In chapter 3 of Books Downstairs, come and hear  Cormac Murray and Ellen Rowley discuss their recent books in conversation with Dervla MacManus. 

The Dublin Architecture Guide 1937–2021 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 edited by three Dublin-based architects, Paul Kelly, Cormac Murray and Brendan Spierin, and designed by Eamonn Hall. The editors are passionate about celebrating and raising awareness about the city’s architecture. The buildings covered 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 were first occupied. From Trinity College to the Docklands, Ballymun to Ballyfermot, Swords to Dún Laoghaire, The Dublin Architecture Guide 1937–2021 celebrates all the brick, timber, concrete, stone, and glass that have helped define the new Dublin of the modern era. Designed by Eamonn Hall (EHGD / Art Dept) and published by Lilliput Press.

More Than Concrete Blocks: Dublin city’s twentieth-century buildings and their stories is a three-volume series of architectural history books which are richly illustrated and written for the general reader. The volumes unpack the history of Dublin’s architecture during the twentieth century in chronological sequence: Volume 1, 1900-1939; Volume 2, 1940-1972; Volume 3, 1973-1999.

The series comes out of a pioneering research and survey project commissioned and funded by Dublin City Council’s Heritage Office and has received grant support from the Heritage Council and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Edited by Ellen Rowley, the series considers the city as a layered and complex place. It makes links between Dublin’s buildings and Dublin’s political, social, cultural and economic histories. By focusing on architecture as the central thread in the story of the city in formation, 1900-2000, More Than Concrete Blocks is about the relationship between architecture and people in Dublin City. Volume 3 is co-edited by Ellen Rowley and Carole Pollard, designed by Peter Maybury, and published by UCD Press.

This is chapter 3 of Books Downstairs, a new series of conversations on books about architecture, organised and hosted by the Irish Architecture Foundation.

It is free to attend, but space is limited. Book early to secure your place!

Reserve your place.

Photo by Al Hickey of the Dublin Architecture Guide, courtesy of Cormac Murray.