PROI @ IAA
The National Archives engaged EPIC to design an exhibition, housed in the Irish Architectural Archive. Both archives held interesting documentation about a building - the Public Record Office Ireland - which was bombed during the Irish Civil War resulting in the loss of several records of the State. The exhibition consisted of fine original architectural drawings of the building and remains of the documents within. An important restoration project, undertaken by the National Archives was also a subject of the exhibition.
It was once said that the most depressing book in Ireland was a guide to the Public Record Office published in 1919, a catalogue of the treasures lost to the flames.
Rory Carroll, The Observer Ireland.
This exhibition was a collaboration between the National Archives, the Public Records Office of Ireland and the Irish Architectural Archives. EPIC was asked to design a small exhibition centred around the original architectural drawings for the PROI building before most of Ireland's Public Records were lost in a fire during the War of Independence. The drawings from the IAA were set beside recovered archives which are housed in the National Archives today. A conservation project of what remains is being undertaken.
The exhibition was housed in the temporary exhibition space in the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin. The space was small with set wall structures and all four walls lined with museum-grade casing. This immediately dictated that all large architectural plans would be displayed in these wall displays.
One large table museum case was placed in the central cavity of the room. In it was set archival documents, particularly one document badly damaged from the fire, which is an example of the types that will be undergoing the conservation programme.
On the central walls, we hung twelve large graphic panels relaying the story of the PROI building. The colour palette was sympathetic to the old drawings surrounding them. A bespoke logo was developed for the project which depicted a simple line drawing of a window of the building. All graphics were supported by an audio-visual film supplied by the National Archives which documented the PROI today.