7. Shane O' Toole | GROUP 91

In this episode host Emmett Scanlon, talks to architecture critic Shane O' Toole. Back in the 1980s a group of young and eager architects began working together in a loose collective, anxious to make things happen in Dublin city. By 1991, this group formalised as Group 91 and contained among others, Shelley McNamra, Yvonne Farrell (Grafton Architects), John Tuomey and Sheila O Donnell, Mc Cullough Mulvin architects and McGarry NiEanaigh. As we approach the 30th anniversary of Group 91, the conversation begins with Shane recalling how he and he colleagues set it up and how they went about initiating and then winning the ground breaking and landmark design competition for Temple Bar in Dublin, a moment in our urban history, and, as one critic put it, that put Irish architecture finally on the public mind. Shane talks about how he was involved in the design and construction of the Ark, the cultural centre for children and the adjoining arch in Temple Bar as part of Group 91. The conversation moves to Shane's career as a critic for the Sunday Times, becoming a writer, hunting down the stories of Irish architects and his work as an advocate for Irish architecture in Europe and beyond.

Music is by Rachael Lavelle. If you enjoy the podcast please rate it on iTunes.

Shane O’Toole is an award-winning architectural critic and no longer practicing as an architect. A graduate in architecture from UCD and current Adjunct Associate Professor at the UCD School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy.

An honorary member of the AAI, he has served the profession as President of the AAI, Vice President of the RIAI, inaugural director of the Irish Architecture Foundation, Commissioner for the Venice Biennale and jury member of the Mies van der Rohe Award for contemporary European architecture. He co-founded DoCoMoMo International and DoCoMoMo Ireland, the heritage bodies, and is Chairman of the Irish Architectural Archive’s Collections Development Committee. He was a founder member of Group 91 Architects. He reintroduced the Downes Medal as the AAI’s premier award and established its annual international critic’s lecture programme.

He has co-edited monographs on Kevin Roche and Aldo Rossi, and curated exhibitions on Michael Scott, Liam McCormick and Noel Moffett, among others. He contributed to the pilot inventory of 20th-century architecture in Dublin. He wrote for The Sunday Times for ten years. A member of CICA, the International Committee of Architecture Critics, he was named International Building Press Architecture Writer of the Year in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Gandon also published a collection of his critical essays, 101 Hosannas for Architecture, in 2018.