A courtyard house in Kilkenny nears completion. A fair-faced concrete ring beam rests on a long stone wall that leads to an entrance courtyard. From here one enters a central roof-lit hall space that pinwheels in four directions towards glazed living areas with external terraces that look onto walled garden spaces. A stairs leads to the first floor and bathroom that enjoy distant views beyond.
A2 are delighted to be appointed by Galway City Council to design sixteen bicycle stations and parklets for Galway City and Salthill. Due to be installed in early 2021, the bicycle stations and parklets across the city are part of an ambitious public realm upgrade programme.
A2 are delighted to have won this year’s Best House Award at the RIAI Irish Architecture Awards 2020 for Sky Road, Clifden, Co. Galway. A2 wish to acknowledge and thank the distinguished jury of the RIAI, our client and contractor in receiving this award. This is the third time that A2 have won this prestigious award – in 2017 for Mardyke House, Cork City and again in 2010 for Seaside House, Port Oriel, Co. Louth.
A2 and indeed our clients are delighted with the leading image of our house at Sky Road in the latest edition of House + Design. Thank you kindly to the RIAI and Editor Sandra O’Connell for the coverage.
A refurbished bookend at the entrance to Tralee Garda Station that A2 handed over on behalf of the OPW this month – a mannerly and modest three bay facade with its original window openings, solid cut stone external stairs, wrought iron railings and over-slated concrete roof barge cappings.
Catherine Martin TD, Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, congratulated the successful applicants who have been shortlisted in the selection process for Ireland’s representation at the 2022 Venice Art Biennale.
Speaking today, Minister Martin said:
“The impressive list of shortlisted parties is an indicator of the strength of Ireland’s visual arts sector and the platform of the Venice Biennale offers a key opportunity to raise the global visibility of our artists. My congratulation to the artists and curators selected, this is a true recognition and validation of the impact of your work to date as well as your vision for the Venice Biennale”.
The successful artists and curators, who were selected following an open call by Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council are artist Elaine Byrne with curator Helen Carey; artist Marianne Keating with curator Miguel Amado; artist Niamh McCann with architect Peter Carroll and curators Belinda Quirke and Hugh Mulholland; artist Bea McMahon with curator Matt Packer; artist Ailbhe Ní Bhriain and curators Mary Hickson and Francis McKee; artist Niamh O’Malley and Temple Bar Gallery + Studios curatorial team.
These shortlisted teams will present their detailed proposals to a panel comprising representatives of Culture Ireland, The Arts Council and international experts in Autumn 2020 when final selection for Ireland’s representation will be made. Ireland’s representation at the Venice Biennale is an initiative of Culture Ireland, in partnership with the Arts Council. Exhibiting at the Biennale provides a high profile platform for the international art world to engage with Irish contemporary art practice and to showcase the strength of Irish visual arts and the financial support of €300,000, awarded for the selected project reflects this.
Rapid Delivery Housing at George’s Place Dun Laoghaire by DLR Architects Department with A2 Architects wins an Architectural Association of Ireland Award for 2020.
The purpose of the annual AAI Awards is to encourage higher standards of architecture throughout the country and to inform the public of emerging directions in contemporary architecture. With that in mind, the jury chose a selection of significant projects for awards; a university on a plateau in Paris, a travelling activation for Irish market towns, a domestic masterwork built around an Ash tree, an exemplary vernacular art space on an Aran Island, a piece of new urban fabric in Limerick and an affordable rapid-build social housing scheme in Dun Laoghaire.
A four storey return is added to the rear of a terraced Georgian house in order to provide for ancillary spaces and first floor terrace for a three storey house as well as a new a garden level apartment. Douglas fir cladding wraps the tower-like return as it folds its way to the garden by means of a new external terrace. Like many returns in the backlands of Georgian housing this rear return attempts to engage with and contribute to the characterful and nuanced fabric to be found behind the restraint of ordered Georgian terraces.
The materiality of the house at Sky Road, Clifden is primarily restrained in order to foreground the beauty of the surrounding landscape. Externally insitu concrete, mute grey plaster and granite dressings sit quietly as backdrop to the lush sheltered courtyard as well as local flora, fauna and fields beyond. Internally oak flooring, panelling and painted plaster are likewise countered by a fireplace wall in local Connemara marble that is map-like in density and scale.
A2 close an enjoyable and successful 2019 with a feasibility study commissioned by Corbally Community Park Enabling Committee made possible by funding for the feasibility study from municipal district special projects general municipal allocation of funding from Limerick City and County Council. The proposed community park is to contain new public realm, cycling infrastructure, two playing pitches, changing room pavilion, playground, nature gardens, forest walk and a Mens’ Shed.
