Architecture

The potential of architecture to enhance the experience of living, working and playing in the 21 century Irish town

Orla Murphy graduated from University College Dublin in 1995. She has worked as a practicing architect since this time and has been a lecturer in studio design at UCD since 1996. She jointly established the Westport studio of Simon J Kelly & Partners Architects in 2004 and has particular experience in the design of housing and educational buildings. She was both editor of the Architectural Association of Ireland’s journal, Building Material and Cavan Architect in Residence from 2007-2008.

Architecture Immersed in the Weather

Stephen Roe is a partner in ROEWUarchitecture based in London. Among other awards the practice won the Young Architects Award from the Architectural League of New York in 2005 and represented the UK at the 2006 Beijing Biennale. In 2004 ROEWU were awarded the Lefevre Emerging Practitioner Fellowship by Ohio State University. The practice has also been awarded prizes in multiple international design competitions. The work of the office has been published and exhibited internationally.

Stephen Roe is a graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology and Columbia University in New York where he received a Masters in Advanced Architectural Design and was awarded the Lowenfisch Prize. Prior to founding ROEWU, he was based in New York City where he practiced independently specializing in collaborating with artists on public realm projects in Europe and the US. He also has extensive experience as a project architect in the US (where he worked for Winka Dubbeldam), Ireland (ABK) and Germany (Hostermann & Partner). Stephen has taught at the Architectural Association in London, Ohio State University and the New York Institute of Technology and has been a guest critic at many schools in the US, Europe and Asia. He is a chartered architect in the UK, a member of the RIBA and ARB registered.

Dominic Stevens graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) in 1989 and went on to work in Berlin with Christoph Langhof and Liepe & Steigelmann. In 1995, he returned to Ireland to set up a private practice, and in 1999 he put down roots in County Leitrim working from a caravan-like structure in the field above his self-built house. Dominic has taught at UCD and was Architect-in-residence in Roscommon County Council in 2005, delivering a lecture series throughout the county on ‘Making Houses in Rural Ireland’. Stevens’ main focus is on theoretical projects and one-off buildings, all rural. He works with natural, sustainable materials and is famous for his own house, made from straw bales with timber clad-ding composed of recycled pallets.

The Necessary Contract

This research was carried out by an architect in practice, imagining and constructing buildings every day. An architect's practice draws on an engagement with history, with society, and with all prior practice. A curiously bounded type of creative process; it is played out through a relationship with technology and capital and is articulated with legal contracts. One senses that the starting points of the process have an impact on the ending points. Thinking of some artists, the same kind of engagement is noticeable.

Read full text: The necessary contract (0.16 MB, Adobe PDF) 

Bio

Gráinne Hassett established Hassett Ducatez Architects in Dublin in 1995, practising strategic urban design and the making of public and private buildings. The practice’s architectural awards include the 2008 AAI Downes Medal and six other Irish awards, in addition to several international awards/ exhibitions, most recently as part of the Lives of Spaces exhibit; 11th Architecture Biennale Venice 2008. Gráinne is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Limerick, and has acted as visiting critic to Yokohama, Turin, Stockholm and Strathclyde Schools of Architecture. She was formerly design tutor at University College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology Schools of Architecture.