. You realise, too, that architects have to be diplomats."

It was a love of being on site that attracted Owen Morgan, from Celbridge to architecture. "My dad was in roofing and I worked with him on sites from a young age. I didn't want to spend all my time in an office, I loved being on building sites and constructing things, so I came to architecture from the construction, rather than artistic, side.

"First year was great for getting a balance between design and construction," says Cian. "You can come at architecture from either side and then get up to speed on it all in the first year."

For some students that led to a questioning about whether they were on the right course.

"At 17 it's hard to know what you want to do," says Owen, while Cian admits that: "I wasn't completely certain of what architecture was all about when I applied. There's little public awareness of architecture although that has changed over the last five years."

They're all glad they chose the subject now and say the experience has opened their eyes to the world around them. Owen cites what has happened in his home town of Celbridge.

"I have seen the changes over the years and they are not necessarily positive. The place is sprawling - with housing estates being built in former fields. I've noticed how these estates all contain so many cars now: maybe people have them because of affluence but I think they have to use their cars more and more because many live around 30 minutes walk from the nearest shop.

"I've become passionate and angry about the fact that people are not given a choice about where they want to live," he says.

Gemma, too, has watched her home city change. "Galway has exploded and I'm not sure what happened to the planning. The architecture course has opened my eyes to these issues; I think my family and friends are bored of me going on about it at this stage!"

The architects that they admire are those who work hard to see a job through, from beginning to end, with the clients very much on board. All three graduates mention de Blacam and Meagher Architects, and Cian says that he likes what Grafton Architects is producing. Gemma is taken by the work of O'Donnell and Tuomey: "They are really pushing to get good things built. I went on a site visit to Glucksman (UCC's art gallery). The clients were there and you felt that there was this really good team spirit."

Cian visited the Balgaddy housing scheme, in west Dublin, on his year out, with Dublin City Council architects, and is interested in this type of housing. "I can relate the whole issue of housing to my home town. I liked the scheme that Howley Harrington Architects did at Balgaddy and their apartment project at Holles Street. It's not just about good design, it's about thinking things through and carrying them through."

While they are all keen on aesthetics they are also aware of how the Bolton Street course is perceived. "At Queen's University in Belfast, we're known as the straight-line brigade," says Owen.

Gemma discovered the flip side of that on an Erasmus year in Copenhagen. They have many more architectural students there than in Ireland, despite the fact that many Danish students are looking at the prospect of leaving college and being unemployed.

"Here architectural teaching is more industry-related," says Gemma. "The work that we do is feasible whereas the Danish students were more into ideas, knowing that they don't necessarily have to be turned into real buildings."

"Yes," agrees Cian, "when there is not much work around people do more competitions and that's when new ideas can come through."

The students are speaking in a week when two Bolton Street teachers, Dermot Boyd and Noel Brady, won RIAI awards. That must underline their faith in what they're being taught: "Well, I suppose it makes them realise that perhaps we know a thing or two," laughs Dermot.

All three students will seek work in Dublin: "Realistically, that's where most of the work is done," says Owen.

A couple of their classmates are heading for Cork and others will look for work in Australia, which is where Cian hopes to head in a couple of years time.

Last year some graduates went to New York and London but, at the moment, the job prospects are good in Ireland, although all three are aware that if there's a downturn in the property market it's architects who will feel it first.

It's really heartening that these students have emerged from their studies with a keen awareness of good design and environmental issues: let's hope it's not beaten out of them by the struggles in the real world.