A major eight-part series on modern Irish architecture is being made for RTE television by an independent production company, Making Waves, with advice from the RIAI and sponsorship from the ESB.
The series, entitled Nation Building, is intended as a watershed in Irish television because it will tell the story of modern Ireland in a radically different way, through its architecture, according to producer Cliona Kernan.
While Nation Building will celebrate the best of Ireland's modern architecture, it will also take a critical look at the environment we have created since achieving independence, she said. In other words, it will not be a "coffee table" series. "It will pose difficult questions, stir up debate, get people thinking critically about the buildings that surround them. Its real purpose is to encourage Irish people, of all ages and backgrounds, to take ownership of their built environment".
The series, which started shooting recently, is being directed by Paul Larkin, an award-winning film director - and it is being shot on film rather than video to ensure high-quality definition in the images of Irish architecture.
It will also be exploiting advances in computer-aided design (CAD) to create a "virtual" experience of architecture for viewers. This would make the series "far more engaging, exciting and liberating than anything done previously", Mr Larkin said.
The series will cover public projects from 1922 to the present as well as church architecture, "bungalow blitz" in the countryside, the design of urban housing, workplaces and leisure facilities and the success or otherwise of public planning policies.
John Graby, director of the RIAI, said that Nation Building would offer viewers an insight into the process of how buildings are designed and should encourage Irish people to be more informed about the quality of buildings they are willing to accept.
Ken O'Hara, chief executive of the ESB, said the series would be "of fundamental importance in breaking down barriers of perception and access", adding that without such an approach the debate on heritage and development would continue to be divisive.
It is expected that the series will be screened by RTE 1 next spring.
