ACNI and Architecture Article in Perspective

The Arts Council has made it clear that it can make a positive difference in the development of environmental and civic design in Northern Ireland, through Lottery investment in new and refurbished buildings, design competitions, conferences and special awards.

Writing in the current issue of Perspective, the magazine of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects, Paul Harron, the Council's Architecture & Public Art Officer, emphasized the proactive role the Council has adopted since his appointment in January.

"Architecture and design are now recognised as art forms on an equal footing with the visual arts, music, drama and literature. This provides an opportunity to promote and lobby for the quality agenda within government. We wish to see a cross-departmental government policy on architecture and a climate which seeks design excellence at every opportunity, not least in projects produced at public expense."

Mr Harron said that assessing new capital building, refurbishment and public art applications, and monitoring the progress of current Lottery-funded projects (such as the almost complete Flowerfield Arts Centre in Portstewart), involved ensuring that projects follow best practice and pursue high quality in design.

He went on to stress that the Council looks to support truly creative collaborations between artists and architects and design teams at the outset of projects, and only makes grants to projects which select the most talented designers and procure good design.

Mr Harron pointed to the Council's sponsoring of a new Civic Trust Northern Ireland Public Realm Special Award, a unique annual award set up to recognize the best building or public art project in Northern Ireland, as a sign of the new determination of the Council to intervene positively in design issues. He also highlighted the Council's efforts to promote better understanding of the built environment in the education system, through a partnership project with the School of Architecture at Queen's University called Connections that will take architecture students into selected Belfast primary schools to work on design projects with children.