In 20th Century Dublin it became accepted that when a new piece of architecture challenged the scale and formal language of its surroundings it would be allowed on the condition that it paid homage to the material pallette of its context. This served to provide us with some quirky reworkings of the Georgian typology and rather nice brick boxes, but now we must demand more, much more of both historical context and contemporary intervention alike.

Contemporary buildings must be challenged to make 100 times the contribution of their historical counterparts if they are to exist anywhere but on the periphery of our urban centres.

Buildings must fight for the privelege of existing alongside culturally important buildings by offsetting the negative environmental contribution of these monuments to a carbon fueled civilisation.