This year's AAI awards are notable for being few and far between, with not a medal winner among them, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

What is it about some juries that they can be so mean? The Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) has now been dispensing annual awards for architectural excellence for more than 20 years, but this time the jury couldn't pick a project that deserved the Downes Medal.

Of the 96 entries for the 2007 AAI Awards, the one that came closest to winning the medal was the North Campus at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), by de Blacam and Meagher and Boyd Barrett Murphy O'Connor. But the jury decided not to award it the medal.

De Blacam and Meagher is not short of accolades, but it seems almost churlish to deny them and their collaborators on this occasion, especially as the comments made by jury members - all reproduced in the Gandon Editions book - were so positive.

Mary McCarthy, distinguished non-architect on the jury, observed that the new CIT campus is "all very restrained and considered" and also felt "quite solemn and solid", compared to the original "temporary-looking and banal" buildings from the late-1960s "with no sense of aspiration for the institute or the site".

For Robert Payne, of Cullen Payne Architects, it was the little things that caught his eye, such as the (not so little) covered yard in the student centre, which he described as "robustly architectural. It isn't the usual touchy-feely aesthetic that's creeping into many of these institutions nowadays."

Luis Fernandes-Galiano, editor of Arquitectura Viva, rightly detected the spirit of the late Louis Kahn - long a hero for Shane de Blacam - at work in CIT. "This complex project exudes effort and tenacity," he said. "There is a real professional craftsmanship in the details, and a tactile sensibility in the materials."

His complaint was about the presentation, on two standard panels. "You know the architects and what they are capable of. You know the work itself, but otherwise you are left guessing," he said.

"It's a pity we don't have a chance to see it," added Jonathan Woolf, head of Aberdeen School of Architecture.

According to him: "This year's was not the boldest crop of projects. The fact that the most powerful piece of work was one of the smallest confirms my feeling that strength does not reside in scale, and that the urge to obsess about spectacle and those who produce it is not an interesting one."

The project Woolf was referring to is a square-shaped holiday home with a pyramid-like roof near Ballyconneely, Co Galway, by de Paor Architects, which members of the jury commended for its modesty and its "absolute appropriateness to the site", as McCarthy put it. Payne even saw it as "sort of flawless".

Perhaps the jury couldn't agree on whether this project, or the CIT campus, should get the medal. One sure thing, according to Payne, was that "the trend for box-in-the-garden houses and extensions, popularised by award-winners over the years, was rejected very early on as an idea past its time".

For another jury member, Peter McGovern of Henry J Lyons and Partners, the "apparent lack of commitment to sustainability" was a great disappointment - except for schemes that wore their environmental agenda like a badge of honour - a "green style" he described as an architectural cul-de-sac.

Woolf was impressed by the "cultured engagement [ of Irish work] within the European architectural scene" while Fernandes-Galiano said it "exudes effort and tenacity, attention to urban context and attachment to rural landscape, professional craftsmanship in the details and tactile sensibility in the materials".

Two of the awards went to arts centres - one in Navan, Co Meath, by Grafton Architects, and the other in Thurles, Co Tipperary, by McCullough Mulvin Architects - even though the assessors had quibbles with both projects, notably about the ways in which they relate to their respective urban contexts.

McGovern thought the Solstice Arts Centre in Navan was a "very strong piece" that would help to "re-anchor" the town centre in this era of sprawl. "As a new cultural space that's trying to revitalise the town, it certainly is very successful," said McCarthy, who is arts manager of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

But Fernandez-Galiano thought "the socialism of the project is trying too hard. I think everything is very refined, with some architectural moments of careful consideration. But on the whole, I cannot figure if the work has this excellence that we are trying to find." Payne also found "too many flaws" in the project.

As for the Source Arts Centre and Library in Thurles, McCarthy was impressed by the fact that it was trying to reconnect the town with the River Suir. But Payne found its "industrial skin" of metal cladding "disturbing" for a civic building and Woolf observed that there was "a certain crudeness" about it.

The last two of the six award-winners could not be more different: Riverside One, on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin, by Scott Tallon Walker, and a shack-like house in the countryside in Co Leitrim, by Dominic Stevens.

McCarthy, who passes by Riverside One every day on her way to work, was impressed by its clean lines, use of timber and subtly changing colours, while McGovern liked its cylindrical rooflight because of the contrast this makes with the uniformity of height of so many other buildings in the Docklands area.

The Mimetic House near Dromahair, an artist's home and studio half-buried in the landscape, had "that lightness of touch that you sometimes see in vernacular structures in the Irish landscape, like in barns", according to McCarthy, or the equally characteristic abandoned tractor, as McGovern put it.

Among the six Special Mentions, one domestic extension did make the cut; a project called "Brick Thickness", by A2 Architects, at Cowper Drive, in Ranelagh; it was consciously designed to respond to the fact that the rear gardens backing onto the Luas line has led to a blurring of private and public space.

FKL's social housing in Ballymun won praise for its sinuous, twisting geometry and almost sculptural quality which Payne saw as breaking the "suburban spell" of standard two-storey houses. "What it's trying to do for social housing ... is commendable as a model of good practice," said McCarthy.

The renovation and extension of Cork County Hall by Shay Cleary Architects also featured. The re-cladding of the tower was seen by jury members as the real success although, as McCarthy noted, the new foyer and council chamber work very well.

* The AAI Awards exhibition opens to the public next Tuesday at the Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square, for three days, before transferring to FilmBase, on Curved Street, Temple Bar, from April 30th until May 9th, and later to other venues. The book, New Irish Architecture 22, is published by Gandon Editions (€20).

The winners

AWARDS

• North Campus, Cork Institute of Technology: de Blacam and Meagher/Boyd Barrett Murphy O'Connor
• House at Aill Breac, Ballyconneely, Co Galway: de Paor Architects
• Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co Meath: Grafton Architects
• Source Arts Centre and Library, Thurles, Co Tipperary: McCullough Mulvin Architects
• Riverside One, Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2: Scott Tallon Walker Architects
• Mimetic House, Co Leitrim: Dominic Stevens Architects

SPECIAL MENTIONS

• Brick Thickness, 11 Cowper Drive, Dublin 6: A2 Architects (Peter Carroll and Caomhán Murphy)
• St Jude's Residence, Glengowla, Co Galway: Boyer Kennihan Architects
• Redevelopment of Cork County Hall: Shay Cleary Architects
• Social Housing, Ballymun: FKL Architects
• Cavan Institute, Cathedral Road, Cavan: McCullough Mulvin Architects
• Knocktopher Friary, Co Kilkenny: ODOS Architects and O'Shea Design Partnership