Making Ireland Modern

Making Ireland Modern explores the relationship between architecture, infrastructure and technology in the building of a new nation. Constructed as an open matrix of drawings, photographs, models and other artefacts, the exhibition presents ten infrastructural episodes – Negation, Electricity, Health, Transportation, Television, Aviation, Education, Telecommunications, Motorways, Data – spanning a period of one hundred years from 1916-2016.

Making Ireland Modern was conceived, curated and designed by architect John McLaughlin and Gary A. Boyd, Head of Architecture at Queen’s. New Graphic designed the exhibition identity, panels, ephemera and website.

Originally conceived as the Irish pavilion for Venice 2014 (called 'Infra Éireann'), it was expanded to become a key strand of the Arts Councils programme ART:2016. Making Ireland Modern describes architecture’s role in transforming the physical and cultural identity of the new state through its intercession in the everyday lives of its population.