Hugh Wallace (architect)
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Hugh Wallace (December 1956 – 1 December 2025) was an Irish architect and television presenter.[1]
Wallace was born in south Dublin in 1956, the single child of Sue and Ken, brought up in "a bubble of Protestantism"; the birth date is reported variously as 9 December[2] [3]or 12 December.[4] He was baptised at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. [5]He noted "I was a Protestant. So I was in a very cocooned world back 40 or 50 years ago. I didn’t meet a Catholic until I went to secondary school at 12. I lived in this world where I went to Protestant school and I played in the Protestant scouts and my friends were Protestants and my parents’ friends were Protestants. So I was cocooned away.” [6]He attended Sandford Park School, where he struggled academically, until it was recognised that he was dyslexic. He noted "I was driven by being tagged the idiot in school because of my dyslexia. Once that was recognised (he credits his English teacher Gregg Collins), it allowed me to park my ‘stupidity’... I was the kid who was going to be a low achiever." He had always loved drawing and had wanted to be an architect since he was a child, inspired by his uncle, who was in the field. Wallace studied professionally at the Bolton Street School of Architecture, now part of Technological University Dublin. When he finished his studies, in the early 1980s, Dublin was struggling economically, with high unemployment and depressed markets. Unable to find work as an architect, he set up for some years as an interior designer, with a passion for strong colour. [2][3][7]
Career
Together with fellow student Alan Douglas, Wallace founded the Dublin-based practice Douglas Wallace Architects in 1982.[2][8] He worked on hotels, retail spaces and homes around Ireland,[8] including the interior of a new Dublin site for the department store Brown Thomas. Douglas Wallace opened branch offices in Belfast and London. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the firm collapsed and went into liquidation in 2009, but a new Douglas Wallace Associates arose and became highly successful, leading projects in Europe and the Middle East.[2][4][6]
Wallace presented property television programmes such as The Great House Revival and Home of the Year beginning in 2015.[1]
