Flying the green flag for Irish architects

A new generation of green architecture is dawning — with Irish design right at the cutting edge. The Government has set a hugely ambitious target for Ireland’s new housing to be carbon neutral by 2013. As a key step in this process, a €100m national insulation programme to “retrofit” Irish homes was unveiled by the Government last month. Sustainable Energy Ireland chief executive Professor J Owen Lewis believes the technology necessary to make us carbon neutral already exists today. But he argues that we need to radically review the way we build, to innovate in our business models and to consistently deliver high standards. Our beleaguered housebuilders are desperately concentrating all their energies on shifting their stock of unsold houses at present. Our architects, on the other hand, are to the fore internationally in paving the way for the next generation of “sustainable” buildings.

The Irish Independent