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Second Reading The most interesting proposal in the recent election came in the Labour Party document on education.
“I believe that public buildings should reflect the values and aspirations of the community. They should have the capacity to inspire us. The new civic centre in the heart of Belmullet town is an example”
Second Reading Fr Kevin Hegarty
For me, the most interesting proposal in the recent election came in the Labour Party document on education. In the heat of the campaign the document was quickly forgotten. The party proposed the building of 400 new national schools to a new design. The party spokesperson, Ian O’Sullivan, commissioned a team of architects to design school buildings that put child-centred education at the heart of the community. The new model school has a large open square at its heart. Part of this will be an auditorium-style forum for meetings and school performances. Each class would have access to a school garden where an environmental syllabus could be taught. The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, immediately criticised the plan, stating that it would be a waste of public money. Such criticism was, I suppose, inevitable in what was a very adversarial election campaign. Perhaps Ms Hanafin, now that she has been returned to the Department, might revisit the Labour party document. All the wisdom needed to govern Ireland in the 21st century is not contained in the policies of Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and the Progressive Democrats. I believe that public buildings should reflect the values and aspirations of the community. They should have the capacity to inspire us. The new civic centre in the heart of Belmullet town is an example of what can be achieved. It incorporates, in a striking design, County Council offices, Udarás na Gaeltachta, the library, an arts centre, and a courthouse, where, no doubt, some real life dramas will be played out. President McAleese opened the Arts Centre, Áras Inis Gluaire, in April. In her speech she used a thought-provoking verb. She said that this building ‘honours’ the community. Mayo County Council architect, Robbie McGuire and his staff, deserve congratulations for what they have done for Mayo’s most westerly town. My thoughts on architecture and the public domain are prompted by a new book, ‘The Archaeology of Tomorrow’, by American architect, Travis Price, which I had the privilege of launching in Galway Library recently. The book is subtitled ‘Architecture and the spirit of place’. Travis is one of the rare architects of whom Alain de Boton has written in ‘The Architecture of Happiness’ who have ‘the humility to interrogate themselves adequately about their desires and the tenacity to translate their fleeting apprehensions of joy into logical plans – a combination that enables them to create environments that satisfy needs we never consciously knew we even had’. He is both a university professor at the Catholic School of Architecture in Washington DC and a practising architect. His award-winning projects include the Tennessee Valley Authority’s one million square foot complex, a floating house on the Amazon, a Snake Shrine in Nepal and a star-gazing temple at Machu Pichu. I first met Travis almost six years ago. Though it was a grim December day, he seemed to be experiencing what the theologian, Paul Tillich, called a ‘revelatory ecstasy’. He had just visited Annagh Head and Doonamoe on the Mullet Peninsula. To echo some words of Seamus Heaney. his heart had been blown open by the austere beauty he had witnessed. He has a special fascination with the ‘thin places’. What they are is well-described by Edward Sellner in his book ‘The Wisdom of the Celtic Saints’. “The Early Celts believed in ’thin places’, geographical locations scattered throughout Ireland and the British Isles where a person experiences only a very thin divide between past, present and future times; places where a person is somehow able, possibly only for a moment, to encounter a more ancient reality within present time; or places where perhaps only in a glance we are somehow transported into the future.” Travis’ fascination with the ‘thin places’ of Annagh Head and Doonamoe led him to bring a group of students to Erris in the summer of 2002 where, in conjunction with Mayo County Council, they created architectural artefacts that reflect the spirit of place. This year they have just completed a project in Belmullet town – an inspiring steel bridge that links the town and the peninsula and a little retreat entitled ‘Tearmann na Taoide’, that looks out on Blacksod Bay. Travis has developed an architecture that is environmentally sustainable. It is informed by ecology and mythology and restores the spirit of place to modern design. His book is informative, persuasively argued and sumptuously illustrated. If you are interested in architecture and the environment, treat yourself.
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