In Ireland, the stock of historic buildings is characterised by a taste for simple forms, extending from the medieval Gallarus Oratory in County Kerry through the Palladian splendours of the 18th century to the everyday farmhouses and barns of the countryside. Public buildings have always been distinguished from private ones by their more careful attention to formal composition and the selection of materials; typically, they are built of stone rather than brick or rendered rubble. The tradition is so strong that architects working in Ireland since the beginning of the modern movement have been obliged to confront it. This interaction has produced some remarkable buildings, most notably the seminal Carroll's Factory in County Louth by Scott Tallon Walker, where the tranquillity of Palladian proportion is expressed in steel and glass.
展开▼
