Irish buildings win architecture awards

Two Irish buildings have won two architectural awards each from institutes in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Lyric Theatre in Belfast, by O’Donnell and Tuomey Architects, and the Wexford County Council headquarters, by Robin Lee Architecture, with Arthur Gibney and Partners, are on the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 50 best new buildings of 2012 list - which puts them in the running for the Stirling Prize shortlist later this year.

The Lyric Theatre has also just won the Best Culture Project award from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), announced this evening, and Robin Lee’s Wexford HQ has won its Best Public Building award.

Also on the international scene, Heneghan Peng architects got the International RIAI award for its Olympics bridge in London, while Henchion Reuter was awarded Best Leisure Project for a Tropical Biome in Leipzig, Germany.

Along with established practices of consistent quality such as McCullough Mulvin, who won RIAI Best Health Project for its Dublin Dental Hospital and Paul Keogh Architects, who won Best Housing Project for the Sean Treacy House scheme in Dublin, there were relative newcomers.

These included Steve Larkin who not only nabbed the Emerging Practice Award but also the prize for Best House, for Bog west, Co Wexford, a robust building that is agricultural by name and by nature with a form resembling a farm building.

The Best Extension Winner is also a young practice, LiD, whose Butterfly House in Co Leitrim sits naturally in its rural sward. Another warm richly timbered building is the extension to a school in Crumlin, Dublin, by Mary Laheen Architects that won Best Educational Project.

Public service architects got two awards: the OPW for the conservation and restoration of Monaghan Courthouse and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council architects for an outdoor space near the sea.

The winner of the Public Choice award this year is the Engineering Building NUI Galway by Taylor Architects and RMJM.

While not as much is being built, architectural quality has been maintained, according to the RIBA. In her assessment of the 50 buildings picked by the Irish-born RIBA president Angela Brady, said: “Even in times of austerity, we can still deliver amazingly clever, high quality buildings.”