Architecture

More Information

From street buildings to country houses, our predecessors make their presence felt by the many and varied ways they built enduring structures, regardless of whether those structures are ordinary or grand and luxurious! Whether a cathedral or corn mill, old buildings document the finer aspirations and the most utilitarian solutions of those who preceded us.

Role

The role of The Heritage Council under it's architectural remit is to advise the  government on all aspects of architectural heritage. Advice has ranged from revising, streamlining and managing the grants systems that relate to the built heritage — including introducing the Buildings at Risk and Traditional Farm Building grants schemes — to advice on planning and policy measures, and the commissioning of reports aimed at facilitating conservation decision-making in complex cases. 

Objectives

• Encourage awareness and appreciation of our built heritage by promoting good conservation practice across the range of vernacular, artisanal and ‘polite’ architecture.
• Promote a values-led approach to the conservation of historic buildings, integrated with other aspects of our common inheritance, and with broader societal concerns (such as sustainability and equality of access).
• Support the dissemination of information on architectural heritage, and the discussion of values associated with protecting it.
• Consider the cumulative value of buildings and their historic environment contexts, be it landscape or streetscape.

Committee

The Architecture Committee, in place to act as advisors to The Heritage Council, has a wide variety of interests which include:

• Commissioning reports on the conservation problems to be addressed in particular buildings. As funds for such studies are limited the committee tends to commission studies where there is a building conservation issue that has not already been researched
• Promoting ‘Conservation Planning’ in Ireland. This sets out to prioritise and protect the heritage values in special places.
• Demonstrating the sustainability of caring for our inheritance of buildings.
  Promoting architectural heritage research.
• Providing advice to public authorities regarding their architectural heritage.
• Promoting the concept of preventative maintenance in Ireland.
• Extending the strategic involvement at policy level with other conservation organisations, including:
  • Heritage Officers network
  • Association of Architectural Conservation Officers
  • Heritage Contractors Registration Board
  • RIAI Conservation Accreditation Board 
  • ICOMOS

 

Best Practice

Grant support for the architectural heritage comes under these broad headings.

Buildings at Risk
This scheme has its origins in a register of the conservation needs of Irish buildings. Funding has been made available to help conserve the most needy examples, by ensuring that good conservation practices are observed in their repair. To make maximum use of its limited grant funding for buildings, the Heritage Council has decided to prioritise the repair of roofs under this scheme. The application procedure, which occurs in the year before works are carried out, is designed to help building owners who may not have much knowledge of conservation or building works to get a good conservation specification for their building, thus ensuring that any work will respect the special heritage interest of the structure.

Traditional Farm Buildings
This scheme, administered by the Heritage Council in association with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, sets out to place heritage, social and financial values on agricultural buildings on farms. As the needs of farming evolve, so too does the style and scale of farm buildings, leading to a changing rural scene. Older buildings often enhance the landscapes and countryside in which they are situated, and are part of a sustainable and durable system of farming, and, indeed, ecology. The scheme contributes to the repair of outbuildings on farms that are in the 4th Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS 4) as a landscape enhancement measure. The scheme permits farmers who may have building conservation experience to develop their skills in this regard by carrying out the works themselves to their own buildings. In this way, it is hoped that the scheme will contribute to the more general availability of conservation skills.

Significant Places of Public Worship
Communities have endowed their churches with the highest degree of artistic effort over the decades and centuries, representing their spiritual aspirations, the importance of religion in the public realm, and commemorating the dead. This newly announced scheme (2008) sets out to facilitate the implementation of major works on our most prestigious and well-loved places of worship. An expert committee, now comprised of representatives of the four main Christian churches, has been convened to advise on the selection criteria. These larger and, in many cases, historically complex buildings, deserve the attention of expert architectural, engineering and object conservation consultants to understand the buildings’ fabric and their problems, and devise appropriate repair strategies and specifications.