Ellen Rowley, Department of History of Art + Architecture, Trinity College Dublin erowley@tcd.ie
t: 086 3932844
IRELAND’S AMERICA ::: 30-31 March 2007
An Exploration of the
Influence of American Modernism on Irish Architecture of the 1970’s…
Culturally twentieth century Ireland has see-sawed somewhere between Europe and
America and it has courted (in unequal measures) both introversion and internationalism. The architecture arising out of such duality in turn bears witness to the abandonment of emigration and the fruits of diasporic contact alike. It is so intimately bound to the mis/fortunes of the State but unlike the heroic idiosyncrasies which for example mark Ireland’s literature, Irish architecture is not so formally definable or recognizable (beyond the traditional and essentially bygone). Is this why a hermeneutic reading of its presence has been heretofore avoided by academic research?
Certainly postwar architecture in Ireland has never been comprehensively intellectualized or situated internationally, and suffers from a paucity of criticism.
1
This paper presents one important example, that of the influence of Louis Kahn in
Ireland, within a greater research project which seeks to interpret the international, and especially American, context of Irish architectural production during the period following the Second World War, (c.1947 – c.1980). An exploration of the little-told tale of Kahn’s influence on key Irish architects, Noel Dowley and later Shane deBlacam who both studied with Kahn at the University of Pennsylvania, enriches our understanding of Ireland’s postwar culture and practice of architecture.
While American Modernist architecture is understood as something of a mutation of earlier twentieth century European ideals, it is discussed here in terms of its importation-transformation from the United States into Ireland. The self-inflicted isolationism of 1950s’ Ireland encouraged many younger architects to journey abroad, primarily to America. Certain exceptional figures, whose experience has been marginally documented, studied and/or worked under the masters of European
Modernist architecture in the leading schools and practices of postwar America.
2
Importantly, many of them chose to return to Ireland whereupon they imported the lessons of post-War corporately-inclined American architecture. It has been loosely argued and in many historical readings, established that within a decade of the young itinerant architects’ “return” the Irish architectural landscape had shifted; a quiet Miesian aesthetic, tempered by local conditions (planning and otherwise), began to dominate while politically the general introversion cultivated in
1 While there has not been a comprehensive history of contemporary architecture in Ireland from 1950 – present-day, this writer acknowledges the small assortment of excellent anthologies of essays combined with catalogues of selected twentieth century buildings, namely: Becker, Annette, Olley, John et al, Twentieth Century Architecture. Ireland, (Prestel:
Munich, 1997);O’Laoire, Sean et al., Building on the Edge of Europe: A Survey of
Contemporary Architecture in Ireland Embracing History, Town and Country, (R.I.A.I., 1996);
Graby, John (ed.), 150 Years of Architecture in Ireland, (R.I.A.I., 1989)
2 The instances of young Irish architects studying with and/or working under the architectural icons of the twentieth century are hugely significant in the writing of a history of postwar Irish architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright (Andy Devane, the I-tuna adventurers from Bolton Street),
Walter Gropius (Luan Cuffe), Mies Van der Rohe (Robin Walker, Kevin Roche, Cathal O’Neill,
Peter Doyle, Jim Murphy), Eero Saarinen (Kevin Roche) and Louis Kahn (Noel Dowley, Shane deBlacam).
1

Ellen Rowley, Department of History of Art + Architecture, Trinity College Dublin erowley@tcd.ie
t: 086 3932844
IRELAND’S AMERICA ::: 30-31 March 2007 the 1950’s was challenged and overcome by the economic expansion promoted by
Sean Lemass’ policies in the 1960’s.
This paper takes as its starting point this example of the dominance of Mies’ aesthetic and technology, so as to explore significant architectural development during the following decade. It presents new research, in the form of interviews and archival material, together with analyses of two buildings each by Dowley and deBlacam. My inquiry around the practices of these two architects probes both their unique contexts (the local) and their absorption of Kahn’s example (the foreign) alike. The paper acknowledges that the question of influence in relation to architectural endeavour is problematic and often reductive; does influence manifest itself through form or type or approach? Underlying it all is, of course, the omnipresence of America…
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Ellen Rowley, Department of History of Art + Architecture, Trinity College Dublin erowley@tcd.ie
t: 086 3932844
IRELAND’S AMERICA ::: 30-31 March 2007
Pells, Richard Not Like Us: How Europeans have Loved, Hated and Transformed
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Professor Jim Fehily, one interview::
Shane De Blacam, one interview::
Simon Walker, one interview::
Shane O’Toole, one interview::
Ciaran Cuffe, one interview::
Vincent Delaney, one interview::
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Ellen Rowley, Department of History of Art + Architecture, Trinity College Dublin erowley@tcd.ie
t: 086 3932844
IRELAND’S AMERICA ::: 30-31 March 2007
O'Regan, John, (ed.), Scott Tallon Walker, Architects: 100 Buildings and Projects,
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