The second big object is what O'Donnell and Tuomey call the "Scary House". This is a work of architecture in its own right, but skewed architecture: a house that could also be a chapel or from some angles even a boat or lobster pot. It's a structure within a structure, and the two parts are at odds with each other, fighting each other but held firmly together - indeed supporting each other. The building is also a kind of landscape, since in part it has a sandy, beach-like floor. This is an oblique commentary on the history of Letterfrack, and of vernacular buildings and the topography of the region. The Industrial School was indeed a Scary House for many of those forced to inhabit it. There is a sense of confinement and release: the Scary House closes in on you at one end, but opens out into the world at the other. This is interesting, intuitive, design.
As well as the Open Frame and the Scary House, the room contains what they call a "standing panel", an angled triptych of architectural drawings. This turns out to have been derived from the sawtooth geometry of the roof structure of the college's Bench Room where furniture is made. There is also a vertically-mounted wooden model of the project, braced between floor and roof beams in such a way as to play off the existing Venetian structure. And finally, there is something that is wholly rural Ireland: a modern interpretation of the settle bench, made by students at the college. It has the essentials: a shelf at the top of the backrest, storage under the lift-up bench seat, and a drop-down table top. The architects used it as their base for the opening of the show, and visitors use it to sit and read. It demonstrates what the college is all about.
Generally, when you look at a piece of work such as this, you find things that irk you. Architects often do not make good exhibition designers, and vice versa: you can see the fault line. Here, there is nothing I would want to add or take away or even amend. Real, emotionally-charged and informative architecture in an architecture exhibition? You'd be surprised how uncommon that is.
