Architect: Michael Scott
Interior Access Open Hours Only

An important member of Scott’s team on the Busáras project was the painter and architect Patrick Scott who was developing a reputation as a designer and painter of abstract patterns and had exhibited from 1941. Patrick was responsible for these designs and the choice of colours used. Mosaic tiles were to be used anywhere that was awkward to paint or maintain - on the undersides of the canopies on the restaurant pavilion, on the front of the control tower, on the underside of the wing over the entrance to the offices and on the columns on the Ministerial suite balcony.

On the canopies on the top floor restaurant, the mosaic patterns have a leaf motif and are alternatively red and white, blue and white, and yellow and white. These patterns radiate from the centre of the panel with the white leaves set against the colour. According to Patrick Scott, 'They have no symbolism, they have just a white leaf set against the pure colour'. Scott’s paintings from the 1940s show a similar attitude to form. 'I am interested chiefly in simple forms such as fish or birds, rather than the complex forms of human beings or flowers'

The most striking use of colour internally must be the top floor restaurant in the Department of Social Welfare. Apart from the undersides of the canopies, which are visible through the south facing windows, small columns supporting the roof along the north side are faced in bright red tiles. The insides of the large roof lights are clad in yellow tiles as illustrated, creating contrasts of pure colour against the white walls.