Papers of James Meenan – Move of UCD to Belfield

30 U.C.D. and the Future

with workshops for the building trades apprentices taking courses there -- an asset of great value. The issue therefore which must be decided at top level is whether there is justification for the provision from public funds of two equally elaborate and well-equipped schools of Architecture situated in the one city to serve a maximum number of approximately 200 students.

The functions of the two Schools

Until recent years the Bolton Street school did not attract the best entrants to the profession, the U.C.D. school being unquestionably the premier school. While this state of affairs prevailed, the two schools could be said to fulfil separate functions, Bolton Street catering for those who did not matriculate or who could not afford the university course. However, there have been significant changes in recent years, the cumulative effect of which has been to establish the Bolton Street school as equal if not superior. The results of these changes are to be seen in the successful record of Bolton Street students and alumni in recent open competitions and in the high esteem in which the graduates of this school are held by the senior members of the profession, indicative of which was the inclusion of the phrase 'preferably not University trained' in a press advertisement seeking the services of an architect ('Irish Times,' September 29, '59).

Apart from the raising of standards which has taken place at Bolton Street, it is now proposed that this school will be authorised to award a diploma having the status of a university degree, and that admission will be by an examination of the standard of Matriculation. When these plans materialise, the two schools of Architecture will cease to have separate functions, and a powerful incentive will exist for a shift in student numbers from U.C.D. to Bolton Street, as not only will equal or superior training be offered but it will be available at a much lower fee.

The effect of moving to Stillorgan Road

The view is widely held that schools of Architecture are best sited in busy urban areas close to the heart of the local building industry, trade and commerce, and that schools which divorce themselves from the industy tend to become purely academic. Whether the theory be valid or not, the removal of the university school to Stillorgan will take it away from close contact with the Royal Institute Library, the College of Arts, the Building Centre and not least the offices of the practising architects, quantity surveyors, contractors, builders providers and manufacturers. The effect of this must inevitably be to enhance further the status of the Bolton Street school vis-a-vis that of the University.

Conclusion

A possible solution to the problem of the future of architectural education in Ireland may lie in the University school specialising in purely academic and professional formation while the College of Technology would provide the technical training. Any such scheme of amalgamation would, of course, be made much more difficult by the removal of the U.C.D. school from its present location. The problems, however, are properly the concern of the educational committees of the professional institutes, who alone are competent to provide the solutions. The University authorities cannot be ignorant of the problems

Problems in the Proposed Move 31

confronting the profession with regard to the future education of its members and in the circumstances it is difficult to imagine that the University would, if dependent on its own resources, embark on spending £250,000 on a school of Architecture at the present time.

Until the problems are resolved, it would be unjustifiable for the Government to sanction expenditure of this order from public funds for a school which might never be required.

The Inefficient Use of Space and Equipment

In the teaching laboratories and workshops of a university, all too frequently the 'efficiency of plant utilisation is deplorably low.' A discussion of this problem by Sir Eric Ashby will be found in Appendix G.

When overcrowding is absent, the laboratories and workshops, in all but the final advanced years, may be in use for no more than three or four hours a day during term, and in some subjects, and depending on the curriculum and time-table, perhaps on only two or three days a week. However, assuming that a workshop is in use for four hours every day of term and that the college is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with an hour for lunch, then the plant is in use for 50% of the time during term. But three terms extend in all to about 26 weeks in the year so the plant is in use for only 25% of the available time. If it is in use on only three days per week during term then the plant utilisation efficiency sinks to a mere 12 1/2%, i.e. expensive plant which could be turning out much needed technologists and technicians is lying idle for seven-eights of the time during normal 'working hours' on week-days throughout the year. This is not the way to get an adequate return on a heavy capital investment.

The advantage from this point of view in securing co-operation between universities and institutes of technology is obvious. Such institutes cater for evening as well as day students. They also provide part-time and 'sandwich' courses and short specialised courses both in and out of term. Even allowing for the fact that time is needed for 'cleaning up' say one hour after each threehour class, then the plant can be in operation for nine hours each day (i.e. taking a morning, an afternoon and an evening class). Further, the working year for the plant is extended from 26 weeks to something more like a calendar year.

Such considerations are amongst those that have operated in so many centres elsewhere to ensure the co-operation and co-ordination of universities and technological institutes, particularly in the subjects of Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering in which the capital cost of equipment is very high. In Dublin, can we afford, or is it logical to disregard this example?

Considerations in Regard to the Foregoing

We are of opinion that because of the lack of co-operation between the universities and the institutes of technology, the institutes have been forced into the position of providing full professional courses for those students who either cannot afford, or for other reasons do not wish, to attend a university. A position in the development of the institutes has now been reached in which