Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry - architects who have become so famous that even readers of Heat magazine know their names. Like celebrity chefs and gardeners, starchitects don't do understated - their designs are often showy and grandiose, such as Gehry's design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or the tower designs Libeskind submitted for the site of the World Trade Center.

When did they appear?

Starchitects have been around since the Renaissance, when the likes of Giorgio Vasari worked under the Medicis, through such Enlightenment figures as Christopher Wren, and 20th-century celebs such as Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Why are they in the news?

They're starchitects - everything they do is news!

Okay, what's the latest news on them, then? Developers in Dublin are sparing no expense to bring in the starchitects to put their individual stamp on various large-scale projects. They're hoping that, with a high-profile name on board, local authorities will be more likely to give the project the go-ahead, and the public will be dazzled enough not to grumble when the finished edifice looks like a giant sandwich mounted on a stepladder.

So, if you let them build it, they will come?

If the price is right. And as long as you don't tell them what to do. Fame has gone to many of these starchitects' heads, and their designs often reflect their over-developed egos, and not the needs of the people using the amenity. Often they'll design something that clashes with the locality, and impose their signature style on everything, no matter how incongruous it looks. You won't know what the building is for, but you'll sure know who designed it.

So, who's coming to Dublin, and should we roll out the red carpet (or is it all paisley AstroTurf these days)?

Polish architect Daniel Libeskind, whose works include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, has designed the revised Grand Canal Square development in Dublin's Docklands. It will include a diamond-shaped 2,000-seater theatre.

So will the Docklands development be similarly out of tune with its surroundings?

Not at all. Libeskind says he always looks for local references when designing a project. The colours of the proposed buildings were inspired by the Book of Kells, says Libeskind, and the whole scheme is meant to provide "an architectural expression of the vitality of Dublin".

Try at home:Our house was designed by a starchitect, don't you know, so we won't be worrying about any silly old property crash.

Try at work:So, I turn left at the galleon made of twigs, and the men's room is the third Campbell's soup can on the right?

- Kevin Courtney