WEXFORD COUNTY Council’s new headquarters is competing against a theatre made of straw in Estonia, a soccer school in the Johannesburg suburb of Soweto, a bamboo office in India and a moving gallery in New York to be World Building of the Year 2011.
The council’s headquarters, designed following an architectural competition by Glasgow-based Nord (since renamed Robin Lee Architecture), is up against competition from 280 other contemporary buildings for the World Architecture Festival title.
Now in its fourth year, the contest attracted its highest number of entries to date with 704 entries from 59 countries.
For the first time architecture and design enthusiasts will also get the opportunity to vote on which project should be World Building of the Year.
Buildings designed by “starchitects” such as Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster feature on the very long “shortlist” alongside entries by smaller, lesser known practices. But each will compete as equals in presenting their designs to international judging panels in Barcelona.
The World Architecture Festival, which is being held there in early November, will also have a “People’s Choice” award. The public can compare their choices to the opinions of some of the world’s most regarded architects in deciding on who wins the title.
Meanwhile, Irish contemporary architecture is to be showcased in the US this autumn at leading architectural institutions, including Harvard University, as part of an Irish arts programme sponsored by Culture Ireland.
Curated by Raymund Ryan, of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and produced by the Irish Architecture Foundation, Irish Architecture Now will feature architects from six award-winning practices illustrating and discussing their work.
The Government and Enterprise Ireland are supporting the programme to show how Irish architecture has “firmly established itself with flair on the European scene”.
Travelling to New York, Boston and Pittsburgh next month will be Merritt Bucholz and Karen McEvoy, of Bucholz McEvoy Architects; Niall McCullough, of McCullough Mulvin Architects; and Shih-Fu Peng of Heneghan Peng Architects. The second group, due to address audiences in Chicago, Los Angeles and Berkeley, California, will consist of Tom dePaor, of dePaor Architects; Yvonne Farrell, of Grafton Architects; and Sheila O’Donnell, of O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects.