Into the past

Criticism and documentation of the reuse project of architect Shay Cleary for the 17th-century Royal Hospital at Kilmainham to the west of Dublin, Ireland, built to the design of Sir William Robinson to house retired soldiers; adaptation to the Irish Museum of Modern Art (1991) achieved an exquisite balance in the conversion of the west, south, and east ranges, together with the courtyard, respecting the quality of the building and understanding the dormitory plan while inserting sufficient new structures to give the old complex new life.