Dermot Bannon is Ireland’s unofficial patron saint of ambitious kitchen do-overs and statement extensions. But at a time when the gap between the housing haves and have-nots is a festering void — and people are angry about it — there is surely a risk of his cosy makeover show Room To Improve striking a disagreeable note. Property porn is in danger of becoming problematic.
But while that crisis plays out, Bannon has wisely zigzagged in another direction and returns with his architecture travelogue, Dermot Bannon’s Incredible Homes (RTÉ One, Sunday, 9.30pm). As with previous seasons — which visited Canada and Sweden — the series is a showcase for Bannon’s slightly goofy charm and his bug-eyed enthusiasm for everything minimalist, dimly-lit and provisioned with windows larger than the viewing platform the Guinness Storehouse.
His first stop is Catalonia (he’s off to Scotland next week). And it’s a case of Bannon-goes-bonkers as he rhapsodises about Solo House, a circular minimalist structure on a nature reserve outside Barcelona.
The building has a quietly political subtext. It was created to be a holiday rental, meaning it is for many rather than a privileged few.
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“The idea of sharing is new. [In the past] you were not sharing your house, your car, your bicycle,” says Bannon. “Why not share this amazing experience with many people?”
Barcelona itself sends him into a swoon. He goes to Gaudí's Casa Milà, where even the lift looks like something out of Pan’s Labyrinth. He also celebrates Barcelona’s ingenious urban planning, which achieves high population density without it feeling as if everyone is living on top of one another.
What’s refreshing is that, unlike many architects you will encounter on the airwaves or social media, Bannon stops short of preaching. Barcelona is a far more efficient city than Dublin. Yet it is to Bannon’s credit that he doesn’t wag his finger or start bloviating about bike lanes. He simply stands back and shows us that with efficient planning — something we’ve never got the hang of in Ireland and possibly never will — there might be a better way.
Is Incredible Homes an improvement on Room to Improve? Hard-core fans of the latter might answer in the negative and there is indeed something repetitive about a documentary that consists of the presenter strolling around designer properties, jaw agape.
Still, he is pleasant company and, when touring another fancy kitchen in a house outside Barcelona, doesn’t filter his thoughts. “Two islands!” he exclaims. “In Ireland this would be called ultimate notions..”
It’s Bannon unbound with all the trimmings. How paradoxical that a guru of interior design should be so much in his element on the open road.
