Fresh from the success of their first housing scheme at Balgaddy, Howley Harrington Architects has produced an illustrated booklet Repair and Reuse outling their approach to architectural conservation.
What they regard as important is to "find innovative ways of breathing new life into old buildings in a pragmatic and viable way, without losing those qualities that make historic buildings so beautiful and memorable".
One of their core principles is that one of the common threads linking buildings of the past, present and future is design. Thus, where contemporary interventions are required, they should be "honest expressions of their own time".
The architects strongly favour repair and retention rather than restoration and renewal, "as the latter approach often results in the needless replacement of perfectly sound historic fabric by speculative, sham-historic reconstruction".
Sometimes, as they say, old buildings only need the equivalent of "a crutch or a collar to keep them intact, upstanding and useful for many years to come". In other words, the Howley Harrington philosophy is one of minimal intervention.
They have carried out important work on the unique complex of Edwin Lutyens buildings on Lambay Island, off the Fingal coast, including masonry and window repairs and the replacement of 1970s cement pointing with lime mortar.
The castle had not been heated effectively since the 1930s and, since the island is not connected to the national grid, a 25kv wind turbine was erected to provide electricity for portable heaters which are moved from room-to-room in rotation.
Other projects include the restoration of a gazebo and temple at Dromoland Castle and the faithful rebuilding of the lightning-damaged Browne Clayton Column near New Ross, Co Wexford, which is one of the most remarkable follies in Ireland.
Howley Harrington Architects also prepared a comprehensive plan for Aldborough House, Dublin's last great Georgian town mansion, which not only restored its fabric but also added new wings.
But the plan has been pigeonholed for the moment.
The architects, who designed the Millennium Footbridge, previously produced a booklet Places for People in which they set out their approach to social housing. That philosophy is in the process of being realised in Balgaddy, west Dublin.
More information from Howley Harrington Architects by phone 01-8740526 or e-mail info@hharchitects.net.
