‘A warm, open and generous man’ – Tributes paid to renowned architect and RTÉ presenter Hugh Wallace after death at 68

Husband Martin Corbett announces Mr Wallace’s death: ‘My beloved husband and soulmate… I am heartbroken’

Mr Wallace was a founding partner of award-winning architecture and design firm Douglas Wallace Architects.

He was also a judge on the hit RTÉ show Home of the Year every year since its inception in 2015, and also presented The Great House Revival and My Bungalow Bliss.

He is survived by his husband Martin Corbett. They were together for 39 years and got married in 2012.

Writing on social media, Mr Corbett said: “It is with deep sadness and shock that I share the news that my beloved husband and soulmate, Hugh Wallace, passed away suddenly at home last night. I am heartbroken.

“Please respect my privacy at this deeply painful time.”

His family also released a statement: “It is with deep sadness and shock that we announce our beloved friend and client, architect, Hugh Wallace, RIAI passed away suddenly at home last night.

“Hugh was a director and co-founder of architecture firm, Douglas Wallace Consultants and was widely known and admired for his work as the presenter of RTÉ’s The Great House Revival and as a judge on Home of the Year. His passion, creativity and warmth touched colleagues, audiences, and his many, many friends across the country.

“Hugh’s husband, Martin Corbett has called for privacy at this difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with Martin and Hugh’s family and friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.”

CEO of production company Shinawil, Larry Bass paid tribute to Wallace as “a natural on television” and a “star”.

“Hugh was such a natural on television, he had huge empathy and ability to give critique of a design in the most friendly way. He was such a star, always the one homeowners wanted to meet,” he said.

“We shall miss him so much and our heart goes out to his partner Martin and all his family. May he rest in peace.”

Architect Declan O’Donnell, who judged alongside Mr Wallace on the first two seasons of Home of the Year, said he was “full of devilment and never short of making us all laugh”.

“Hugh became a national treasure since our founding days on Home of the Year, but I will always remember him for his kindness in lots of little small moments,” he said.

“Behind the massive personality, loud glasses and colourful shirts, he was a warm, open and generous man.

“A hugely respected and talented architect, he had a silly side and knew that life was really about people. He loved people, and would often stop and talk to people on the street, genuinely interested in having the chats and sharing stories with them, often accompanied by his huge laugh and fountain of local knowledge (wherever we were!).

“It was lovely to be around, and I’ll remember those little moments, as I think it showed who he really was, and he never changed. He’ll be massively missed by the architectural community, and by lots of people at home who came to know him.”

Mr Wallace, from the south Dublin suburb of Dundrum, had previously spoken to the Irish Independent about his upbringing and growing up gay in a “bubble of Protestantism”.

“I didn’t want to be gay,” he said, having taken a year out in college to move to New York to find himself.

“Particularly at that time in Ireland. Sure, I didn’t know anyone gay. That’s the truth… because everyone was in the closet, with the door locked. And then they would jump out every so often.”

Mr Wallace recently revealed that he set up his company in order to not rely on others due to his dyslexia diagnosis.

That company has been working this year on the redevelopment of the Waterford North Quays in conjunction with the local council.

He also shared with this publication his struggles with alcoholism, revealing that his doctor told him at age 55 that he was an alcoholic. He subsequently became sober after attending the Stanhope Centre on north Dublin’s Lower Grangegorman Road.

He spoke affectionately about losing his mother in his mid-20s, a woman he described as “an amazing lady” who he became “slightly estranged” from owing to his sexuality, which he said he regretted.