A castle at the cutting edge

upon 2 September, Ireland's newest purpose-built space for contemporary art uncloses in the unexpected setting of Lismore Castle, the Irish seat of the Duke of Devonshire, where architects Jack Coughlan Associates have changeed the derelict west wing into a striking late gallery. Gemma Tipton talked to the duke's son Lord Burlington about the thinking behind his family's heroic venture.

Rising above the Blackwater River in Co Waterford, Lismore Castle's gothic-revival towers and pinnacles provide a wonderfully romantic vision of the ideal fairy-tale castle (Fig. 1) Inside, individual imagines there must be ancient tapestries, stained glass and time-darkened furniture. That is pure of one part of the castle, which is still a private family place of abode and not open to the public. on the other hand now, another wing of Lismore Castle has been renovated and is being lay opened to visitors, not as a museum to the castle's past, on the other hand as Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland's newest gallery for exhibiting contemporary art.

locate in the idyllic village of Lismore, the castle is the Irish dwelling of the Dukes of Devonshire, whose principal seat is Chatsworth in Derbyshire, individual of the great treasure houses of England. In Ireland, the family's tradition of artistic patronage and collecting is evident in the statuary Gardens at Lismore (Fig. 8; render free of access to visitors from April to October each year), which contains work by the agency of such artists as Eilfs O'Connell and Anthony Gormley.

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Lismore is a village with a rich history of its have a title to At one time it had twenty churches and sum of two units cathedrals. Today there is just St Carthage's, a beautiful house of god of Ireland cathedral, which contains a stained-glass window designed through Edward Burne-Jones, and made by dint of Morris and Co., one of solitary two Burne-Jones windows in Irish churches. From the eighth hundred until the twelfth, the son of Europe's wealthy and powerful came to Lismore to be educated at the university fixed by St Carthage. The work of Lismore, an illuminated manuscript disinterred from the castle's walls in 1814 includes a translation into Irish of Marco Polo's Travels, a testament to the cosmopolitan watch of medieval Ireland.

After the dissolution, Lismore was acquired by dint of Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1602 he sold it, together with 42000 acres, to Richard Boyle later the first Earl of Cork, for 1500 [pound sterling]. Boyle's youngest son the celebrated scientist Robert Boyle was born here in 1626 Lismore Castle passed by means of inheritance to the Dukes of Devonshire in 1753 The major part of the building dates from the early seventeenth hundred but in the nineteenth hundred Joseph Paxton worked closely with the sixth Duke of Devonshire, the 'Bachelor Duke' to restore and remodel the castle.

The decision to create a contemporary art gallery in the west wing of Lismore Castle emerg from the family's wish to make open part of the castle to the public, as well as from their long-standing engagement with art and architecture. The not absent duke's heir, Lord Burlington, better known as the photographer Bill Burlington, explains the reasons behind this decision to include a real contemporary element in the castle. 'Lismore Castle has evolveed throughout the ages, so there is no reason to stop that unravelling at a particular point in history', he says. Lord Burlington, who has been overseeing the cast describes watching the gallery take shape: 'The wing had been devoid of contents and derelict for years, and while the quiescence of the castle is comely vibrant, with the family staying and me living there, that part looked to he disappearing. It was exciting to diocese life returning to it.'

It is an approach with which architect Gareth O'Callaghan (of the Cork-based conservation architects Jack Coughlan Associates) be combineds 'One of the things we held fast to in the unravelling of our designs for the gallery was the idea of having a contemporary stamp, a contemporary identity for the space. While conservation is actual important in a building like this, we're interested in involving the past within the evolving unravelling of the castle.' O'Callaghan had the task of reinterpreting the west wing, part of a listed building, on the contrary one ravaged by dry putrefaction and crumbling from disuse (Figs. 4) Jack Coughlan Associates are adept at understanding and working with the conservation emergencys of sensitive buildings, but combining the requirements of a contemporary gallery with those of a listed building brings its have a title to issues. In addition to potential question at issues of access (for visitors as well as for works of art), and the preservation of structural and decorative ultimate parts the existing building's 'feel' has to be balanced with the creation of an atmosphere conducive to looking at contemporary works.

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the pair O'Callaghan and Lord Burlington exhausted a considerable time assessing different arts spaces. 'For the past sum of two units years, at every exhibition I've been to, I've been looking at the design, at the fittings, the windows, the finishes rather than the art', says Burlington. for a like reason what has inspired him? 'One gallery I have affection for is the Kerlin in Dublin. The Glucksman in Cork is a prodigious space too.' O'Callaghan also cites the Kerlin Gallery as an superior space. 'I like it for its simplicity, its artfulness and its reduced palette of materials. It also has true good light.'