2015 Annual AAI Awards exhibition opens this week

The 2015 Annual AAI Awards exhibition, opens on Thursday 21st May from 6pm – 8pm, in the City Assembly Rooms, 58 South William Street. The exhibition will be open to the public for free for 8 days, before moving to Cork, Carlow, Limerick and Belfast later in the year.

Winners of the awards will be officially announced at the launch of the exhibition, which features a showcase of this years winning entries and special mentions. The publication for the 2014 Awards will also be launched on the evening, and will be available to purchase.

Ireland’s longest running awards programme, the AAI Awards are the only internationally peer-reviewed architecture awards in Ireland that publicly publish the critical discourse which takes place among the assessors adjudicating the awards. As a consequence the awards give the public an unprecedented insight into the critical conversations that shape the quality of our built environment and future heritage. Historically these awards have been the first to recognize the emerging talents that have gone on to become the established names of an increasingly sophisticated and internationally recognised culture of architecture in Ireland.

The intention of the AAI awards is to encourage higher standards of architecture throughout the country, to recognise projects of any scale and type that make a contribution to Irish architecture culture, and to inform the public of emerging directions in contemporary architecture.

Since 2000, a 5-person jury comprising of an architectural critic, a foreign architect, two Irish architects and a distinguished non-architect have judged the awards. The composition of the jury ensures a balance between an international perspective and an understanding of the particular context in which Irish architects work.

This year the AAI awards exhibition is set to tour Ireland later in 2015, exhibiting in Cork, Carlow, Limerick and Belfast. The curators and designers of the exhibition are both young emerging talents:
Steven McNamara (Roji)
Darragh Breathnach

The 30th AAI awards jury consisted of;
Critic: Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian
Distinguished Non-architect: Amelia Stein, Photographer
Foreign Assessor: Kevin Carmody, Carmody Groarke Architects
Returning Downes Medal Winner & Irish Assessor: Alastair Hall, Hall McKnight Architects
Irish Assessor: Sarah Cremin, Cast Architecture