RIAI Public Choice Award 2025

This outdoor performance and learning space for a Quaker grammar school in Lisburn emerged in the post-covid, outdoor learning landscape. The design draws from Quaker symbolism and values, and was informed by workshops with art, music and technology pupils. The resultant undulating, sculptural pavilion canopy – made in Corten Steel with Iroko-clad supports – emerged out of close design-team collaboration during production and was delivered on time to a tight budget and timeframe.

This project is an urban infill residential project containing 11 Apartments. The site, which contained three distinct plots, was long derelict. By retaining the façade, which was kept as an open screen to the middle plot, a new full height, atrium space was formed. The atrium acts as a semi-public social space while providing daylight and air to the apartments. It also reveals conservation works to the original party wall.

This project examines how a mixed-use development can respond to the challenges of  building on an overlooked urban infill site. It acts as a catalyst for city-centre habitation and provides a stimulating living and working environment. The six-storey mixed-use development comprises 25 apartments in five stories over a ground floor enterprise unit with basement level parking and ancillary facilities. The main shared amenity spaces include a first-floor communal garden and a resident-only rooftop terrace.

Achilles is a unique refurbishment of a Hampstead terraced house, featuring a striking marble extension that enhances the ground floor’s connection to the garden. The design introduces light and space to the previously dark spaces, with a functional, serene interior. The project focuses on improved circulation, storage, and flexible dining areas, using durable yet beautiful materials to suit the needs of a busy family with children.

The studio was built on a vacant site at the end of a long garden, to the rear of a terraced house.  A shed-like structure, its sloping roof protects views to the dome of Rathmines church. The floor plan is rectangular with a ‘bite’ taken out to protect two existing birch trees. The mono-pitched section, a single volume with upper floor mezzanine, exploits the level difference between street and lane.

Arklow Wastewater Treatment Plant is the first time an architect has been a part of the design team for such a building. The result is civic infrastructure – a building that speaks of the public good. Enabling development of the town alongside clean waters (river and sea) it sets an optimistic future for Arklow, and the potential for Ireland’s urban and infrastructural development to deliver care, excellence and innovation.

The Athlone Greenway Bridge spans 104m across the Shannon and forms a critical part of the Dublin to Galway cycle route. The bridge aligns with the dome of the church on the west bank and the hotel courtyard on the east. It stands a polite distance away from the existing Custume Bridge. High level springing points allow river navigation below and shallow ramps connect down to riverside walkways on each bank.

The Bailieborough Bridewell Conservation/Adaptive Reuse Project is an architectural proposal based on the three ‘Cs’ of Community, Conservation and Commercial. The design features a series of linked spaces that foster community engagement, while ensuring economic viability. A quality-driven, conservation approach preserves the site’s history, while integrating modern functionality. This adaptive reuse strategy revitalises the Bridewell, balancing public, cultural and commercial uses to create a sustainable, vibrant community hub.

A new gate lodge has been constructed at the entrance to Beechville Estate, enabling a young farming family to be close to their parental home. The cruciform floor plan generates an open living space and three bedrooms, as well as four external covered terraces at each corner. A circular void at the mezzanine level creates a generous area for the family to inhabit, with a tented pyramidal roof and rooflight overhead.

A new Monastery sits on the edge of Pollacappul Lough, under the rugged Duchruach Mountain and close to Kylemore Abbey. Context, scale, materiality, and visual assimilation were never more important. The form of the monastery springs from a central garth and cloister before emerging outwards in a series of brick volumes of varying height, width and scale resulting in a building that rests peacefully within its context.

An age-friendly community scheme in Tallaght, comprising of eight terraced one-bed bungalows and four two-bed apartments. The accommodation has been arranged around a courtyard with communal gardens that foster a sense of connection and tranquillity. A community room provides shared facilities for residents. This project is an exemplar for universal design principals, creating an inviting, sustainable environment that can be enjoyed by all, regardless of their age, health or ability.

Situated on a tree-lined avenue in Glasnevin, this project transforms a 1950s red-brick semi-detached home, blending thoughtful restoration with contemporary design. Carefully considered interventions – a reimagined front entrance, light filled courtyard, and seamless indoor / outdoor connections – enhance functionality, accessibility and energy efficiency. Balancing past and present, the project elevates a typical suburban home into an adaptable, future-proofed living space, demonstrating how sensitive, high-quality design unlocks the potential of existing housing stock.

This project seeks to provide a compact contemporary mews house for a couple who are looking to downsize into a functional and energy efficient home. It relates to its suburban context in scale, form and material but is contemporary in detail. Light is drawn down into the ground floor living space through a void to create a sense of openness and generosity within the compact plan.

Church Square in Monaghan has been transformed into a vibrant, flexible public space that enhances civic life and local economy. Replacing street clutter, wide roads and a taxi rank with an enlarged plaza has created an adaptable square with tree-lined edges, limestone paving and multipurpose lighting. The space hosts markets, festivals, and serves as a daily gathering place, balancing heritage preservation with modern infrastructure.

Dublin's North Docklands have been transformed with these twin buildings embedded in a thoughtfully designed urban landscape. The Coopers Cross development prioritises placemaking through its manipulated streetscape, creating sheltered, stepped public areas. Both structures respond organically to this terrain, with upper floors cantilevering to maximise ground-level openness. Below street level, the buildings connect through an accessible cultural space that integrates seamlessly with the public realm above.

The Irish construction industry accounts for 6% of the employed population but generates 48% of all waste produced in Ireland. Demolition Take Down is a research and engagement initiative aimed at revolutionising Ireland's demolition practices. The project seeks to uncover the underlying motivations and current challenges behind demolition practices in Ireland, and through explorative research and cross-disciplinary conversations, aims to shift attitudes and behaviours within the construction industry.

This new Galway bridge, Droichead an Dóchais, complements the Salmon Weir bridge and provides a calm and safe crossing for pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge traverses three waterways and responds to create three distinct public places within a coherent composition. The approaches flare outward to ease connectivity between west and east and to funnel people to the principal span across the River Corrib, creating a desirable route between the University and the city centre.

The five-storey brick-clad Dublin Simon Community building creates a high-quality urban bookend to the last city block before Guinness’s St. James Gate and establishes a new gateway landmark on the western approach to the city along the River Liffey. The building reimagines the materiality and proportions of Dublin’s Georgian vernacular and reflects the values of Dublin Simon Community who are providing enduring care for the city’s most vulnerable citizens.

Harcourt Terrace ETNS is a new 26-classroom primary school in Dublin. Making use of its location on the leafy Grand Canal, circulation and common areas are activated to provide a range of new informal leaning and social spaces. Classes open to ’activity corridors’ for shared resources. The interlocked common areas have a robust, urban feel. The intention is to create an internal world for the children to learn and grow. Harcourt Terrace ETNS was the winning design in the RIAI Architectural Design Competition for an Urban School for the Department of Education in 2015.

A Victorian house overlooking the Royal Hospital Donnybrook is subtly reconfigured. A new space, enveloped by a timber screen, opens to the landscape and draws the park life into the home, while preserving a sense of privacy. The kitchen has been relocated to the entrance level and anchors daily routine within the plan. The intervention in this home is measured - accessibility and historical fabric held in equilibrium, the form floating above the historic wall.

471m of water separates the communities to east and west of Lough Corrib – 50 minutes by road or 5 minutes by boat. Lough Corrib 471 connects communities and transformed the piers of Kilbeg and Knockferry into vibrant, interactive sites of community, cultural and architectural engagement in collaboration with four local schools, community groups and local artists. Their work has culminated in interactive installations on both piers, inspired by fieldtrips and co-design workshops.

Monaghan Peace Campus was designed as an inclusive ‘living room’ for the people of Monaghan. Envisaged as a permeable sculptural form, the architecture and urban realm respond to the diverse townscape, transforming a brownfield site into a symbol of a positive future for the town. The built form gathers a museum, library and youth hub around accessible community spaces and provides shelter to public spaces integrated within the surrounding streetscape.

This research project focuses on sustainable adaptation to climate and community change in the coastal town of Mulranny on Europe’s western periphery. The body of work developed beyond the original commission to examine a spatial plan for the town centre of Mulranny. It has extended to research, test and make proposals for the town-LAND and LANDSCAPE. It asks how we find our way through, and situate ourselves in, the moving social, cultural and environmental landscape, which is shaped and scarred by both the static and dynamic – infrastructure, settlement, economy, climate, way.

Located in the north-east inner city of Dublin, Railway Court provides 47 homes for people and families on the housing waiting list along with facilities for the wider community. It has been developed by Circle VHA on a 0.36-hectare brownfield site made vacant following the demolition of the Liberty House Flats. The design prioritises the creation of a high-quality living environment that enhances the social, environmental and visual quality of its area.

This design drapes a light framework of metal and glass around a 1930s semi-detached dwelling, deploying local industry and building trades in a contemporary interpretation of a ‘long gallery’. This new addition to the home creates a panoptic relationship with the north-east facing rear garden, while harmonising with the original house and mediating the requirements of light and privacy on the street facing façade.

This project’s ambition was to bring the community of Tuam together to address the issue of vacancy within the town. The ‘Vacant to Vibrant’ project team set out to reactivate Tuam's High Street by looking at current pockets of vacancy and dereliction, memories of a more vibrant past, and the inspiration of local businesses. The Tuam project is one of five projects in the Irish Architecture Foundation’s Reimagine Hometown Architect initiative, which focuses on the revitalisation of Ireland’s towns and villages.

Architecture shapes the built environment and influences the material world, a privilege deeply intertwined with societal needs, cultural values and technological advancements. A new idiom is now emerging, which challenges the current status quo – the ethos of 'demolish nothing’, as championed by French architects Lacaton and Vassal. As the discipline of architecture looks to conserve the embodied energy of structures, it must embrace retention, repair, and impermanence. This research explores an ethos of Retention, Repair and Anticipation in an era of environmental breakdown. 

This is Ireland’s first citizen-led elderly housing initiative. Located at the former St. Michael’s Estate in Inchicore, the 52 new homes have been designed for adaptable living with flexible support options. The layout is focused on public and private courtyards with open-air galleries fostering social engagement, while ensuring a sense of secure living. The project was developed by CVHA with support from ALONE, Dublin City Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the HSE as a new typology for older persons' housing in Ireland.

Covered Space acts as a meeting place, an event space, a place to sit or enjoy, and an orientation point for the town of Roscommon. It is intended to possess a kind of enigmatic emptiness, a space that is waiting for something to happen. While it has a positive uncertainty regarding use, it is specific in terms of place and material, responding to the cadence of the existing environment.

Sadler’s Wells East provides a dedicated, flexible space for contemporary dance, combining a generous stage for performers with an intimate audience experience. With choreographic school and hip-hop academy, the building aims to foster creativity, excellence, and community engagement, with a focus on new dance work, education, and open access for Stratford’s diverse community. Housing a flexible dance theatre and six choreography studios, the building bookends a terrace of new cultural buildings on London’s East Bank in the Olympic Park.

The school is approached obliquely from the side, addressing a sweeping curve of pasture, bounded by woodland within a demesne landscape. The plan is arranged in a ‘C’ shape, with classroom blocks around a central courtyard, opening at the corners and ends, creating social spaces. Top-lit corridors punctuate the interior, providing light and structural clarity. The architects have chosen a restrained palette of materials and colours with the blue-brick and gold clock creating a focal point.

This is a new twelve-classroom primary school in Ballina Co. Mayo. Scoil Naomh Bríd Culleens also features a two-classroom integrated Special Education Needs unit. The school is filled with daylight, delight, colour and joy serving the education and wellbeing of 330 children from five to twelve-years old.

A musician inhabited this Victorian dairy in East London for twenty years alongside a recording studio and shop; it is now home to his young family. The architects connected the various parts of the property for the first time with a glazed link, adding only five square metres via ‘Permitted Development’, while opening up a new courtyard. Insulated, stepping terrazzo floors unify the various parts, upon which sit new timber furniture-like elements.

Springvale Grove creates 71 new homes in Chapelizod for Dublin City Council. Using just six modular dwelling typologies, it provides a range of one, two and three-bed homes, a community hall and shared amenity spaces. Innovative offsite construction methods have enabled rapid delivery of the high-quality, low-carbon homes. The exterior elevations are inspired by the historic centre of Chapelizod village and its setting next to the Phoenix Park, to create a distinct sense of place.

This single-storey house in a Dublin terrace is carefully reconfigured to provide bright, generous and accessible living and working space around a south-facing courtyard. A service spine along the north party wall connects the dining room, study and bedroom, which pinwheel around the courtyard. A glazed brick wall with opening screens anchors the outdoor space, while a new Douglas Fir roof structure spans the surrounding areas.

Designed as a prototype terraced house, the simple and compact external appearance conceals an exceptionally rich and spacious interior, defined by interconnecting rooms with contrasting ceiling heights. A structure of exposed CLT mass timber wall, floor and roof panels further enhances the internal quality and character. Occupant comfort is intrinsic to the passive design that ensures good air quality and minimises the need for heating which also limits energy use.

Terzetto created a light-filled haven in a conservation area, connecting the apartment to its garden. Calm materials and craftsmanship enhance this connection. The flexible home maximises garden views. Curated materials and sculpted openings create a natural, textural environment. Conceptually, the extension is a canted bay, minimising impact, while evoking Victorian architecture. The design reinterprets bay windows, drawing on the area's context, and creating a home at one with its surroundings.

The refurbishment of the Grade II listed Exeter College Library combines sensitive heritage repair with carefully crafted contemporary interventions. The project breathes new life into one of George Gilbert Scott's most significant works at the University of Oxford. Every element has been designed to enhance the library’s functionality, while preserving its historic character for future generations. Sustainability was a key driver, shaping its design, construction and use.

The Reason of Towns is an engaging and ambitious touring exhibition by the IAF of the work of architect, Valerie Mulvin. It makes a public occasion for the telling and retelling of true stories, lost traditions and possible futures for Irish towns and the people who live in them. A published record of over 30 years of study, new analysis and documentation of the Irish town formed the starting point for this exhibition. The aim was to present that research to as wide an audience as possible to ensure that the information, knowledge and architectural expertise therein was widely disseminated, including three new films and a town-specific talks programme on each stop of the national tour.

A 400-m stretch of coastline with a 9-m drop has been reimagined and opened up as part of this complex public infrastructure project. An Edwardian pavilion has been refurbished to house a café, toilets and artist studios. A new walkway between Newtownsmith’s promenade and Dún Laoghaire’s East Pier offers various resting and viewing points. Accessible ramps, seating and landscaping connect all levels, and a sculpture of Roger Casement sits on a new jetty.

The Tolka Estuary Greenway at Dublin Port is a 2.2km long public realm shared surface route that has delivered dramatic views of the city, bay and port activity from lands that were previously inaccessible marginal lands. The greenway design choreographs a series of three distinct character spaces, three Forts on the Edge of Dublin City, with a layer of interpretation celebrating the Port’s industrial heritage and history – accessible to all.

Trinity’s Campanile Tower, a nationally recognisable landmark, was in urgent need of repair to secure its structural integrity and conserve its cultural and architectural significance. Under the architect’s guidance conservation works were carried out by expert craftsmen, employing the highest standards, to ensure the retention of existing historic fabric and reinstatement of important features. Improvements to access and protection, and reversal of inappropriate previous works formed part of the works.

The design for this extension and garden room to a protected Edwardian house is inspired by the rich building culture of the neighbourhood and the haphazard history of the kitchens and service buildings. The design draws from this heritage, made new with two new main rooms that adopt the warmth of the existing house’s red brick. It makes rooms that feel contemporary and connected, indoors and outdoors disappearing behind the garden wall.

Two Grand Parade exemplifies design excellence, skilfully merging heritage preservation with modern architecture. The extension complements the protected structure, enabling contemporary functionality whilst respecting original design principles through thoughtful material selection. Complex façade work and meticulous restoration, alongside the reinstated entrance plaza and water feature, create an exceptional office environment that enhances the surrounding community space.

This is a sensitive, sustainable remodelling of a Victorian terraced dwelling. The existing house connects to a new two-storey extension at garden and return level, availing of the rear garden’s sunny southerly orientation. Additions are facilitated by a timber glulam cruciform structure. The ground floor is an open space organised under four quadrants and free from vertical structure, while the first-floor return is built upon and occupies one quadrant above.

The project comprises repairs and alterations to the Grade II listed Westminster Coroner’s Court of 1893 on Horseferry Road and the construction of a two-storey, barrel-vaulted extension to accommodate much-needed additional facilities which address the evolving needs of the Coroner’s service. The stone-clad structure is formed of cross-laminated timber over a concrete basement. The development incorporates courtyard gardens for remembrance and reflection and stained glass artworks by Sir Brian Clarke.

A refurbishment and rehabilitation of a derelict 1840s Protected Structure, reinstating it as a family home. Previously used as a crèche, non-original elements were removed and careful repairs undertaken. A former void was retained and creates unexpected connections and light in the interior. Uncovered surface patinas were celebrated and worked into the final finishes. Furniture and textures create comfortable and flexible spaces for living and working.

This is an exciting new landmark building for Tallaght, located at the head of a new linear park. A taut green metal and glass-clad box commands the site with strong night and day presence. Four storeys high, the ground floor is a public space and you can see through from side-to-side. Work IQ is full of activity with café, social space and meeting areas. Three floors of offices look over Tallaght and mountains beyond.