With a Foreword by Dermot Bannon and an introductory essay by the architect Jonathan Sergison, The Dublin Architecture Guide is a companion guide to the modern architecture of Dublin. With a total of 255 projects featured, this book will suit anyone interested in often under-appreciated or overlooked modern buildings. The book is written by three Dublin-based Architects, Paul Kelly, Cormac Murray and Brendan Spierin and designed by Eamonn Hall. The authors are passionate about celebrating and raising awareness about the city’s architecture. The buildings range across 84 years from 1937 to 2021.

Each building has an equal-length description and original photography. Some are accompanied by an architect’s sketch. Several of those featured have won both domestic and international awards and have been published widely before. However, we rarely see all of them together, grouped with younger and older neighbours, with unedited photographs showing them in their day-to-day condition – long after they are first occupied. From Trinity College to the Docklands, Ballymun to Ballyfermot, Swords to Dún Laoghaire, The Dublin Architecture Guide celebrates all the brick, timber, concrete, stone, and glass that have helped define the new Dublin of the modern era.

‘The Dublin Architecture Guide demonstrates beautifully that good architecture can be found in the least obvious places: a vocational school in Inchicore, for instance, a pastoral centre in Rathfarnham or a library in Baldoyle. In fact, there are 53 educational buildings included in the guide, 13 churches and 12 community buildings. One of the most important takeaways from this book is that interesting and inspiring architecture is more often than not on our own doorsteps. Indeed, I’ll never look at Donnybrook Bus Centre in the same way again.’ – Marie Kelly, The Irish Times

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Paul Kelly lectures in Architectural Design Studio, Design Technology and History Theory & Criticism at the Dublin School of Architecture. He divides this time between Teaching and Practice, He is a Lecturer in Architecture and a Director of FKL architects – FKL have lectured and been exhibited nationally and internationally and have received a number of national awards and been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe European Architecture Award.

FKL curated conceived and designed the Irish entry for the Venice Biennale 2006, SubUrban to SuperRural, comprising theoretical projects by nine architects on the issue of sprawl. They were participants at the inaugural Lisbon Architecture Triennale with d-void, in 2007. In 2009 FKL initiated the Shadowland Project examining how architects can look at solutions to ghost estates.

Cormac Murray is an architect and writer based in Dublin. He has written for Architecture Ireland and House + Design magazine, and was assistant editor for Volumes 20 and 21 of Building Material, the annual journal of the AAI. He published two essays with the Phibsboro Press: The Forgotten Frontier, A Critical Appraisal of the Phibsboro Shopping Centre (2015) and Cosmoform (2020), both designed by Eamonn Hall. Cormac has an interest in mid-century Irish modernism and in 2014 he was awarded the DoCoMoMo Dissertation Award for Modernism in Dublin 1960–1979, The Infill Building.

Brendan Spierin is an architect based in Dublin. Brendan developed an interest in publishing and graphic design during his architectural education at the Dublin School of Architecture, TU Dublin, through his involvement in the Dublin School of Architecture Press. He edited the Industria book, designed by Post Studio, which was selected for the 100 Archive design platform in 2015.