Kevin Donovan sees the Commissioners of Irish Lights Headquarters in Dún Laoghaire as an instrument of communication and vigilance
In the foyer of a new building in Dún Laoghaire Harbour, stand a number of Fresnel lenses, long since decommissioned from lighthouses. Utilitarian yet sculptural objects, these large composites of faceted and bowed glass are designed to capture the oblique rays from a light source and transform them into a beam to be projected out over the sea. Thus, from a single point, an object of extreme constructional and material efficiency may allow the wide maritime landscape to be made safer for navigation. These lenses seem to be metaphors for their new home, the headquarters for the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
Ireland’s most highly regarded architectural émigré is the subject of a new publication and a USA-based exhibition; Ellen Rowley looks at his legacy