Month: August 2017

There’s no substitute in the research work for the physical experience of the building. It’s not a problem when the subject is in public realm, easy to view at least externally in its full context. Private buildings however pose much bigger challenge, as often they’re not even visible from public road, and arrangements for site visit are much more complicated.

Useful tool for researchers in Ireland was presented by the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht in the form of the Section 482 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 tax relief scheme, which allows the owners of approved buildings apply for the tax relief for the maintenance, repair and restoration in exchange for making the building accessible to general public in certain times.

The list of approved properties for 2017 is available on the Department’s website here.

But…

The days of the scheme might be numbered as the Minister Heather Humphreys announced review of the financial viability of the scheme by the Department, so if you’re looking to visit any of the properties better hurry up while the arrangements are in place.

In the second half of the 30s there seems to be visible shift towards acceptance of the widespread trend of the Modernism. More and more ads praising the advantages of the ‘modern’ appear in the trade press. This article published in The Irish Builder and Engineer in 1937 (4.4.1) sees the future in the Modernism (although the word itself only appears in the title) for not being backwards and repetitive, unlike all 19th and 20th century Revivals and the ‘absurd battles of the styles’. The only way is to evolve, and the author pints recent lack of creativity in the architectural field. Praised is the contemporary architecture of Norway, Sweden (quite often Scandinavia is presented as the architectural benchmark in the late 30s) and America. Sources of these architectural virtues the author reasons by lack of influence in the Renaissance in these countries, which seems to be the main source of the plagiarisms and endless neo- styles.