JMLA win RIAI Award for Research in Architecture 2021

We were delighted to receive the award for Research in Architecture in collaboration with Professor Gary A. Boyd of Queens University Belfast from the RIAI in this year’s professional awards. The award is for our Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for  St Brendan’s Community School in Birr Co. Offaly. Our research analysed the significance of the school under a number of categories and introduced social science methodologies to map the significance of the building to its users. This mapping enabled us to identify the relationships between the physical fabric of the building and the social experience of the students and teachers. The award citation recognises that we developed new methodologies for conservation research that are particularly suited to the conservation of modern architecture. The CMP has been adopted by the Department of Education to guide the future development of the school and as a template for conserving its wider estate. The project was funded by a research grant from the Getty Foundation under its Keeping it Modern programme for the conservation of significant buildings of the twentieth century.