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Grafton Architects Lecture - Vicent Ducatez
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Grafton Architects' buildings are often characterised by almost direct solutions, and a sense of monumental, or civic dignity, that, in an apparent paradox, one feels at ease with. These solutions are often simple, but not simplistic, resulting from a long process of working, re-working, editing, characterised by clear orthogonal plans and a crafted assembly of planes and cubic volumes. The palette gets richer in increments with each project forming a new conceptual distillate: clear abstract massing defying the relatively small scale of the project and acknowledging its larger context (Trinity College), the layering of the fa�ade to screen the inevitable domestic scale (Denzille Lane), a heavy concrete canopy forming threshold, again blurring the scale (Celbridge), a collage of material as a counterpoint to the monumental (North King Street). Perhaps nowhere more than in the Dunshaughlin Civic Offices, these concepts are better articulated with a humble brief made into a building of civic importance. As another argument, it is revealing in Trinity how the scale of ordinary objects - a radiator, a desk - contradicts at close range the dense pattern of glazing bars that accentuates the scale of the building. In all these projects, the issue and manipulation of scale - and more precisely the scaling-up - are prevalent.

The lecture offered Grafton Architects an opportunity to present other themes of increasing importance. While the exploration of structure started from a purely plastic approach in the bridges and the pillars at Trinity, the role and potential for structural rigour is clearly established in the Urban Institute. Here, the structural rationalization, rotated pillars of ordinary concrete blocks supporting exposed pre-cast planks, is born out of the necessity of the budget. This exploration of low cost solutions, tested differently in de Blacam and Meagher's library in Cork, becomes the starting point for the making of a strong communal space, offering spatial possibilities beyond the expediencies of the brief. This interest in the potential of structure, in terms of economy but mainly in terms of plasticity, is not different from the manipulation of scale. As demonstrated by the projects presented, a fire station in Drogheda and a school in Ballinasloe, structure and construction techniques serve similar purposes. In Drogheda, the need for a large free span hall is the generator of the project. The firemen's quarters are contained in a concrete bridge that stretches and compresses the void of the machine hall below, reaching the civic scale through the heroic. In Ballinasloe, instead of the usual light roof construction, the roof of the school is made of exposed pre-cast planks simply raised to create interwoven roof-lights in a manner similar to the Urban Institute. However in this case the project moves in an unexpected direction with the carving of a mineral mass - even the roofs are covered in concrete paviors. One could think of the rays of light filtering through the heavy roof of the built cave that forms the baths at Vals by Zumthor.