Belfast City Hospital

Nothing short of Thunderbirds is the best way of thinking about this plastic-fantastic tower to health. Rising from a fairly pedestrian podium, the grey and yellow vertically striated box appears to have rocket boosters between its base and a space command module launch pad – it would be no surprise if it suddenly fired up and blasted its way out of Belfast. It was designed by Louis Adair Roche whilst working for the firm of Munce and Kennedy and in collaboration with Gerry Isherwood and George Ellis. At the time of Roche’s death in 2014, it remained the fourth highest building in Ireland and can be seen from all over the city. I was drawn to it myself, marvelling at its incongruous presence and its gaudy tones and struggling to understand its origin. As it transpires it was designed long before it was constructed and this accounts for its heroic form and its eventual material reaslisation – they are from different eras. So legendary was its evolution that when it opened it was referred to as ‘the baby born with grey hair’. Adair was born in Cork and trained at UCL. He joined Munce and Kennedy in the late 1950s and was the lead designer for most of their major projects through the 1960s. He moved back to the UK in 1972 and set up his own firm, ISER.