Buildings End

An Ultimology Drafting Room* 

An exhibition at the Irish Architectural Archive, 14 Sept. - 18 Oct. 2023; Daily Viewings at 12h00 of Making Dust (45-min, doc. film, dir. Fiona Hallinan, 2023) from 2 - 17 Oct. 2023

Buildings End. But they do not expire. Their life cycle is not contingent on a ‘best-before’. Buildings are elastic and material. They can decompose. They are often forced to end. What do we do with ‘out of use’ and ‘out of time’ buildings that remain standing, in semi-occupation or fallow? How can we incorporate an awareness of the ‘architectural end of life’, right from the beginning? 

The Department of Ultimology is a practice for looking closely at endings. In this temporary drafting room at the Irish Architectural Archive, we took the subject of architecture that is at risk of demolition or degradation to create a space of attention for this phenomenon. ‘Drafting’ here refers to a practice of gathering material and preparing a rough sketch.

Three categories of 'at risk' buildings were presented, which according to architectural historian Ellen Rowley, are too young or recent to be of historical significance, yet too old to be functional or relevant in the early 21st century. The buildings most susceptible to obsolescence in 2020s Ireland, Ellen says, are office buildings from c.1950 to c.1980, (older-than-50 years) housing blocks, and large scale 1950s and 1960s Catholic churches.

The drafting room offered a closer look at one building in particular, the Church of the Annunciation, Finglas West, Dublin, built in 1967 and demolished in 2021. This church was the subject of Making Dust, a film by artist Fiona Hallinan that chronicles its demolition as part of a broader documented contemplation by Ellen Rowley of the socio-cultural and architectural obsolescence of this generation of Irish Catholic churches. 

Together, Hallinan, Rowley and Kate Strain, as the Department of Ultimology considered the cultural, social and political rupture that the church’s demolition represents. In the drafting room visitors were presented with Hallinan's artwork framing collated fragments of Rowley’s research on architecture and Ultimology, including case studies of buildings and material from the Irish Architectural Archive and other sources.

Groups were welcomed to use the drafting room as a space for guided study.

*A reading room/ drafting room / workspace/ studio/ lab/ research and learning space looking at the subject of architecture that is at risk

This project was supported by Kunstverein Aughrim and the Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Project Award 2021 and was presented at VISUAL Carlow, Ireland, from February 4th to May 14th 2023 and from September 14th to October 18th 2023 at the Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin, Ireland. With special thanks to the Irish Architectural Archive.

[Image credit: Lansdowne House under construction, 1967. Tyndall Hogan Hurley Collection, Irish Architectural Archive. Photography by Faolán Carey. ]