Temple Bar Frank McDonald, author and architectural critic, former Irish Times Environment Correspondent. As a long-time resident of Temple Bar, Frank shares his personal relationship with a quarter of the city famed for its history, culture and controversy. Hear about its medieval lanes, its early 90s transformation thanks to the Group 91 architects and the recent developments and current challenges from those who have lived and worked in the area.

Site Specific is a special commission of ten short documentaries by the Irish Architecture Foundation for Open House Dublin 2020. Dyehouse Films reveal the personalities, processes, complexity, creativity and transformative impact that surround the act of designed space. The protagonists: the site, the architect, the historian, the user, speak directly to the camera, they speak directly to us. Site Specific crosses the city, scales and building types from play parks, social housing, places of worship to a building not yet built. Taken individually, each 5-minute video has something of the condensed power of a short story. As with the best short stories, it is through the intense focus on the particular qualities of a particular space at a particular time, that much larger social and cultural themes are illuminated. Site Specific makes evident architecture’s great central responsibility – the shaping of the spaces that in turn shape society.

Director Bonnie Dempsey, Director of Photography Tom Comerford, Drone Paul Magee, Rerecording mixer Nikki Moss, Editor David O’Sullivan, Producer Aimie Gavin. Special Thanks Frank McDonald, Dr. Myles Campbell, Brian Moran, Colum O’Riordan, Hines Real Estate Ireland, United Metals, Picture Credits Irish Architectural Archive, The Irish Times, CIE Archive, UCD Digital Archive, Dublin City Council Archive, OPW Collection

Produced by Dyehouse Films 2020 ©

Irish Architecture Foundation

Opinions expressed are the contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Irish Architecture Foundation or Dyehouse Films.