O'Donnell + Tuomey

Book excerpt: In today's Ireland, it's not only the economy that's booming. Dublin-based architects O'Donnell + Tuomey have brought a wealth of exciting buildings to the Emerald Isle for the past seventeen years. Their striking modernist works show their appreciation for Ireland's rich cultural, historic, and civic identity without falling into the trap of typical pitched roofs, gables, slate, and brick. Instead the firm chooses less conventional but more fitting materials that seem to express something not quite visible about their sites. O'Donnell + Tuomey, the first monograph on the firm, presents fifteen of their institutional and residential projects in an arresting collection of color photography, plans, and drawings. The book includes the controversial Irish Pavilion at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ranelagh Multidenominational School, the Irish Pavilion at the 2004 Venice Biennale, and their recent Glucksman Gallery at the University College Cork, which was one of six buildings shortlisted for the 2005 Stirling Prize.