Martin Parr (1952-2025) was a keen supporter of The Photographer’s Gallery in London, a relationship that began with his first solo show at the venue in 1977, ‘Hebden Bridge and Beauty Spots’.

During the last year of his life, Parr and the gallery worked together to plan an exhibition focusing on the works he made in rural Ireland in the early 1980s, a collection the photographer felt had not been shown widely.

The series, A Fair Day, was Parr’s last major project in black and white, before he moved into the distinctive bold colours and hyper-realistic style debuted in 1986’s The Last Resort: Photographs of New Brighton. It depicted the lives of working Britons under Margaret Thatcher, and established his own unique form of social documentary.

The humour and playfulness glimpsed in this lesser-known series embodies Parr’s typically sharp eye. His capturing of ‘fair days’ – the times communities gathered for trade or entertaining, or to mark religious events – shows a society in flux, caught between traditional rituals and a burgeoning modernisation.

In the photographs, dance halls and cattle trading are historical foils for modern new buildings and plastic cups. Timeless, bleak landscapes are spiked with TV aerials; elsewhere, village halls are dominated by 1980s fashion. As always, Parr finds the humanity in everyday moments.

‘Martin Parr: A Fair Day’ from 9 February to 19 April 2026 at The Photographers' Gallery, thephotographersgallery.org.uk

Irish architect Níall McLaughlin has been awarded the 2026 Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), recognising his positive impact across architectural thinking, writing and education. During a career of more than 30 years, McLaughlin’s work within architecture’s religious, educational, health and housing contexts has attracted consistent praise – he was honoured as a Royal Academician in 2019, and a Stirling Prize winner in 2022.

Níall McLaughlin is awarded the 2026 RIBA Royal Gold Medal

'A humble visionary, his dedication to architecture as an art and professional practice has left an enduring mark on the discipline – one that will undoubtedly transcend trends and time,' remarked RIBA president Chris Williamson, chair of the award jury, which also included 2025 Royal Gold Medal recipient Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA.

Reflecting on his body of work in an interview with Wallpaper*, McLaughlin explains, 'I think what binds these buildings together is this need for architecture to create meaning for communities, and to help hold communities together through framing their communal experience. A building is the frame that allows that community to thrive.'

For McLaughlin, who studied architecture in Dublin and established his own practice in London in 1990, the key to this is empathy, an emotion and skill that he believes defines the origin of architecture. His process is grounded in listening and research, which enable him to then imagine and craft a ‘world’ of moments for an individual, which speak to the humanity shared by a community.

His own immense personal curiosity enables him to observe the world far beyond its physical qualities. He translates the abstract sensations of daily rituals, as much as his memories of transcendent historical architecture, into buildings to share with others.

When designing the Bishop Edward King Chapel in Oxford (2013), he materialised the grounding yet uplifting sensation of flying a kite. When designing The New Library for Magdalene College in Cambridge (the Stirling Prize 2022 winner), he imagined how walls can disappear around you under the magic of a good book.

'Empathy and intersubjectivity are absolutely central to our discipline, you have to have the confidence to imagine a world for other people, and at the same time, a degree of humility,' he says, which lies in accepting the limitations of empathy.

While working on the Alzheimer’s Respite Centre in Dublin (2011), McLaughlin spent ten years trying to understand the experience of people with dementia. It was impossible to comprehend, yet the emotive weight and scientific knowledge of trying resulted in an exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2016, 'exploring the extraordinary miracle of how we place ourselves in space and time'.

'Other people might not experience the world the way that I do, but you can test that through the design process,' he says. 'We [architects] have to hold a very broad and diffuse range of desires, needs, aspirations and problems together, and make something coherent out of the maze of information that’s produced by any project.'

Rather than impose his own ideology on that information, he allows ideology to emerge from those insights. 'I think of practice as an ordinary activity, and theory as a rumination of that activity that is often a hard-earned lesson, because it’s engaged with the world.'

For McLaughlin, teaching provides that necessary balance between practice and theory. He has held the position of professor of architectural practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, for more than 25 years. With the complexity, high stakes, and often adversarial conditions of construction today, he describes how this engagement, as well as maintaining a fulfilling, positive culture for his students and employees, is essential.

In the face of today’s complexity, McLaughlin returns to the 'basic little molecules of interaction that help build communities'. In a visit to Darbishire Place (2014), the Peabody housing estate in London’s Whitechapel (nominated for the 2015 Stirling Prize), he might quietly observe parents in their daylight-filled, well-ventilated kitchens with one eye on their children outside in the playground. 'The interesting thing about architecture is that it is both subliminal and has a huge impact on our ability to thrive.'

www.riba.org
www.niallmclaughlin.com

As it welcomed designers from around the world, Irish Design Week 2025 offered a distinctly homegrown approach. Now in its fourth year, the festival comprised over 65 events across multiple counties, from medtech innovation in Galway to experimental sound workshops in Limerick, fashion collaborations in Kerry to waste-plastic textile experiments in Cork.

The theme, The Ties that Tie and the Links that Link, is inspired by Kilkenny Design Workshops, which opened officially 60 years ago. Established as Ireland's first state design service and deliberately located outside Dublin to foster an independent community of designers and craftspeople, KDW modernised Irish craft while embedding a collaborative ethos that continues to shape the country's design culture: connective, anti-hierarchical, and deliberately broad in scope.

That breadth is visible not just in the range of events, but in the festival's foundational structure. Unlike the UK, where design and craft councils operate separately, Ireland's unified Design & Crafts Council oversees both. As Tom Watts, head of design for Irish Design Week, puts it: 'We have a very Irish take on design: a storytelling based model where it's particularly open and a very wide-lens view of what design is and can be.'

A model for creative collaboration

That openness extends to international collaboration. Irish Design Week has adopted the Design Diplomacy model from Helsinki Design Week, pairing Irish designers with international counterparts for intimate, curated conversations—which Watts describes as bringing 'curveballs' by asking embassies to select designers from their national communities.

The pairings span disciplines and continents: Irish designers meet peers from France, USA, Japan, Australia and Sweden working in fields from interior design to sound. A highlight is Laurent Ungerer, who recently designed the new visual identity for Notre Dame, leading Tabula, a walk-and-talk workshop exploring design in dialogue with heritage architecture across Trinity College Dublin, St. Mary's Cathedral in Limerick, and UCC in Cork.

Those ties reach back through time as well. To mark its anniversary, Irish Design Week is digitally republishing Nick Marchant and Jeremy Addis’s 1985 book on Kilkenny Design Workshops, the only account published while the workshops were in operation. Alongside the original account of the historical context that gave rise to them, the new edition includes a previously unpublished chapter called 'The Future', ironically missing from the 1985 release due to deadline pressures. A conference forming part of the programme provides a forum to discuss the ideas of that chapter, and predictions of what the next 20 years might look like.

Design and craft

Also returning to Kilkenny is Mary V Mullin, a founding member of what became the Design & Crafts Council Ireland, who went on to establish the Boilerhouse at the V&A with Terence Conran and Stephen Bayley (the precursor to London's Design Museum). She brings a collection of 130 artifacts, every one made in Kilkenny's castle yard, completing a geographic and temporal loop that embodies the festival's theme.

This commitment to preserving heritage craft extends to contemporary policy work. The Design & Crafts Council is collaborating with the European Commission on Geographical Indication (GI) protection for Irish craft—a designation that safeguards place-specific techniques and materials from global imitation.

'They see the value in having a GI and that their products are branded with a GI,' says Mary Blanchfield, CEO of the Design & Crafts Council Ireland. Connemara marble, Donegal tweed, and Carrickmacross lace are among the crafts being considered—each tied to specific regions and vulnerable to manufacturers elsewhere claiming their provenance. The work speaks to a broader Irish understanding: that craft authenticity isn't just about technique, but about the deep relationship between making and place.

Islands as models of circularity

Ireland's influence extends well beyond the island of Ireland. Concurrent to the festival week, the European Parliament is hosting a design policy conference in its new Dublin flagship building, signalling Ireland's role not just as a participant in European design discourse, but as a contributor shaping it.

Beyond native craftsmanship and raw materials, Ireland's contribution to the wider design world is also philosophical; an outlook honed by its island nature. Australian interior designer Banjo Beale, known for the BBC's Interior Design Masters and Designing the Hebrides brings discussion about islands as models of circularity to the festival.

'On an island, you don't have the option to throw things away,' Watts explains. 'There is this kind of mentality on islands about reusing and repairing and mending because you can't go to B&Q. You have to be resourceful.' Blanchfield adds: 'we have a saying: keep something for seven years and it'll find a use for it.'

Satellite events: Form & Fable

The festival's energy extends beyond the official program, with satellite events popping up, building on the momentum around Irish design. Form & Fable, a six-week pop-up curated by J Hill's Standard at Wilton Park in Dublin, brings together work from Irish makers across disciplines, from Mourne Textiles' handwoven pieces to Fermoyle Pottery ceramics and Sam Gleeson knives.

Ava Kelly, director of J Hill's Standard, notes the challenge many makers face: 'Many work from isolation in various beautiful parts of the island and it is always a big challenge to get the work before the public.'

Sixty years after Kilkenny Design Workshops embedded collaboration at the heart of Irish design, that ethos remains visible everywhere—from the unified council overseeing craft and design, to events activating across counties rather than concentrating in the capital, to international designers paired in intimate conversation. The ties that tie aren't just a theme; they're the method itself. Ireland's contribution to design isn't only in what it makes, but in how it thinks: connective and expansive in its definition of what design can be.

A new house on the Irish Atlantic coast, on Cruit Island in Donegal, takes the bungalow archetype and transforms it into a meticulously laid out retreat that hunkers down in the scrubland on this rocky, dramatic but wind-swept coastline. To the west of the site, a short walk across the headland, is Cruit Island Wild Beach and beyond that is the Atlantic Ocean. More immediately to the east is a sandy beach and a sheltered bay, throughout which can be seen many small rocky islands.

Take a walk along the Irish Atlantic coast to discover this private house

The house itself sits on a site owned by a family for many generations. The replacement structure is informed by these memories as well as the requirements and dreams of the future. Raised up on a granite cliff overlooking the bay, the 182 sq m house is arranged across a single floor. Accommodation comprises two wings of bedrooms that wrap around a central living space, which in turn looks east across the bay.

The structure itself is set in between two large outcrops of granite, which abut the structure and create an architectural form that contrasts with the rugged, roughcast rendered walls. The intimate spaces created between the rock and the external walls serve as external rooms, creating a natural barrier with the landscape.

A monolithic, shallow pitched roof oversails the entire structure and also encloses the approach, creating a covered walkway that leads directly in the heart of the home. The main living space is characterised by a run of glazing bring a spectacular view of the bay into the space. Walls, doors and window frames are painted dark green, which contrast with the muted greys and ochres of the walls and corrugated fibre cement roof panels and reference the local flora.

From a distance, and certainly from the approach road, the house has an almost geologic character, blending with the strip of stone and vegetation that is framed between sea and sky. ‘The house is conceived as part of the wider multi-layered landscape,’ say the architects, who describe the roof planes as ‘extensions of the rock outcrops.’ The glazed façade is kept out of public view, creating a private but expansive social hub for family gatherings.

The west ‘wing’ contains three double bedrooms, opening into the main living room, while on the external wall there is storage for kayaks and surfboards. A shower room and WC is also set in this element, easily accessible from outside. The other wing element contains the primary ensuite bedroom and a second family shower room. The living, kitchen and dining space sit beneath the high point of the pitched roof, with a covered patio at the north-west corner of the site, diagonally opposite the entrance. Bespoke oiled birch joinery by Deignan Design lines this space, with muted rubber flooring throughout.

Sosie Pasparakis and Ronan Friel set up their studio in 2018. Based in the coastal village of Rathmullan, Donegal, Pasparakis Friel’s current work is in stark contrast to both architects’ former lives in London, where they lived, work and taught for 15 years, including spells at the Bartlett and the AA. Before establishing the studio, Friel worked at Grimshaw, including a spell on the award-winning Elizabeth Line.

Now based in this relatively remote part of Ireland, the practice is focusing on landscape-oriented work that exists in harmony with their wild and rugged surroundings. Describing their architecture as ‘quiet but purposeful…tactile, responsive, and attuned to landscape and life’, the house on Cruit Island epitomises an approach that evokes and embraces place. ‘This house is designed to be hardwearing like the landscape in which it is set,’ they say, ‘[it] invites sandy toes and large post-beach day family gatherings.’

With Errigal Mountain and the prominent form of a 19th century signal tower on the horizon, and the wild Atlantic close at hand, the house on Cruit Island is a rooted retreat that invites an appreciation of its surroundings.

PasparakisFriel.com

Tension. Movement. Harmony. And a moment in time. These elements are written into the lines of a circular sculpture, a twist of bronze, oak and light-reflecting gold that appears to hover in the air. A new creation by Irish artist Joseph Walsh, Magnus Rinn is designed to coexist with the sky, wind and natural light – and in Japan, it’s on track to become an enduring symbol of his homeland’s contemporary creative heritage.

Six metres tall and seven years in the making, the sculpture is positioned just outside the entrance to the Irish pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025 (which runs 13 April – 13 October). A dialogue between material and form, the pavilion and its signature sculpture are one of a series of new creative projects masterminded by the Irish government that aim to deepen cultural ties between Ireland and Japan.

Delve into the Irish Pavilion at 2025 Expo Osaka

Another landmark project is Ireland House, a 3,000 sq m flagship government facility wrapped in Irish limestone and oak latticework. Overlooking a park in central Tokyo, it will open just days after the Osaka Expo. Designed by Irish practice Henry J Lyons, the complex will be home to the Irish Embassy and the ambassador’s official residence, as well as a library and exhibition and performance area.

The opening of Ireland House in Tokyo will be marked by an inaugural exhibition celebrating Japanese and Irish creativity. Entitled ‘Rinn/’, it is curated by Walsh, and his not-for-profit cultural programme Making In, as well as by Wahei Aoyama, founder of respected Tokyo gallery A Lighthouse called Kanata. For Walsh, these projects reflect an ongoing creative dialogue between the two nations. He says, ‘I feel we connect in a respect for the unknown, for our ancestors, for the mystery and mythology that forms both of our cultures.’

Ireland is one of around 160 countries taking part in the Expo on Yumeshima Island in Osaka Bay, which is expected to attract around 28 million visitors during its six-month run. Designed by the Office of Public Works and constructed by TSP Taiyo, the Irish pavilion consists of a trio of interconnected circular buildings clad in Irish Douglas fir, its form inspired by the triskele, an ancient Celtic triple knot motif.

Greeting visitors is Magnus Rinn, which sits in an outdoor setting designed by Hiroyuki Tsujii in collaboration with Joseph Walsh Studio. The sculpture’s upper section has been created by meticulously twisting layers of thin wood, while the bronze element (complete with thumbprints in the mould to emphasise the dialogue between maker and work) was cast at the Fonderia Artistica Mariani in Italy. After connecting these components, specialist gilders applied gold leaf sheets by hand to the surface.

‘The concept relates to much of my work, a form that is a tension,’ explains Walsh. ‘I wanted one generous, gentle movement, a circle but not a circle. The twist through the form brings in the three-dimensionality and the movement. Rinn in Gaelic means place or a point – and in Japanese, the same word means circle, ring or circularity. I like that the meaning in both languages strongly represents my ideas around this piece, of place and this moment in time, within a continuous cycle of time.’

The ideas that shape the sculpture harmonise with the inaugural exhibition at the new Ireland House, with works by local artists including Kan Yasuda, Eiko Kishi and Sueharu Fukami, and from Ireland, Sean Scully x Mourne Textiles, Deirdre McLoughlin and Frances Lambe.

Aoyama, who will also stage ‘Rinn/Part II’ at his gallery in April, says, ‘Walsh’s natural silhouettes depict the beauty of nature, and such qualities are emblematic of Japanese beauty as well. Japan and Ireland are both island nations surrounded by the ocean, and both nations have long cherished and revered nature. This is evident in fullat this upcoming exhibition.’ 

Osaka Expo 2025 is on from 13 April-13 October, expo2025.or.jp. ‘Rinn/’ is on show at Ireland House from 17-30 April

lighthouse-kanata.com

makingin.org

josephwalshstudio.com

This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 3 April 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Over the past decade, Irish whiskey has gone through an incredible transformation, from the life and soul of the party to a seriously sophisticated – and super premium – player, rivalling the likes of high-end Scotch and Japanese whisky. Our resident spirits writer Neil Ridley picks out his luxurious favourites to try ahead of St Patrick's Day on 17 March.

A potted history of Irish whiskey

If ever there was a tale to be told in the world of spirits – one of success, tragedy and then a most-justified redemptive renaissance, it would almost certainly have Irish whiskey as its leading character. In fact, the fortunes of this legendary spirit run deep into the heart and culture across the whole of Ireland.

From a brief historical perspective, it could be argued that whiskey-making as we know it was derived from Ireland before Scotland, thanks to the worldly travels of 12th-century Irish monks – whose distilling skills were transferred to the Scottish west coast some years later.

Arguably the oldest recognised distillery site in Ireland, where the famous Old Bushmills distillery now operates from, can trace its roots back to 1608, when King James I granted a licence to distil whiskey – and Bushmills is today recognised as the oldest continuously running whisk(e)y distillery in the world.

Fast forward a few centuries to the 1800s and Ireland was a thriving powerhouse of whiskey production, distilling one gallon in every seven made across what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, eventually becoming its largest spirits producer. Indeed, Irish whiskey’s popularity gave rise to frantic fund-raising from new distillers, especially in Dublin, which was home to no fewer than five of the biggest licensed distilleries in Ireland and a host of smaller, independent ones dotted across the Liberties area of Dublin and widely across the whole country.

With such a rosy outlook, what could possibly go wrong? Jump forward again to the mid-1960s and only four whiskey distilleries remained open across the whole of Ireland, where 30 once stood: Bushmills in County Antrim, Jameson and Powers in Dublin and the Cork Distillers Company in the south. Previous cold economic winds had finally taken their toll, with the Great Depression, both World Wars and Prohibition in the USA resulting in a huge oversupply, and sadly, a lack of future business.

Ireland’s enduring liquid legacy

However, you can’t keep a good thing down when a nation’s passion and pride come together. The Irish whiskey industry began to rebuild. In 2015 Teeling became the first distillery to be built in Dublin for 40 years, followed at incredible speed by a raft of smaller, craft operations across Ireland. Today, that number is close to 50 in operation, demonstrating the popularity of the spirit once again.

The rise in new distilleries offering a more youthful spirit has meant there is now a huge premium on the older, rarer stocks of whiskey distilled decades before and the market for ultra-premium Irish whiskey has expanded dramatically, with some distilleries offering age statements that command eye-watering price tags, to rival those offered by both Japanese and Scotch

Irish whiskey’s unique flavour

One of the biggest contrasts between Scotch and the majority of Irish whiskey, is the production style, which results in a distinct difference in flavour between the two. Ireland has become synonymous with what’s called Single Pot Still-style whiskey: a spirit triple distilled in large copper pot stills, made from predominantly unmalted barley, rather than the 100 per cent malted barley used in Scotch single malt.

This unmalted, triple-distilled style gives an incredibly fresh, floral and almost tropical fruit note to the whiskey and once it has had a chance to really get some age behind it in oak casks, it becomes a thing of absolute beauty: complex, rich, structured and bursting with character, making Irish whiskey without doubt, one of the most highly-prized – and now sought-after – spirits in the world.

Neil’s alternative selection of Irish whiskey gems for St Patrick’s Day

Whilst the pubs across Dublin’s Temple Bar will be no doubt overflowing with pints of Guinness and many a toast raised with large glasses of Jameson Original (arguably the benchmark that Irish whiskey has long been measured against), there are plenty of other gems to explore this St Patrick’s Day, which exemplify Ireland’s deep rooted love affair with great whiskey-making.

Bushmills 15-Year-Old Cognac Cask Finish

Bushmills has been the consistent beacon of Northern Ireland’s whiskey-making traditions and is made using 100 per cent malted barley, rather than the single pot still traditions Ireland is famed for. Take a trip over for a visit and you’ll see the fusion of traditions from the old distillery and a remarkable, state-of-the-art new facility, alongside one of the most impressive cask warehouses in Europe. The Giant’s Causeway is only a stone’s throw away too, which makes for an inspiring backdrop for your whiskey journey. There’s an impressive portfolio of core releases including a vibrant and fruity 16-year-old, a rich and rewarding 21-year-old, part matured in madeira casks, all the way through to a bold and complex 30-year-old, finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry. However, my pick is this incredibly easy drinking Cognac cask matured release, which has swathes of dried fruit, honey and hidden tropical fruit notes.

The Heart Cut – JJ Corry #11

This very limited-edition bottling is a partnership between London-based independent bottlers The Heart Cut and Louise McGuane from JJ Corry, a renowned whiskey broker and curator of unusual whiskey casks from across Ireland. The blend explores Irish Pot Still, grain whiskey (a lighter style used in blending,) and single malt whiskey, all of which have been matured in a range of casks, including oloroso sherry and the highly unusual Pajarete (a Spanish sweet wine, which was one used abundantly to season casks, before being filled with new make spirit.) Well-balanced, light and fruity, there’s some serious blending skills at work here.

Midleton Very Rare 2024 Edition

Arguably one of the key players to spark the rise in super and ultra-premium Irish whiskeys, Midleton is a major distillery based down in the beautiful and verdant area of Cork in the south of Ireland. Celebrating its 200th Anniversary in April 2025, the distillery has some of Ireland’s oldest whiskey in its warehouses (some dating back 50 years,) which it periodically releases as extremely limited-edition and expensive bottlings. The Midleton Very Rare series (we previously explored 2024’s Ruby Edition) has become arguably its most collectible and is a blend of Single Pot Still and grain whiskeys, leaning into the blending skills of Master Distiller, Kevin O’Gorman. This vintage is full of floral, aromatic notes, lighter dried fruits (apricot) and an abundance of vanilla and darker toffee apple notes.

Green Spot 2013 10-Year-Old Bourbon Cask

Green Spot is one of Ireland’s most lauded Single Pot Still whiskeys, with a heritage dating back to the Dublin heyday, when Irish whiskey was originally flourishing. One of five from the ‘Spot’ range (you’ll also find a superb Yellow Spot finished in Malaga wine casks, a Red Spot rich in sherry cask notes, a Gold Spot finished in Italian Valpolicella Riciotto wine casks, and a youthful Blue Spot 7-year-old in ex-bourbon casks…), this single cask edition, exclusive to spirits retailer The Whisky Exchange, is also finished in a bourbon barrel and is wonderfully fresh and fruity, with vibrant citrus notes and softer orchard fruit.

Dingle Single Malt Triple Distilled Whiskey

Dingle has emerged as one of the key standouts from Ireland’s craft distilling renaissance, since it first arrived on the scene back in 2012. It consistently delivers a very impressive and complex whiskey and this latest release, matured in a combination of ex-bourbon and Pedro Ximenez casks shows just how rosy the future is for the new breed of Ireland’s distilleries.

Method & Madness Japanese Chestnut Cask Finish

If innovative flavours are your thing, then Method & Madness will be just the ticket. The concept is simple: a meeting of minds between some of the most experienced distillers down at Midleton in Cork, (the ‘Method’ element) and some of the younger distilling minds in the business (the ‘Madness’…) The modus operandi is one of exploring the boundaries of Irish whiskey, without breaking the regulations, so you’ll find unusual cask types (like this Japanese chestnut) different grain mixtures and other technical trickery to produce whiskeys full of character.

Waterford Cuvee Koffi

Waterford is something of a bittersweet pick - as late last year, the distillery sadly went into receivership and - at the time of writing, its future still looks to be on shaky ground. However, it would churlish not to include one of its existing bottlings in the list, given how much of an impact it has had to understanding the terroir of the barley used in Irish whiskey production. This release is a marriage of no fewer than 24 barley distillates from different local farms, which are then matured for six years in a combination of French and American oak. Herbaceous, floral and spicy, it’s certainly a gamechanger.

Jameson Triple Triple Chestnut Edition

An altogether different take on the Jameson we know and love, this version has been triple distilled as usual but matured in a trio of cask types (bourbon, oloroso sherry and sweet chestnut casks,) and there’s a distinct darker flavour profile, with toffee, toasted nuts, and chocolate.

Redbreast 18-Year-Old Single Pot Still

Another legendary name in Irish whiskey, Redbreast has a broader, slightly darker and spicier flavour profile and house style to its contemporaries and has been one of the industry’s favourite choices to introduce a richer side of the category to new Irish whiskey drinkers. The 18-year-old has notes of stewed fruit, woody spices, sultanas and fresh cherries, with a darker, drier finish. A whiskey to finish the night with, that’s for sure.

Gone are the days when a trip to the cinema was solely about the film. While movies (of course) remain central to the experience, cinemas are transforming into well-equipped spaces where audiences can linger before, during, and after a screening. And with films becoming longer (take Brady Corbet’s three-hour-long The Brutalist, with a built-in 15-minute intermission), flimsy plastic chairs simply won’t do. Architects are increasingly tasked with creating cinematic environments so striking, they could be scenes in the films themselves. Keep reading for Wallpaper*’s edit of must-see cinemas with award-worthy design.

The best cinema design around the world

Busan Cinema Centre

The Busan Cinema Centre, home to the South Korean city’s annual International Film Festival, is a melting pot of rich cultural programs, entertainment, and architecture. The complex, which opened in 2012 and was designed by the Viennese architecture studio Coop Himmelb(l)au, features an interplay of outdoor and indoor spaces sheltered by two roofs, whose exterior ceilings are clad with LED panels. The project won the International Architecture Award and the Chicago Athenaeum in 2007, alongside the Guinness World Record for the ‘longest cantilever roof’ in the world. The main building, known as Cinema Mountain, serves as a multipurpose entertainment centre, housing a three-screen multiplex, which includes one 400-seat and two 200-seat cinemas, as well as a 1,000-seat multifunctional theatre.

Busan Cinema Centre is located at 120 Suyeonggangbyeon-daero, Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea; dureraum.org

Cinema Godard at Fondazione Prada, Milan

Fondazione Prada has long been engaged with the world of moving images, partnering with iconic filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar, Danny Boyle, and Ava DuVernay, while also supporting conservation and funding initiatives. The foundation’s passion for cinema is palpable, with the bar at its Milan location designed by American filmmaker Wes Anderson. True to form, its in-house cinema also impresses. Designed by Dutch architecture studio OMA, which also created the rest of the 2015 complex, the multimedia auditorium features distinctive olive-green velvet chairs by AMO, OMA’s research arm, and movable walls that merge indoor and outdoor spaces. In late 2023, the cinema was renamed Cinema Godard in tribute to the influential Franco-Swiss director.

Cinema Godard is located at Fondazione Prada, L.go Isarco, 2, 20139 Milano, Italy; ticketing.fondazioneprada.org

Cineteca Madrid

A former 20th-century slaughterhouse is an unlikely setting for an ultra-modern cinema, but Spanish architects Churtichaga + Quadra-Salcedo certainly made it work. The 14-year-old Cineteca Madrid comprises a three-floor film archive, a studio, two cinemas, offices, a canteen, and a summer film patio. While dark grey wooden panels and neon lighting seem at odds with the building’s history, exposed bricks and preserved features integrate perfectly with the futuristic design. The standout element here is the permeable basket structures that filter orange LED light and double as lamps. In the main screening room, these baskets cover the walls and ceiling, casting a soft orange glow until the film begins, leaving only a black surface.

Cineteca is located at Pl. de Legazpi, 8, Arganzuela, 28045 Madrid, Spain; cinetecamadrid.com

Cineum Cannes

Nestled in the western district of La Bocca, Cineum Cannes stuns with a sculptural façade that fuses sleek lines and futuristic curves – the brainchild of French architect Rudy Ricciotti and Israeli designer Arik Levy. Cineum is the first cinema in Europe to feature the state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos sound system. The complex further brings out the city’s love for cinema with an immersive gallery and exhibition space dedicated to showcasing the behind-the-scenes of movies.

Cineum Cannes is located at 13 Av. Maurice Chevalier, 06150 Cannes, France; cineum.fr

Curzon Camden, London

Curzon is the go-to choice for Londoners craving an arthouse experience in a sleek setting. Among the group’s flagship venues in Mayfair and Soho, Curzon Camden stands out with its distinctive soft pink and green-hued design by Takero Shimazaki Architects, also responsible for Curzon Bloomsbury. Situated just off Camden High Street, the cinema is tucked beneath Railway Viaduct 4, forming one side of a narrow alley. It features five intimate screens, each seating 30 guests, alongside public spaces like a café and a popular New York-style bar. A blend of galvanized metal, plywood, structural steel, stone, and render creates a dynamic mix of textures, light, and shadow, offering a lush and welcoming atmosphere.

Curzon Camden is located at Arches N7 - N14, Dockray Pl, London NW1 8QD, UK; curzon.com

The Gem Cinema, Jaipur

The Gem Cinema, dreamed up by its founder, the late Lakshmi Kumar Kasliwal, and engineer PK Lauria, opened in 1964 with distinctive Art Deco elements and a 1,145-seat capacity. Featuring a state-of-the-art 70MM Stereophonic TODD AO sound system, it was only the second cinema in India to offer this advanced technology at the time. After closing in 2005 due to the rise of multiplexes, the cinema reopened in 2019 for the Jaipur International Film Festival with minimal changes. Spanning 18,000 sq ft, it remains Rajasthan’s largest theatre and arts venue. Now operated by Kasliwal’s son, the cinema upholds its tradition of screening a single film at a time – with its bold geometric design, vibrant colours, and obligatory curtain roll intact.

The Gem Cinema is located at Mirza Ismail Rd, Bapu Bazar, Biseswarji, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302003, India; @thegemcinema

Pálás Cinema, Galway

Pálás Cinema, envisioned by Irish studio dePaor Architects, sits at the heart of Galway’s old town and occupies the site of a former merchant house and garden. Comprising three screens, a bar, and a café, it creatively integrates into the plot through a redesigned façade that enhances both the streetscape and back-of-house areas, along with a new courtyard foyer. The building, with its slate pyramid roof and weathervane, stretches beyond Georgian plot boundaries. Made of reinforced concrete, it incorporates cantilevered walls and staircases, allowing ample natural light. Each cinema is adorned in red fabric, with the bottom draped, the middle ruched, and the top following the roof’s pitch.

Pálás Cinema is located at 15 Merchants Rd Lower, Galway, H91 F6DF, Ireland; palas.ie

Wushang Mall International Cinema

For Wushang Mall International Cinema, Hong Kongese architecture studio One Plus Partnership drew inspiration from the theme of a bustling city, with design choices mirroring an abstract urban landscape. The lobby features irregular, road-like shapes and intersecting lines, symbolising streets and skyscrapers. Meanwhile, the open ticket office and bar, connected by ramps, mimic a free-flowing city layout. Stone patterns are incorporated into metal panels, fabrics, and carpets, creating a natural, textured atmosphere. This extends into the auditoriums, where the earthy colours – orange-brown and red stone patterns – are used on sound-absorbing surfaces.

Wushang Mall International Cinema is located at Jiefang Avenue No.690 Wuhan International Plaza C Block Floor 7F Jianghan, Wuhan, Hubei China; meituan.com

‘Time behaves differently here,’ says Aoibheann MacNamara of Summerage, a lovingly restored Irish farmhouse offering a cosy escape close to nature for city and country dwellers alike. For MacNamara, this is the culmination of a trilogy dedicated to slow living, joining her celebrated Galway restaurant, Ard Bia at Nimmo’s, and a sustainable fashion initiative, The Tweed Project.

Step inside the Summerage at The Burren

Located within the wind-lashed expanse of The Burren, a Unesco Geopark in County Clare, southwest Ireland, Summerage spans 32 acres of ‘glaciokarst’ terrain (shaped by both glaciers and water), allowing pure stillness of a fervent restorative quality. ‘External distractions fall away, and a calmness settles on you,’ MacNamara explains. At its core, the Summerage experience is driven by a desire to foster connection, creativity, and wellbeing – ‘a place of calm in a very busy world.’

Acquired in 2018, the early 20th-century farmhouse was reimagined in collaboration with Michael Haslam of ecological architecture practice Haslam & Co Architects. ‘The interior design vision is inspired by my friend, interior designer Irenie Cossey of London-based Irenie Studio,’ says MacNamara. The result is a melodic balance between preservation and modernity, restraint and comfort – as exemplified by the endemic lime-rendered dark-grey walls and rich red roof.

The interior is infused with warmth through bold accents of red and yellow, a nod to Le Corbusier, paired with relaxed furnishings like Vitra Eames chairs, a BoConcept ‘Osaka’ sofa, and Charlotte Perriand’s ‘Applique à Volet Pivotant’ wall light – all sourced from London’s Twentytwentyone. Soft lighting of an ethereal quality highlights details such as the yellow-grouted tiles in the sleek, minimalist bathroom.

Collaborating with Forestry Ireland and The Burrenbeo Trust, Summerage also acts as an ongoing project for biodiversity, through the restoration of the former woodland and the planting of native trees and a fruit orchard in addition to the existing hazel forest. The retreat also features an onsite kitchen garden and greenhouse for the growing of vegetables, overseen by horticulturist Ciara Parsons. Guests are invited to harvest organic produce and enjoy honey from the onsite apiary, maintained by beekeeper Mark Early of Open Hiv.

In addition, as MacNamara points out: ‘There is a wonderful supply of local ingredients in the region, [such as] the local markets of Ennistymon, Hugos Bakery in Lahinch, and oysters from Flaggy Shore in New Quay.’

Sleeping up to four guests, Summerage is intimate yet expansive, a short drive from the Poulnabrone Dolmen and the coastal village of Ballyvaughane. The cottage’s connection to nature is rooted in The Burren’s ancient ‘winterage’ farming tradition, where livestock graze uplands in winter, preserving biodiversity and promoting rare flora.

@summerage_burren

Where will 2025 take you? Twelve new months offer plenty of possibilities for travel plans and hotel stays. Whether you are seeking an otherworldy experience in Nepal’s fabled Mustang Kingdom, a minimalist stay in Tokyo, or a fairy-tale cabin suite in the Irish countryside, Wallpaper* has you covered. Here are our most-read-about hotel openings of the past year, all ready for you to book.

The hotels to book in 2025

Shinta Mani Mustang in Jomsom, Nepal

Shrouded in mystique, in Nepal’s Mustang Kingdom, Shinta Mani Mustang offers a stylised immersion into Tibetan Buddhist life. Reimagined by Sherpa Hospitality and designer and architect Bill Bensley (building on Prabal Thapa Architect’s original 2010 design), the stone-and-timber retreat exudes the rugged charm of Thakali villages and the rich hues of Tibetan monasteries. Candlelight and monk chants fill the lobby, setting the tone for sipping warm apple brandy at Aara bar or savouring traditional Mustang dishes at Nilgiri restaurant. The 29 rooms are all anchored by floor-to-ceiling windows framing Himalayan views. For relaxation, the hillside spa – featuring glacier-blue pools and herb-infused therapies by Tsewang Gyurme Gurung, an 11th-generation Tibetan medicine doctor – is the perfect counterpoint to adventurous days.

Shinta Mani Mustang is located at Marpha-5, Jomsom 33100, Nepal, shintamanimustang.com

Hotel Rakuragu in Tokyo, Japan

Who would have imagined that a narrow parking lot could one day house a nine-storey hotel? Well, it can – meet Hotel Rakuragu in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. Conceptualised by Kooo Architects, the property’s lantern-like façade, with irregular cut-out windows and angular balconies, blends urban privacy with abundant natural light. Inside, 14 guest rooms, ranging from 13 to 35 sq m, radiate serenity with rounded corners, diatomaceous earth wallpaper, and low wooden bed platforms softened by plant-lined balconies. A nod to jazz culture runs through the property, from the hotel’s name, which references ‘ragtime’ in Japanese, to curated playlists. Anchoring it all is a minimalist lobby, where raw concrete meets crisp white walls, elevated by a sculptural mirrored piece from design studio We+ – a fitting entry to this tiny but mighty minimalist retreat.

Hotel Rakuragu is located at 1 Chome-7-9 Nihonbashihoncho, Chuo City, Tokyo 103-0023, Japan, hotelrakuragu.top

Six Senses Kyoto in Japan

Respectfully adding a touch of contemporary escapism into one of Japan's best-preserved historical regions, Six Senses Kyoto, the brand’s Japan debut, is a modern wellness retreat to daydream about. Designed by Blink Design Group, the 81-room hotel nods to the city’s ancient cultural rituals and was developed around four key themes: playful, organic, biophilic and sustainable. Rooms, with views of the central courtyard or Toyokuni Shrine, feature wooden partitions with flippable panels, woven copper lighting, and sun-filtering sudare screens. Wellness is at the heart of the experience, with a spa offering everything from Watsu therapy to a Biohack Recovery Lounge, all set against a backdrop of ikebana arrangements and Zen design. Food is served in the all-day dining Sekki and Café Sekki, while for after-dark, Nine Tails is an intimate cocktail bar with the atmosphere of a modern apothecary.

Six Senses Kyoto is located at 431 Myohoin Maekawacho, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0932, Japan, sixsenses.com

Woodland and River Suites at The Montenotte in Cork, Ireland

Perched above the River Lee, The Montenotte – a luxury urban resort with 107 rooms, a wellness centre, a cinema, and a restaurant and bar – has long been a local favourite, thanks to its proximity to Cork’s city centre and sweeping views of the harbour. Its latest addition is a collection of nine outdoor suites designed by Henry J Lyons Architects. These include the Woodland Suites, set above a forest canopy, and the River Suites, amid wild Irish flowers. Dublin-based designer Rósín Lafferty has infused the interiors with a mix of Japanese-inspired design and Ireland’s natural beauty, featuring light oak, travertine floors, bronze mirrors, and custom rice paper screens. Exclusive to guests who book the suites, the Woodland Suite Experience is completed with the Club House, a peaceful space with harbour views, perfect for leisurely breakfasts or afternoon cocktails.

The Woodland Suites at The Montenotte are located at Middle Glanmire Rd, Montenotte, Cork, T23 E9DX, Ireland, themontenottehotel.com

Ta’aktana Labuan Bajo in Indonesia

Ta’aktana, a new Luxury Collection resort by Marriott International, is determined to put Labuan Bajo, a fishing village on Indonesia’s Flores island, on the map as a luxury getaway. Spanning 16 hectares, the resort comprises 70 rooms, including seven overwater sea villas. Balinese firm ANP Interiors reimagined natural wood and fibres with a modern, minimalist approach, with woven ceiling panels standing out as a handsome achievement in the villas. Wellness at Di’a Spa channels the spirit of Flores’ Rangko and Batu Cermin caves, offering everything wellness alongside Korean hair and scalp therapies. With five dining options, including the Japanese-inspired Taba, the Indonesian farm-to-table Umasa, and a café showcasing Flores’ finest coffee, the resort delivers a gastronomic journey as rich as the island’s biodiversity.

Ta’aktana Labuan Bajo is located at Pantai Wae Rana, Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara 86763, Indonesia, marriott.com

Singita Milele in Natta, Tanzania

Singita Milele, found within Tanzania’s 350,000-acre Grumeti Reserve, redefines the traditional safari experience and sets a new standard for modern African bush design. Two years in the making, the 1,200-square-foot buyout sanctuary, designed by South Africa’s HK Studio, accommodates ten guests across five suites, each inspired by the panoramas, shades, and tones of the Serengeti. Vast indoor and outdoor spaces, including a massive infinity pool, offer uninterrupted views of the Great Migration. The design reflects the surrounding savannah, with locally sourced fixtures and artworks deepening the connection between guests and the land. Whether lounging on expansive decks, dining in the open-air area, or observing wildlife through a telescope, Singita Milele is as open to the elements as it gets.

Singita Milele is located at Natta, Tanzania, singita.com

From its perch, above the banks of the River Lee, The Montenotte has long been a local favourite, thanks to its proximity to Cork’s city centre, as well as its views across the harbour. Originally built as a residence called Lee View House in the 1820s, the property has, over the years, been extended and transformed into a luxury urban resort that unfolds over 107 rooms, a wellness centre, a cinema, and a buzzing restaurant and bar – also the best spots to watch the sun go down with a cocktail before sampling dishes like the crab and prawn gratin or the delicious puff pastry beef wellington.

Introducing The Montenotte’s cosy new cabins in the woods

Now, for its next phase in life, The Montenotte’s owners, Jo and Frankie Whelehan have expanded further to reveal a series of new outdoor suites. Boosting Ireland’s luxury hotel scene and elevating the resort to a new level, the nine additions can be found set on a hill below the main hotel, the octagonal Woodland Suites cantilevering above a forest of trees and the linear, clean-lined River suites ensconced amid Irish wildflowers.

The structures themselves – the work of local architectural firm, Henry J Lyons – slot seamlessly into its surroundings with a low-impact minimal design made from charred larch wood, while inside, floor-to-ceiling windows frame views of either the river or the dense forest canopy, shedding natural light onto quiet interiors.

Dressed by Dublin-based designer Rósín Lafferty, who took her cues from traditional Japanese design principles, as well as Ireland’s lush landscape, the result is decidedly tranquil, a base of light American oak and travertine flooring setting an earthy, pared-back tone for details like bronze mirrored wall finishes and custom rice paper screens that separate the bedroom for the kitchen area, while creating a soft glow and sense of warmth. This is all enhanced further by standout details from floating stone bathroom vanities to two-metre Red Japanese Maple trees, made from recycled natural wood trunks and silk.

Exclusive to guests who book the suites, the Woodland Suite Experience is completed with the Club House, a tranquil, private space overlooking the harbour, where red travertine, smoked oak and polished plaster, alongside indoor and outdoor seating, make it the perfect spot for long leisurely breakfasts or afternoon cocktails with a book.

If you can tear yourself away from the standalone bathtub in your suite, the rest of The Montenotte’s facilities await – most notably the dreamy spa with the Himalayan salt room, or for a bit of fun, the Glasshouse, a colourful fusion of Cuban and Caribbean vibes, where live entertainment is complemented by drinks such as The Merchant Prince, made with the hotel’s own gin. To boot, for every stay in the Woodland Suites, the hotel plants a tree with its Night-for-Nature initiative in partnership with Hometree, a charity that works to conserve permanent native woodlands in Ireland.

The Woodland Suites at The Montenotte are located at Middle Glanmire Rd, Montenotte, Cork, T23 E9DX, Ireland, themontenottehotel.com

Over dinner on the eve of Making In, the annual design symposium, on a rambling produce farm near Cork, Ireland, host Joseph Walsh was describing the site’s new Hedge Theatre, a sunken amphitheatre that would be inaugurated the following afternoon with a rousing spectacle of kabuki. When the question of stage lighting came up, Walsh mentioned the floodlights. But many of his fellow diners – including the Pritzker-winning architect Shigeru Ban – were Japanese, and they insisted the stage be surrounded, per tradition, by firelight. Ban scribbled a design on the back of a menu and twisted the paper into a cone, like a torch. The following afternoon, six torches appeared around the stage, built that morning to his specifications.

Behind the scenes of Making In 2024

This anecdote encapsulates perfectly what Walsh, a self-taught designer whose wood and resin furnishings mimic wind-swept trees, has been championing in the seven years since founding this festival: making, pure and simple. The two day lecture programme has grown in size and scope, bursting forth from the reconditioned farm buildings that now serve as Walsh’s studio. The charismatic American curator Glenn Adamson moderates; speakers are recognisable, not only in industry circles. Walsh has had to cap visitor numbers at 400, lest the whole production lose its essence (and southern Ireland run out of rooms). Still, he describes it as ‘just a platform in a workshop’.

‘It would be silly to have an event about making, and somebody like Shigeru tells you, “We can do this easily,” and not let it lead to a moment of producing,’ Walsh says the following morning. ‘I’m always conscious of all the things that can take you away from making.’

Accordingly, the Making In 2024 line-up featured designers from across the spectrum, whose common trait was an unwillingness to hear the word ‘no’. ‘At the start of every project is always, “It’s impossible,”’ said Iris van Herpen, the couturier whose biggest inspiration is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and who fashions skin, scales and otherworldly skeletons from tulle and extruded plastic. ‘My main focus is to make the invisible visible.’

The Argentine-Italian engineer Horatio Pagani spoke of leaving a top job at Lamborghini – Lamborghini! – when he was denied an autoclave machine, which could have produced the lightweight, flexible carbon-fibre composite he formulated. Today he charges upwards of €3 million for his Pagani hypercars.

Ban (this week awarded the 2024 Praemium Imperiale Architecture Award) spoke of turning literal rubbish – the empty fax-paper tubes lying around his studio – into such a robust material, patrons pay millions to see them sculpted into grand museums. When he uses them to build disaster shelters, the refugees housed there never want to leave.

Speakers lectured with incredible candour and depth. The actor Jeremy Irons popped in with his wife Sinead Cusack for a witty Q&A. And if a member of the audience wanted to know more, there was mingling between sessions in the emerald fields of the Walsh family’s acreage. With his international reach and penchant for entertaining, Walsh has become a master convener.

As in previous years, the 2024 event had a theme: the circle. Organisers inserted it into conversation like a Met Gala concept that speakers sometimes struggled to reference (yes, the cross-sections of the striated, mineral-rich vessels of prize-winning potter Jennifer Lee are circular). Even so, a bigger picture did emerge: of a round table, of people sharing ideas, nurturing connections and coming back. Adamson likened the symposium to a Venn diagram overlapping spheres of craft, art and design.

Later, the feeling of connection was reinforced as an audience dressed in Italian silk and Irish tweed encircled the legendary Japanese kabuki actor Shikan Nakamura VIII, as he performed his ancient art in an amphitheatre constructed with Roman methods.

It reminded Walsh of a thank-you note he received after last year’s show. ‘It said, “We are not in a straight line. But by realising our differences around a round table, we see that we can all add something.” Learning from the past and adding something new to keep it relevant is a positive function of making. It’s not about radical change, but adding something.'

Making In /24 Circle took place 6-7 September 2024, makingin.org

Lismore Castle Arts stages exhibitions at historic venues in and around the scenic village of Lismore and its eponymous 11th-century castle, in Waterford, Ireland. Currently on show are site-specific installations by Aleana Egan, Carolina Aguirre, and Niamh O’Malley, in addition to an annual group exhibition, ‘Each now, is the time, the space’, featuring artists Veronica Ryan, Leonor Antunes, Rhea Dillon and Alexandre da Cunha.

The latter show is curated by Habda Rashid, senior curator of Modern & Contemporary art at Kettle’s Yard and the Fitzwilliam Museum. She has brought together the four artists, all of whom work with sculpture and found phenomena, with an ethos inspired by the work of legendary experimental musician and artist John Cage, from whom Rashid also took the exhibition’s title.

‘Each now, is the time, the space’ at Lismore Castle Arts

‘Music is very important to me; it’s the first creative art form that I encountered through family members singing Pakistani songs for different occasions. I suppose that was very spontaneous and Pakistani qawwali [sung poetry] always played in the house,’ Rashid explains. ‘I shifted to Western music, like most people growing up in the UK, but my formative years [were influenced by] Pakistani music.’

Cage’s words – ‘Each now, is the time, the space’ – inspire thoughts of immediacy and embracing the current moment; Rashid has sought to bring such intentions to the making and creating of art.

‘When I was thinking about how I wanted to curate the show, I was keen for there to be a moment in the exhibition when the works are brought together to create a connection, one that was spontaneous and perhaps temporary but meaningful,’ she says.

Citing Cage’s partner, dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, Rashid also wanted to highlight how the works shown, although static, move and change or have the potential of movement in them. Dillon’s moulded plates made from soap warp and dissolve, and Antunes’ draped sculpture, inspired by the work of Ani Albers, could move or be moved.

Antunes works with sculpture and installation using a variety of media; Da Cunha worked with found objects, making sculpture and wall-mounted work; Dillon’s work deals with history and identity through materials; and 2022 Turner Prize-winner Ryan is famed for her ‘poetic’ sculptural works.

‘You see this most keenly with Veronica’s work, which always looks like it’s tottering and about to fall over, and with Leonor’s pieces that have a flow. But you could say that about all the artists, the compositions by Alexandre, and the shifting nature of Rhea’s pieces, because of the material she uses. It’s as if there is a sense of movement and performance embedded in the show.’

All four artists in the show exhibit a mastery in lightness of touch in the complex and layered works they create, either in combining found materials or altering them to bring them into their aesthetic. They also all employ powerful and unique visual languages, none of which is diluted by the context of the exhibition, which gives each work the opportunity to sing.

‘On a more practical level, when you work with four artists as a curator, you don’t want any of them to feel that you are trying to overly theorise or hammer on a label to their work so they can’t breathe. In a sense the artists I chose needed this level of space and freedom around their works,’ says Rashid. ‘I wanted to create a show which points to broadening understanding and reading of art, to create a playfulness and a less structured way of encountering artworks.’

She hopes visitors will respond to the work in the exhibition space, over and above any theme, and she enjoys that immediacy.

‘It's something you can’t plan out too much until you are in the space and with the works, therefore it’s very scary and exciting for a curator; in that moment, it’s a kind of test on whether your ideas on the show can work.’

The context of Lismore Castle, owned by the Duke of Devonshire, is interesting and complex, with the most recent additions to the architecture made in the late 1800s. The castle has long been the centre of the community in Lismore, something that was palpable when attending the show.

‘It’s a castle that was built in 1185 but it is lived in today. It therefore carries this immense time span of objects and material within this singular context. It reminded me of some of the combinations made by the artists: Alexandre’s bottles and concrete; Leonor’s leather woven screen with rope that is a response to a screen made by the seminal Italian architect Carlo Scarpa; and Rhea’s use of mahogany and cut-glass crystal,’ says Rashid.

These layers of history, materials and ideas combine to make a truly rewarding and meditative exhibition, bringing together the artists’ identities and practices into a living idea.

‘Each now, is the time, the space’ is on until 27 October 2024 at Lismore Castle Arts, lismorecastlearts.ie

What more perfect part of the world to learn the skills needed to live a truly sustainable life than the rugged coast of West Clare? This is where you’ll find the Common Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Living, a social enterprise co-founded by Common Knowledge, the eco-living innovators behind the Tigín (Tiny Home) project, awarded Wallpaper*’s Life-enhancer of the Year 2023.

The trio behind it, Harrison Gardner, Erin McClure and Fionn Kidney, offer courses on everything from a five-day Build School to weekend courses on welding, furniture building, lime plastering, foraging, organic planting and more.

Common Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Living: from self-building to furniture-making

Common Knowledge has been sharing its sustainable living skills through specific courses since 2022, but this year it finally has a base worthy of its self-build ambitions. ‘We’ve found our home,’ says Gardner, of the 50-acre site, in the heart of Ireland’s breathtaking Burren landscape, just 15km from the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare. ‘It was an old retreat centre, a bit run down, but it had everything we needed.’

Raising the €600k purchase price entirely through crowd-funding, the team went on to host a traditional month-long Irish meitheal (where neighbours and friends gather to swap skills and work) to get the place guest-ready, resulting in an impressive wooden workshop space, a lodge, a kitchen and a selection of simple accommodation offerings across The Lodge, Courtyard and Campsite.

Workshops range from niche-interest pursuits, such as dry-stone walling and lime plastering to building concrete countertops. Co-founder Erin McClure, a textile designer, stylist and founder of Caravanseri Interiors, has also introduced sewing, natural dyeing and loom workshops.

In 2024, the key focus is to bring these elements together elevate the accommodation. ‘We’re currently working room by room,’ Gardner says, ‘adding a Caravanseri touch to the interiors and bringing the build methods we teach, such as concrete worktops, naturally dyed fabrics and handmade furniture into each space.’ The aim, he says, is to create a ‘fully immersive Common Knowledge experience. We want people to come and stay and hopefully take inspiration for their own home.’

ourcommonknowledge.org

Among green fields in Ireland’s Ballykelly, County Kildare, Church of Oak is the latest kid on the block in Irish whiskey. The new brand was set up by Garrett Pitcher with the backing of Bono and Paddy McKillen Snr, of U2 and Château La Coste fame respectively – so its home needed to be suitably design-led. Enter, boutique Dublin- and London-based studio ODOS Architects, led by David O’Shea, who won the invited international architectural competition for the distillery’s new home in 2018. ‘We had never done a distillery before,’ O’Shea says. ‘But that was the point, they were interested in studios that were coming to the brief really fresh and didn’t have experience in the field. They didn’t want a generic distillery design.’ 

Church of Oak and its new, contextual home

The architecture team aimed to create a functional complex that would show off the spirit’s discrete essence, while being a contextual addition, sensitive to the surrounding rural landscape. The site included an existing, protected 18th century mill and its complex of historic structures, which were woven into the new design, restored, redesigned and updated as needed. Entirely new elements were built too, but the whole reads like a coherent family of structures, defined by its series of pitched roofs.  

This was intentional, O’Shea explains: ‘The client wanted something contemporary and iconic, that would express itself and be of its time. For us, this was an opportunity to try and make a new roofscape. It’s almost like a little village. When you approach the site from the neighbouring town of Monasterevin you see these playful truncated pyramidal forms rising above the treetops. We wanted to create a strong architectural identity for Church of Oak whilst also being respectful to the architectural character of this collection of historic structures.’ 

The dominant materials adopted - exposed concrete and corten steel - convey the complex’s industrial nature, making it robust. Meanwhile, its strong geometries and abstract forms feel sculptural, mixing the old mill’s period features with a new rhythm of recessed, window-like elements. ‘We wanted to create a quiet, Irish, contemporary facade,’ O’Shea points out. ODOS did the landscaping too, carving retaining walls and planting a meadow of indigenous wildflower varieties. 

The build took place during the pandemic and the project’s first phase – the distillery – completed this year. ‘It was important that the completion of the production facility was prioritised, so that the whiskey-making process could commence as soon as possible,’ says the architect. ‘The first batch is already maturing and will be released in five or six years’ time.’ More is yet to come, with the visitor centre scheduled to open next year, nestled under the Corten roof of the longest of the existing structures on site.  

officeofdavidoshea.com

churchofoak.com

Set amid the verdant Irish landscape, the Castlemartyr Resort in County Cork offers all that the discerning traveller would expect from a luxury destination, including Terre, a restaurant that presents outstanding contemporary cuisine at a stellar level. Terre has just been awarded its first Michelin star after opening in the autumn of 2022 under the helm of chef Vincent Crepel.

Crepel has worked in some of the most revered kitchens in the world, including three Michelin-starred Arzak in Spain, Hôtel de Ville Crissier in Switzerland, and with André Chiang in Singapore. He chose Castlemartyr as the location for his first solo venture outside his native France and named his restaurant ‘Terre’ in homage to the connection between land, people and produce.

Crepel’s cuisine has its roots in French cooking and is influenced by his global experience – in particular by Asian flavours and techniques. Cork in southern Ireland is one of the best food regions in the world and Terre’s location enables Crepel to draw upon a rich abundance of the highest-quality produce from the surrounding land and sea. 

The team at Terre offer a multi-layered sensory adventure, where ingredients are first presented to guests as beautiful still-life arrangements in glass-fronted cabinets and fridges. The journey includes a seat at a magnificent chef’s table with a front-row view into Crepel’s kitchen, where culinary skill and superb food are showcased within a spot-lit, black-walled space that highlights the drama of cooking at this level. A series of exquisite appetisers, including blue lobster, stone crab and Wagyu beef, are served with champagne, and anticipate the unfolding of an extraordinary evening.

Crepel comments: ‘From the first moment I saw the green fields of Ireland surrounded by its spectacular coastline, I have felt a connection with the land and its people, drawn energy from the sea, and inspiration from its bounty. At Terre, my hope is to bring you on a special journey, and to share with you my very personal vision of a modern restaurant experience.’

Dining at Terre is a fantastic gastronomic trip. The large, grand rooms of the 17th-century manor house in which Terre is housed afford the space and scope for guests to move through a variety of settings, witnessing culinary theatre with different backdrops and moods. 

The experience is almost dream-like – comprising a series of memorable tableaux hued in navy blue and warm earthy tones that resonate with the Irish landscape outside and the heritage of the Castlemartyr Estate. Carefully selected furniture and tableware honour the skill of local craftspeople – with a striking modern collection created exclusively for use in Terre by Fermoyle Pottery, and perfectly complementing the menu.

The ambiance has been beautifully curated according to Crepel’s vision, including the music, which is his own eclectic playlist. The scene is set for guests to thoroughly immerse themselves in Crepel’s cuisine through a succession of delicious dishes. Among them, otoro tuna belly with radish, trout roe, and toasted Irish kelp; and turbot served with miso vermouth, jasmin caviar, rose oil and white asparagus. Guinea fowl is cooked over bincho (a Japanese method of grilling over oak charcoal) to create a dish of exceptional flavour. 

The wine is given the same prominence as the food. There is an exciting selection, compiled from a list of small-scale, family-owned producers using low-intervention methods to produce biodynamic and organic wines. Altogether, Crepel’s sensory journey is a unique and unforgettable experience – well deserving of its coveted Michelin star. 

castlemartyrresort.ie

Inside Tigín Tiny Homes

There have been lots of micro housing concepts created over the years to fight surging house and rental prices, yet most tend to disappear from the ether almost as soon as they emerge. Enter Tígín Tiny Homes, mobile small homes or cabins that don't pretend to be a future housing solution for all of us, but that are also refreshingly thoughtfully designed and gimmick-free.

The creators, an Irish social enterprise called Common Knowledge (tigín is Gaelic for a small house or cottage), have ensured the design has the same sort of specifications as a home extension or garden flat and that information about the eco-conscious and, in some cases, pioneering building materials and techniques used to build the home are freely accessible to all. That way, anyone thinking of embarking on a self-build or with access to land can make their own Tiny Home, or gain inspiration from it.

Inside Tigín Tiny Homes

‘We haven’t created these Tiny Homes as a new product,’ explains Fionn Kidney, co-founder and director of Common Knowledge. ‘We’ve actually only made four, but we have taught more than 250 people to build them on their own by involving them in the construction process during our Build Schools.’

The project is also about showcasing sustainable, quality materials that the team strongly believe should be more widely used.

These Tiny Homes are different in another way too. Though their footprint is small (20 sq m), they have tall ceilings (3.6m in the kitchen and living room areas), which, combined with oversized glazing, provide a constant connection to nature or views, while giving the sensation of more space. The homes also have clever storage solutions and use innovative or natural materials such as hemp corrugated panels and natural rubber linoleum floor tiles, in part to meet their own self-imposed low-emissions construction targets but also to keep the weight of the trailer down.

‘By choosing materials like natural cork insulation, planed dimensional lumber and marine-grade plywood, we were able to make our structural elements of the building also be our finishing touches,’ explains Harrison Gardner, who is behind the design and construction of the Tigín Tiny Homes. ‘Hardwood countertops and custom couches were made possible by us not wasting any of our weight allocation in plasterboard finishes.’

One area the team found hard to keep lightweight was the external cladding. The contemporary modern finishes of concrete board were too heavy, while all the affordable timber options also pushed them over the limit. In the end, they opted for hemp cladding, a natural alternative to corrugated steel, grown and supplied by Margent Farm in Cambridgeshire, England.

‘It was almost half the weight of some of our other options, was grown relatively locally (as far as cladding sources go) and is made of an extremely sustainable, carbon-negative material,’ says Gardner.

The Common Knowledge team are honest about how their micro homes will be used. ‘We see the Tiny Homes as the potential first step for many onto the housing ladder and believe they will suit certain people and certain stages of their lives,’ says Gardner. ‘Individuals or couples craving independence but not yet able to afford their forever home will find the Tigín to be a comfortable housing solution for several years, somewhere they can live rent-free and save towards the home of their future.’

When residents are able to graduate to their forever homes, the idea is they will take some of the Tiny Homes’ material palette and building know-how with them.

INFORMATION

ourcommonknowledge.org

A multifaceted approach to the female gaze is explored in an exhibition curated by fashion designer Simone Rocha.

‘Girls Girls Girls,’ taking place at Lismore Castle Arts, unites work from a diverse selection of artists including Sophie Barber, Louise Bourgeois, Elene Chantladze, Petra Collins, Sian Costello, Dorothy Cross, Genieve Figgis, Iris Haeussler, Eimear Lynch & Domino Whisker, Roni Horn, Cassi Namoda, Sharna Osborne, Josiane M.H. Pozi, Cindy Sherman, Alina Szapocznikow, Harley Weir, Francesca Woodman and Luo Yang.

A juxtaposition of media forms, encompassing art, sculpture and photography, subvert the traditional concepts of femininity. In ‘Stilletos’ by Dorothy Cross, shoes in cowhide and cow teat muse on the role of the absurd in fashion. Unsettling issues of identity take shape in Francesca Woodman’s self-portrait. Classic motifs are given a subversive twist in Sian Costello’s self-portraits in oil, while Elene Chantladze’s images on stone have a nightmarish quality.

‘I wanted to bring together artists who make powerful, provocative work and have them together in the space, sharing the underlying femininity of the pieces,’ says Rocha. ‘I wanted to explore the works of these inspirational artists and for them to share a space together.’

The exhibition brings established artists such as Cindy Sherman and Roni Horn together with those emerging, including Sophie Barber, Luo Yang and Genieve Figgis. When viewed collectively, the works tap into a disturbing alternative reality, with haunting self-portraiture reflecting an internal narrative unique to each artist. The contrasting media, when viewed together, presents a multi-faceted exploration of femininity.

It is a dichotomy Rocha herself explores in her own work, juxtaposing traditionally feminine silhouettes against masculine tailoring. ‘The female spirit and experience have been a strong focus of my work from the beginning,’ she says. ‘I am always pushing to make something traditionally feminine in a modern, off-kilter world. In this exhibition, I wanted to explore the works of these inspirational artists and for them to share a space together.’

INFORMATION                                                                                                                                       The Listmore Castle Arts 2002 exhibition takes place April 2 - October 30 2022
lismorecastlearts.ie

Nancy Holt was an artist who rethought what art could be. Rather than placing work on the land, the work was the land. Over a five-decade career, she posed complex questions about our humanity’s place in the world, many of which remain pertinent today. 

Her palpable influence in contemporary art is currently being explored at Lismore Castle through the work of five artists: Matthew Day Jackson, Dennis McNulty, Charlotte Moth, A.K. Burns and Katie Paterson. This marks the first time Holt’s work has been staged in conversation with 21st-century artists who have drawn from her legacies.

At the heart of ‘Light and Language’ is Holt’s room-sized installation Electrical System (1982). On view for the first time in more than three decades, this is an example of Holt’s innovative ‘systems sculptures’ that make the innards of buildings perceivable. As Holt once said: ‘the electrical systems light, the heating systems heat. The drainage systems drain, the ventilation sustains circulate air [...] the sculptures are exposed fragments of vast hidden systems, they are part of open-ended systems, part of the world.' Comprising more than 100 glowing light bulbs, Electrical System is a web of light.

Accompanying Electrical System are fourteen further works by Holt spanning 1966 to 1982. Visitors will encounter concrete poetry, photographic experiments with light and shadow, works relating to her iconic earthwork Sun Tunnels (1973-76), and her video collaboration with Richard Serra, Boomerang (1974). Within the castle grounds and Lismore town are Holt’s Locators that, as she described, are ‘literally seeing devices’ that push human vision to its limits. 

American artist Matthew Day Jackson is exhibiting Commissioned Family Photo (2013). It comprises eighty-two photographs taken with a camera capable of capturing more than a million frames per second. It was designed to record explosions and shockwaves from nuclear detonations; the artist and his family are the only human beings ever to have been photographed by this camera.

‘My work is about our destructive potential and the fact that we are the only animals to be capable and aware of our own extinction. The record of my family’s existence in these photographs is forcing one of the potential tools of our extinction to recognize that we exist,’ he says. ‘I love thinking that the work that we leave behind will be contextualised outside of our control. I hope that my work in the show somehow would fit into her [Holt’s] idea of what would be acceptable.’

During her lifetime, Holt’s work was somewhat eclipsed by that of her husband, the land artist Robert Smithson – an all-too-familiar story in the history of 20th-century art. ‘I knew about Nancy Holt in graduate school but she was overshadowed by the expansive scholarship of her husband’, he says. ‘It is a problem with what we know of as art history, but I am happy that there is more scholarship being dedicated to her work. Future artists will have a better, more foundational relationship with Holt’s work and that makes me happy.’ 

Scottish artist Katie Paterson has created a new work responding to the architecture of Lismore Castle. Her ‘Ideas’ wall pieces are subtle: short texts that ‘when read come alive through the visitor's imaginations’. Discrete in scale, they are cut from silver and reflect brightly when the light hits them. ‘Within the majesty of the castle grounds they almost disappear, and I like this encounter.’ says the artist. ‘I learned about Nancy Holt’s work, and the wider land-art movement as a student, and it completely changed my outlook on what art can be, and what it can achieve; as a physical presence and as an experience.’ Paterson is also exhibiting a large scale billboard piece, Inside this desert lie the tiniest grain of sand, which depicts a nano-sized grain of sand being scattered in the Sahara desert.

The artist also reflects on her affinity with Holt’s artistic sensibilities: ‘her work showed me how expansive art can be; through its material form (she worked across mediums) it’s scale, its conceptual language and emotional and perceptual impact. Nancy Holt worked with the cyclical time of the universe, the motions of the earth and the sun. She aimed to ‘connect people with the planet earth’, to bring ‘the sky down to earth’ which chimes very much with my approach.’ 

‘Nancy Holt is an incomparable artist whose work has laid the ground for the art of today. Demanding that we look harder and think deeper about how we understand our place on the planet, Holt’s is a powerful voice,’ says Lisa Le Feuvre, curator of Light and Language and executive director of Holt/Smithson Foundation. 

Holt was a pioneer of perception, and this show proves the enduring gravity of her work. Collectively, these artists, armed with their mutual affinity with this trailblazing artist, are maintaining Holt’s legacy: that through light and language, we can try to make a little more sense of the world.

INFORMATION

'Light and Language', until 10 October 2021, Lismore Castle Arts. lismorecastlearts.ie

ADDRESS

Lismore Castle
Lismore, Co.
Waterford, Ireland

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Artists and designers have the opportunity to escape on week-long summer residencies in a new artist pod, located in a position that promises to inspire creativity. Created by designer Jordan Ralph and his team, Studio Drop was originally commissioned by the arts organisation Drop Everything, for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture (which has been extended to 2021 because of the pandemic).

A boat builder's vision

Ralph – an architectural, interior and product designer, whose practice focuses on sustainable process – spent time with local Inis Oírr boat builders for inspiration. Galvanised by witnessing the restoration of the Loveen Galway Hooker fishing boat, Ralph modified his Studio Drop design based on the traditional techniques seen in Hooker builds, which are designed to deal with the harsh North Atlantic weather encountered on the local coast. Ralph channelled this rugged, element-ready typology into Studio Drop, resulting in an experimental project with a one-of-a-kind construction.

A wooden frame supports a tapered wooden structure, resembling local Martello towers: small fortresses that are dotted along the coastline. Studio Drop also resembles a contemporary take on a clochán – a low, stone, beehive-shaped dwelling commonly associated with the south-western Irish seaboard.

Cylindrical in structure, the tiny studio has a window framing the vast sea beyond. Surrounded by outdoor cooking and seating areas, the pod invites the outside in, while providing a private and meditative space to design, think, read, write, and develop ideas.

Inside, the nautical inspiration continues. A hammock-style daybed is made from a trawler net washed ashore during a winter storm, salvaged by local fisherman. A wrap-around bench mirrors the circularity of a crow's nest.

Drop Everything: a freeing antidote to lockdown

Opening on the summer solstice, 21 June, Studio Drop arrives, after a year of varying interiority, with the promise of bracing sea air and far-off horizons. The summer of creative residencies will run until August 2021.

Intended for a life beyond Galway, Studio Drop has been designed to be transferrable to other locations. Watch this space.

INFORMATION

dropeverything.net

‘We believe in architecture even more now!’ implore Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the two co-founders of Irish studio, Grafton, while reflecting on where their practice was when Wallpaper* last profiled them in 2000. Back then, Grafton was 22 years old and still only beginning to populate Dublin with small, carefully crafted architectural moments.

‘[We wanted] to set up a structure in which as good a work as possible could be done,' the pair says, outlining what they initially wanted to achieve when they founded Grafton. ‘Changes do happen over time… the building industry changes, the craft of building comes under pressure, the form of contracts gets more complex, etc. etc., but in the end what architects gift to the world is spatial invention, a new reality, to hold complexity, capture light, hold sound, hold life, make life pleasant, form a new community, make an elegant window, make legible connections. It’s an amazing profession: it has a huge responsibility, a huge capacity; it’s a form of magic!'

Today, Grafton is a practice whose magic has spread to South America and across Europe. But while its recognition and influence has grown, the firm only employs 36 from its office in Dublin — an indication of Farrell and McNamara’s desires to stay grounded. The firm has also made a name for itself in the education sector: initially with the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin and later with landmark projects such as the School of Economics at the Universita Luigi Bocconi, Milan and the UTEC university campus in Lima.

‘We have always loved being involved in making educational buildings – primary schools, secondary schools as well as universities. What is important about universities is that they are places which liberate the mind. They add to culture, both at an individual and at a collective scale.'

The latest in this line of buildings is another school of economics, this time in France at the Université Toulouse 1 Capitole. Echoing Lima and Milan, Grafton has employed weighty, solid forms to produce a building rising seven storeys high and abounding in spatial drama — concrete and brick being the primary materials that create corridors in the sky overlooking the Canal de Garonne and thick, ‘deep walls’ that facilitate natural ventilation without the need for fenestration.

‘Our main ambition was to make a contemporary building which evolved out of the sensual beauty of that brick city,’ said Farrell and McNamara. ‘What we hoped to achieve was that the building would enclose the community of scholars, encouraging overlap within its spaces, framing connections back out to the city, making each scholar more aware of the elements of the city of Toulouse […] the buttresses, the walls, the ramps, the cool mysterious interiors, the cloisters and the courtyards.’

This year, Grafton was awarded the Royal Institute of Architects’ Royal Gold Medal — the institution's highest accolade. The practice shows no signs of slowing down either. Projects in London (one, another university building for the London School of Economics), Dublin, Cork and Arkansas are all in the making — all set to be sprinkled with that Grafton magic.

MORE FROM WALLPAPER* ARCHITECTS DIRECTORY 2020

INFORMATION

graftonarchitects.ie

‘What is architecture?' asks Grafton Architects' Yvonne Farrell, as she walks through the brightly lit halls of the studio's newly completed building at Kingston University. ‘It is a place for social interaction,' she replies a moment later. Community was a key factor in the design decisions of RIBA Gold Medal-winning Grafton, who won the commission to create a structure to – rather unusually – combine a library and dance studios under a single roof. Welcome to Town House – the newest addition (named after an existing building on site) to the world-class academic institution in London's southwest. 

It was in fact this combination – the need for vibrant dance spaces next to discreet reading rooms – that attracted the Dublin based architects, who were selected from a five-strong shortlist following a competition in 2013. ‘It was the juxtaposition of these two extremes that we found extraordinarily interesting,' explains Farrell, who heads the practice together with Shelley McNamara. This, and the idea of creating a space for the local community – both students and permanent Kingston residents – were the two pillars that shaped Grafton's vision for the design. 

Stepping inside, their intention becomes instantly apparent through the sheer openness of the building – both physical and symbolic. There are no barriers towards the street, so anybody can walk in and stroll around the library or get a coffee at the canteen. It was important for both architects and client that the building felt welcoming to all. ‘Generosity of scale and spirit form the part of the university,’ says Farrell.

At the same time, the interior is composed of large, interconnected halls and double and triple height spaces – the entrance lobby in fact extends almost to the full height of the building, with staircases dramatically hanging from the floorplates, adding a sculptural touch. Nothing seems hidden away, although clever niches were created for when extra privacy is needed. The street facing colonade and a continuation of the floor material from outside in are designed to encourage people to step inside. 

For a building that is primarily made out of concrete – constructed by the multi-award-winning contractor Willmott Dixon using prefabricated elements – the whole feels extraordinarily light. This is supported by large openings throughout and the elegant but hardwearing, everyday materials, such as wood, which help create a sophisticated but comfortable atmosphere, entirely fit for purpose. 

At the building's heart sits an auditorium. It feels fluid and bright, even though placed at the heart of the volume, going deep into the floorplate. But the whole building ‘is pushing activity towards its outer boundaries and the light', explains Farrell. ‘We didn’t want this to be a black box, we wanted the space to be used for the longest possible amount of time, so now it is in use even when not in use.' So partitions can be drawn back to allow for natural light to pour in, through the glass expanses of the facade. The space's flexible nature means it can be adapted to a variety of uses and performances. Meanwhile around and above it are placed rows of bookshelves and reading rooms of varied levels of quietness, and dance studios, which have been meticulously researched and insulated to ensure neighbours don't disturb each other. 

Concrete is omnipresent but the building in fact achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating. Weaving the Town Hall into its surroundings through openings, a stepped volume and landscaping meant that there's roof gardens that allow the use of brown roof technology to absorb water and to enhance biodiversity. The team's sustainability strategy also included promoting healthy living among its users, by placing the lifts to the sides and encouraging people to take the stairs. 

The architects describe the building like a ‘promontory', and indeed it feels rather elemental, sturdy like a cave, but bright and transparent, inviting the eye to travel across rooms and levels and out towards the green suburban countryside.

INFORMATION

graftonarchitects.ie

If the calibre of the boutique hotels opening is any indication, Dublin is having something of a moment. The newest kid on the block is The Mont, a handsome 19th-century pile that once housed a bank and later a nightclub, and which local studio 21Spaces has now reimagined as a warm, sleek 96-room retreat lined with Irish timber, customised furniture and Kvadrat fabric.

From certain angles, the liberal sprinkling of leafy house-plants, mesh-wire lamps, rattan screens and dark panels evoke a pleasingly mod plantation mood, whilst the bedrooms are awash in light and dressed in a masculine palette of dark greys and burnt hues.

The public spaces are a particular treat, especially the old school vibe of Sin Bin bar with its stock of gin and craft beers, and the brightly lit in-house restaurant Speranza where head chef Krys Kania’s Italian menu is anchored by knock-out stone-baked pizzas.

ADDRESS

1-4 Merrion Street Lower

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McGonigle McGrath’s House Lessans was once a small working farmstead, and although it is now a family home, it retains many characteristics of its former life. Two existing structures, a barn and shed, have been enveloped into a humble sprawl of contemporary living spaces that make up the house, which has just been announced as the winner of the RIBA House of the Year 2019 award.

Located in the midst of the green rolling landscape of County Down, House Lessans has refreshingly remastered the original industrial buildings into a friendly settlement. A new forecourt and bedroom block with its own private courtyard evolve the formerly rectangular plan into an L-shaped masterplan.

The simple pitched zinc roofs and embedded concrete plinths lift language from agricultural outbuildings, yet are refined through detailing into contemporary living spaces. Wide windows frame views into the landscape, while subtle shifts in level define changes in the function of space to retain the open volume found in the original barn.

The RIBA House of the Year jury described the house’s ensemble of existing and new buildings as ‘carefully orchestrated’, and commended the architects’ ability to ‘edit’ the architecture: ‘The house belies any notion that an expensive budget is somehow the gateway to excellence,’ says the report.

Practicing the values of discipline, minimalism and necessity Belfast-based practice McGonigle McGrath, founded by Kieran McGonigle and Aidan McGrath, allow the quiet rural compound to settle into the landscape and the sloping ‘drumlins’ in the distance to dominate.

Yet while the house is low key, and low rise – it’s barely visible from the overgrown entry lane until you reach the ample front yard, there is warmth and a softer informality woven into the industrial shapes and materials that makes it feel like home.

Perhaps it's the contrast of the buildings against the austere beauty of the landscape and the heaviness of the clouds on a late afternoon in autumn. Perhaps it's the architects’ economic vision that makes this place feel light, and healthy.

‘The architects have shown remarkable restraint and skill in creating a family home that exudes calm, dignity, and generosity,’ summarise the RIBA judges.

INFORMATION

mcgoniglemcgrath.com

architecture.com

Multi-purposes spaces are all the rage these days, so we suppose it was only a matter of time before the savvy administrators at Hatch Student Living’s The Hatch Rooms in Cork decided to turn over their empty dorm rooms to the public during the June-August term holidays. Certainly, the idea of returning to school, much less spend the night in the dorm, may strike some as something of a retrograde life move, but we’ll make an exception here.

Set on the grounds of the former University College Cork school of architecture, the 265-room residence is the work of Kingston Lafferty Design. The Dublin-based studio worked hard to demarcate distinct living zones in a futuristic mix of acrylic and Perspex, modular furniture and oversized globe lamps. Meanwhile, the brightly lit, spacious and high-ceilinged rooms are a treat – here furnished in handsome grey tones, roomy sectional sofas, bright geometric patterned rugs, and modern prints on the walls; and each featuring an en-suite bathroom.

A bijou internal garden sprinkled with olive trees and plants is a nice touch, though there is little reason to linger long, with food stalls at the ancient English Market, the 17th century Triskel Arts Centre, and lively local music venues within easy reach.

ADDRESS

10 Copley Street

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It’s hard to beat the luck of the Irish, but with regards to a new design collaboration between Irish crystal manufacturers J. Hill Standard and fellow countryman, the artist and illustrator Nigel Peake, it’s not just luck that’s on their side. The two have come together on a beautiful collection of crystal glassware that’s been named ‘Hand Drawn Glass’, which departs from the rigidly cut patterns of traditional cut crystal and embraces a more fluid approach to form and embellishment.

The collection is comprised of a limited edition series of four patterns, and complemented by an open edition of seven other patterns. Peake, who’s known for his intricate paintings and illustrations of build and unbuilt landscapes, has conceived three tumblers in various sizes, as well as a carafe, a decanter and a bowl. The designs embrace clean, elemental shapes and where deployed, cuts in the crystal reveal the imprint of the artist’s hand by capturing the spontaneous and fleeting movements of line drawing.

‘Making cut crystal comes with a heavy weight of visual history,’ explains J. Hill Standard’s founder Anike Tyrell. ‘I found someone who can draw in an effort to usurp the immutable cut patterns. We began to explore a more organic approach to making - honouring the hand that makes and showing it's imprint. The glass is both the drawing and the drawn upon - the creative impulse caught on the wing.'

For this new collection, the company has not only fused traditional craftsmanship with contemporary form, but championed new flourishes as well. Some of the designs are accompanied by robust, oak-wood lids (signed by Peake) that effortlessly transforming simple everyday shapes into versatile vessels, containers and jars that can be cleverly used away from the dining table.

Find the Hand Drawn Glass collection exhibited at Atelier Courbet in New York’s Chelsea district this month.

INFORMATION

nigelpeake.com

jhillsstandard.com

Knockraha house in County Cork, by TOB, selected for the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2019

Working with modest materials and everyday sites to impressive effect, Irish architect Thomas O Brien set up his solo practice in Dublin in 2013. A recently completed extension and complete reconfiguration of a rural house in the village of Knockraha in County Cork, neatly embodies his approach and creative flair through its pragmatic yet aesthetically pleasing and inventive solutions. 
 
‘The extension seeks to modify and correct a problematic suburban-type house, that has been dropped on a rural green field site without any real consideration of its context,’ explains O Brien. ‘The project addresses this problem by reconfiguring the ground floor of the existing house and extending it in length to create a series of enfilade rooms and sheltered outdoor spaces.’

Working with simple, almost utilitarian materials and overall feel, the architect aimed for a project was feels ‘in keeping with its agrarian context’ – an element that remains very important in the studio’s work. ‘[Context] influences it greatly’, he says. ‘As much as I look to international and historical references, I think all of my projects are greatly referential to the eccentricities of the landscape and vernacular buildings of Ireland.’
 
The ‘deliberately’ odd roof made out of blue coloured zinc immediately makes the fairly low composition stand out. Interior materials range from simple timber boards, to bright yellow Formica, black fossilised Irish limestone and cork flooring tiles. 

The design responds to the brief in an economical way – both in terms of finances and aesthetic humility – yet remains robust and easily legible, making this a comfortable and practical home; in line with further residential work by the studio, such as a farmhouse in Killan and Normal House in Dublin, both of which helped earn him a shortlisting for an Emerging Architecture award in 2018. 
 
‘I love designing homes for people’, says O Brien. ‘It is a privilege and hugely satisfying when someone places so much trust in you, and you see how happy they are with the final product.’

INFORMATION

tobarchitect.ie

WALLPAPER* ARCHITECTS’ DIRECTORY 2019

Dublin-based GKMP Architects has redesigned an existing small cottage house and shop structure into a family residence in the city's Sundymount district. The resulting design not only completely transforms the original structure into a modern home, it also presents it with a distinct architectural identity, using a few, key materials, such as concrete and timber, in their raw form within a new brutalist composition. 

One of the team's key aims was to maximise space. They wanted to open up and brighten the interior, however at the same time maintain a sense of the different functions in the large open-plan ground floor. So each of these different uses – kitchen, dining, living – should be able to have its own feel and identity. 

A generous extension at the rear of the plot adds square footage to the whole, allowing for the necessary space to breathe. This leads out to a green garden and several smaller courtyards and outside niches 'hidden' between the old and new parts of the structure. 

Inside, old and new are seamlessly connected through a common approach throughout. Terrazzo flooring on the ground level flows across areas, unifying everything and referencing the material's historical use in the original dwelling. The ceiling becomes another unique feature in the design, with large naked concrete vaults spreading over the living spaces on the ground level, defining different zones. Poured in situ, the concrete was mixed with a lighter hue in mind, in order to make the space appear brighter.

Timber cladding and built-in furniture and fittings, as well as metal detailing make this residential interior a labour of love and a truly bespoke space; it's no wonder that it has already scooped several awards, including first place in the house category at the Royal Institute of Architects Ireland awards and the Irish Concrete Society Awards. 

A new steel and oak staircase connects the ground floor and the ‘lighter' upper floor spaces. Upstairs, white plastered rooms contain the bedrooms, bathrooms, and a master suite that occupies the extension's top floor. There, white painted timber beams add a sharp linearity to the interior and a large window looks out to the leafy garden beyond. 

‘We believe that this project successfully demonstrates the beauty and variety of concrete as a material while simultaneously celebrating its structural and aesthetic properties throughout the different elements in the project', say the practice's principals, Grace Keeley and Michael Pike. GKMP have crafted a space that offers a careful balance between comfort and robustness.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the GKMP Architects website

Some 14 years after the idea for a new arthouse cinema in the west Irish coastal town of Galway was initially proposed, and now with film producers Element Pictures (who also run Dublin’s Light House Cinema) firmly on board, Pálás Cinema (or Palace) has arrived. And, despite its long-drawn inception, it does not disappoint.

A contemporary moulded-concrete ‘tower house’ located in the city’s so-called Latin Quarter, its somewhat austere exterior gives way to a dizzying interior layout of criss-crossing poured concrete stairs, nooks and passageways. In keeping with the 1820s merchant’s house that was formerly on the site, and whose façade has been recreated to house the ticket office, the spaces inside are domestic and welcoming in scale and contrast intriguingly with its monolithic appearance.

Architect Tom de Paor says he wanted the new Pálás Cinema to offer a contemporary reinvention of the west Irish vernacular of plain, powerful and solid limestone buildings or warehouses with small apertures and windows. To ‘soften the pill' he added ‘punky, decorative and Arts and Crafts' elements. Some of these are visible from the outside, such as the neon signs, the lettering spelling out the cinema’s name cast into the sides of the building and the 24 resin-coated window designs by late and renowned Irish artist Patrick Scott that reference the gel filters used in stage lighting. Stairwells, lobbies and rooms are bathed and dappled in red, amber, purple, green and yellow during the day as a result, and project playful light effects out into the city at night.

In keeping with the more ‘dressed-up’ interiors ethos, the building’s three screens are also draped in sensuous red velvet on the ceilings and walls and filled with comfortable seating by historic French manufacturer Quinette Gallay. A ground-floor restaurant features leather banquette seating, marble-topped tables and an elongated chandelier by de Paor (who created all the fittings in the circulation spaces) made of stainless steel conduit and naked light bulbs. Meanwhile, the first floor bar is floored and lined with a luxuriant ebonised Sapele, the same timber used in the chamfered and beautifully detailed window frames throughout the building.

With its sober concrete exteriors, untempered circulation spaces and soaring voids, Pálás is architecturally quirky, brave, playful and provocative. Even de Paor admits to getting lost in it at times. But that is also the charm and trickery of it, one that makes the contrast with the hi-tech and plush cinema spaces all the more powerful.

Pálás is an unabashed attempt to make something contextual but new. Its managers hope it will become a much-loved hub for film lovers in a city already renowned for its film-making legacy and awarded UNESCO City of film status in 2014. Located on an important circulation axis into town, in a strategic gateway spot, de Paor’s building is a bold statement of intent.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of de Paor Architects

If the Venice Architecture Biennale is anything to go by (and it is, arguably, the field’s biggest worldwide celebration), then for architecture, the days of loud manifestos and grand gestures may be behind us. Building up on a series of biennales that took a more humanistic approach, this year, Venice was all about subtle drama, human connections, textures, history, and free, open spaces for improvisation – all orchestrated around the curators’ chosen theme, Freespace.

Grafton Architects directors and 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale co-curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara’s call for architects to elaborate on the idea of architecture’s power to enlist and transform in-between, unassuming and possibly neglected areas into essential space for living and enjoying, received a rich variety of responses from architects from all over the world, making the displays at Arsenale and the Central Pavilion a rewarding and thought-provoking experience. This is not a biennale about the high profile and luxurious, rather about small projects that make a big impact in everyday life, schemes that may appear modest but offer not only inspiration, but also positivity and ‘generosity of spirit’.

The vast and dimly lit Corderie galleries were bustling with installations, ranging from films to models and specially constructed large-scale pavilions. Displays felt immersive and informative, yet not overwhelming – 71 firms took part this year in the curated section, compared to the 88 participants of Alejandro Aravena’s 2016 show. Explorations on the use of landscape and nature, housing, history, and, inevitably, public space, are common themes throughout. However Freespace’s opened-ended nature invites different readings.

In a – perhaps unconscious – gesture to honour the host country, contemporary Italian architecture felt highlighted with works by Aurelio Galfetti, Cino Zucchi, Francesca Torzo, Laura Peretti, and Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo.

Equally well represented were Britain and Ireland, the selection from which offered a real who’s who of the more contemporary and pragmatic thread of modernism – a strand of architecture that Grafton’s own work is also a natural part of. Caruso St John, 6a, Sergison Bates, Niall McLaughlin, Hall McKnight and O’Donnell + Tuomey famously favour a sharp – if not on occasion austere – modernism based on craft and texture that is palpably present during this year’s Freespace show, where the architects’ painstaking attention to materials, light and proportion shines through.

Of course, this exhibition is not just about Europe – Pritzker-prize winner Wang Shu and his partner Lu Wenyu’s Amateur Architecture Studio occupies a prominent entrance spot with their photos and drawings of Chinese landscapes, while the 2016 biennale’s curator Aravena and his office, Elemental, also take part. Further offerings come from all corners of the globe, such as Australia’s John Wardle Architects, India’s Matharoo Associates, China’s Vector Architects, Vietnam’s VTN Architects, Brazil’s Grupo SP and Peter Rich Architects from South Africa.

Established names, such as Souto de Moura, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, SANAA, David Chipperfield, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Studio Gang, and Peter Zumthor are also part of the event – with Souto de Moura winning the Golden Lion for best participant with a pair of stunning aerial shots of his Alentejo project, São Lourenço do Barrocal estate. Yet their presence does not overshadow the overarching theme, allowing the participants’ spatial reflections take centre stage. ‘Starchitecture’ was mostly noticeably present only by its absence, although the accents it has provided in the past were arguably missed, as there was a certain uniformity, at least in scale, among this year’s otherwise undoubtedly beautiful installations.

Even so, Farrell and McNamara’s down-to-earth and open approach is firmly optimistic and thoroughly welcome, highlighting all the weird and wonderful projects that often go overlooked but deserve to be seen and celebrated. ‘Architecture is by its nature optimistic’, the pair told us in a recent interview. ‘We would like to think that the work presented in the Biennale will stimulate discussion of space itself and the value of sharing.’

See all the latest from Venice Architecture Biennale here

INFORMATION

’Freespace’ is running until 25 November 2018. For more information visit the Venice Architecture Biennale’s website

Many architects design a house as their first solo project, so in that sense Jake Moulson’s case is not unusual. But far from being a typical residential conversion, Moulson’s renovated Georgian townhouse is a true one-off: an intricate collage of different materials and atmospheres that has been carefully orchestrated to feel almost like several different projects folded into one. The resulting home is a real architectural treasure trove that begs to be explored and experienced.

As elaborate and extravagant as the space may seem, there is a surprisingly pragmatic thinking behind it and a method in the madness of its London-based author. Before setting up his own studio in Hackney, Moulson worked at practices known for their considered, material-led and hands-on attitude: he was with Carl Turner Architects for almost two years and, straight out of the Royal College of Art, worked for Peter Salter on his fantastically idiosyncratic Walmer Yard housing project. Both architects have a distinctive, tactile and craft-led approach that resonates with Moulson’s ethos. ‘I have always been intensely involved with the testing and making of things,’ he admits.

Moulson also served time with Gerrard O’Carroll, and was designing a house in Ireland with him when O’Carroll passed away in 2010. The project involved the transformation of a cottage in Glendalough into a weekend home for Adrian and Jennifer O’Carroll, Gerrard’s brother and his family. ‘This was the beginning of developing a language with Adrian and Jennifer, and an understanding,’ Moulson recalls. ‘We kept in touch on and off over the following years. Then, out of the blue, they emailed and said, “Do you want to come and visit us in Dublin? We’ve got something we’d like to show you”.’

What they showed him was an old townhouse in the heart of Dublin 2, part of the city’s untouched Georgian fabric. It had been used as office space and at the time was completely run down, although retained its grand character, beautiful light and large windows. ‘What really surprised me was discovering an overgrown mass of green to the rear of the house in this part of Dublin – an oasis among a barrage of car parks and offices. And then, crossing to the end of it, finding the ruined classical façade of a coach house, like a real-life Piranesian vision,’ says Moulson. ‘Seeing this amazing building and knowing Adrian and Jennifer’s interest in design and their taste, it was an offer I couldn’t turn down.’

The O’Carrolls gave him lots of design freedom, remaining involved and supportive throughout the project, and the result is a meticulous sequencing of spaces that spans five levels (one is underground) and unites the main house and the coach house annex through a garden designed by specialist horticulturalists Liat and Oliver Schurmann of Mount Venus Nursery.

‘The design is multi-referential; it draws on diverse sources across disciplines and eras,’ explains Moulson. ‘I was thinking very much about the flow through the house, the dilemma of how much to open up or separate and what leads onto what. In getting to know and uncover the spaces of the house I was drawn to historical precedents where each room has a distinctive quality, material and atmosphere, according to inhabitation and routine. In some cases, these might come together over time, designed by multiple architects. I wanted a rhythm of hiding and revealing, and of coming into unexpected places. As it’s a protected building, we couldn’t, and didn’t want to, impact on the historic structure so we used bespoke elements throughout to work with, amplify or modify the qualities of the rooms and light for different moods and times of day. Having the variety of spaces to stimulate and facilitate this approach has been amazing.’

The main entrance leads into the kitchen, made of undulating Corian, and a deep blue breakfast room clad in brass and leather to the right, or through a dark timber-panelled corridor to a light-filled, double-height art gallery and formal dining room at the rear of the house. This sequence from darkness to light was deliberate for dramatic effect. The tall, almost cathedral-like gallery room ends in an inverted curved bay looking out into the foliage, where ‘you can practically walk into the view’. The floor is lined in etched steel sheet in a pattern designed by Moulson to reference Georgian plaster ceilings.

One floor up from the corridor, a glazed roof, uncovered during the works, shelters a winter garden. Above it, a small volume hanging off the main house, which used to be an old asbestos construction, has been replaced by a lush Azul Imperial quartzite-clad toilet with a structural glass floor and wall, as ‘a sort of inhabited window’. One flight up leads to the master bedroom, with its large dressing room and bathroom space full of hidden cabinetry; it is a cross between an upmarket fitting room, a bathroom and a club. ‘It needed to work on a practical level but I also wanted there to be theatre in using it,’ Moulson admits.

The top floor contains the four brilliantly white children’s bedrooms, brightened further by pops of colour and seamless white Corian bathrooms. The basement is dedicated to a more moody lounge and spa, while the coach house has been converted into a guest studio with a garage underneath.

The main living space is on the first floor, next to a dining area featuring a ceiling piece by artist Morag Myerscough. This was Mouslon’s clever way of adding drama to the room, but with minimum architectural intervention. ‘Morag’s painted artwork gave us a chance of switching traditional plasterwork for a contemporary ornate ceiling. Besides, the best Georgian examples often used colour with plasterwork, which is lost in the monochrome presentations of today’, he says. Elsewhere, new plasterwork references the original house’s decorative spirit, mixed with arches and round openings that soften the interior while highlighting its expressive character.

While variety and individuality prevail, everything comes together effortlessly in a space that is more family-home-with-a-twist than architect’s folly. The owners seem to agree: ‘It has been exciting to bring family life back into this building, mixing so many ideas into a harmonious outcome, thanks to Jake and his team,’ they say. And who will argue with a happy customer?

As originally featured in the June 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*231)

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Jake Moulson website

Darragh Breathnach’s DUA (Design Urbanism Architecture) studio, founded in Dublin in 2015, makes great use of prototyping, a process that is now as integral to its work as sketching or modelling. ‘Nature, everyday life, installation artists and factories are the biggest influences in my work today,’ says Breathnach, whose output ranges from product and exhibition design to residential projects such as the 106 sq m Cratlach Mews House in Dublin, completed in 2016.
dua.ie

‘To think I’m making objects people are going to live with is an extraordinary thing,’ says designer Joseph Walsh. ‘It’s actually a big responsibility, without being too grandiose about it.’ While his work – lyrical, otherworldly furniture typically made of laminated ash bent into flourishing forms – is regularly sold at galleries and art fairs, Walsh finds particular joy in commissioned pieces: opportunities he feels lucky to pursue.

Working with clients, many of whom repeatedly turn to him for bespoke objects, involves an intimate collaboration and highly specific brief the thirty-something Irishman cherishes. ‘I love those requirements. It brings something you never could have anticipated,’ he says.

A recent exhibition at New York’s American Irish Historical Society offered the rare chance to see such work before settling into their final destinations. The show spanned three floors of Walsh’s recent, increasingly complex achievements. A pod-shaped watch cabinet, made for a collector father and son, unfurls in sections of pear wood, fumed oak, and bronze to hold 108 timepieces.

Elsewhere, a version of Walsh’s ‘Enignum’ sofa, marked by sinuous lines and imaginative leather upholstery, wraps around its back. Four serpentine chairs, part of a series of 24 made for the private dining room at Derbyshire’s famed Chatsworth House, celebrate the individuality of diners-to-be with sui generis backrests that swoop and twist like ballerinas.

Made of Connemara marble, the ‘Exilumen I’ table appears to float upon its transparent resin legs. The seamless fusion of materials showcases the resourcefulness of Walsh’s studio, which meticulously conducts its own research to determine new ways of making.

Detail of a watch cabinet, which can hold up to 108 timepieces

Also presented are his ‘Lumenoria’ table, with a curling black-dyed ash base and sculptural amber resin top, snowflake-esque ‘Lilium’ tables, and process pieces for ‘Magnus Modus’, a site-specific, 7m tall sculpture that will be installed at the National Gallery of Ireland next month.

Each object was handmade in Walsh’s workshop, located on his family’s farm in western Cork. Nearly 20 master craftspeople, selected from all over the world, form a pool of expertise that complements Walsh’s ideas.

He views wood as a living material and prefers to let its natural tendencies – how it drapes around a frame or spirals through a space – determine its final form. ‘I am interested in the idea of not insisting,’ Walsh says. ‘With a sympathetic approach, you can achieve shapes you never imagined, and far more beautiful.’

Like his creative process, Walsh has benefitted from living life as providence decrees. The self-taught designer, whose grandfather gave him his first tools, made his first piece of furniture at age 12 and hasn’t looked back.

Walsh credits his first solo show, also at the American Irish Historical Society, in 2008, as one that challenged him to break his own rules and helped ignite the commissioned work he now holds dear. ‘I could go on working and people would never see what’s in this exhibition,’ Walsh says. ‘I’m fortunate our clients were willing to share.’

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Joseph Walsh’s website

'The house that we live in now is a very small house with very small rooms – you just can’t help it but the building starts to shape you and the things that you do,’ says Jo Anne Butler – one half of the design duo Superfolk, based in Westport, County Mayo, on the Atlantic coast of Ireland. ‘Everything we’ve made in the past year hangs on the wall.’ There’s the oak folding table hanging by the door for dinners in the garden or on a local pier surrounded by the ocean, all packed into the back of the car on a whim. ‘Because it is a small, dark building and it’s really gorgeous outside and we have access to really empty, beautiful beaches, really interesting forests, really interesting landscapes.... For us, it’s to learn about everything around us, too.’

Based in a former docker’s house, the light-deprived space with small windows – but an enviably long garden – has proved an inspiration for Butler and her partner Gearóid Muldowney, who moved back to their native Mayo after years of living in Dublin. ‘We’re both interested in small space living. I think that’s something we have in common with people who live in cities,’ offers Butler as she swoops up the newest member of the Superfolk team, her baby daughter. Both met while studying at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, where Butler studied sculpture and Muldowney studied craft design. It was always the plan to move out of the urban environment; now, the great abundance of such natural beauty and materials are woven into Superfolk’s signature oak, beech and ash trivets and their leather folding stools.

Living in the shadow of Croagh Patrick, a holy mountain, that seems to have captured the imagination of everybody who lives in the town, Butler says she’s learned more about form in its presence than all her years at art school. ‘It’s always changing,’ she says. ‘It’s such a large presence.’ With that in mind, the duo and their protégé are imminently off to Finland on a tour of Aalto buildings, with the anticipation of Villa Mairea causing particular excitement. Translating one’s environment in the way that he’s done, concludes Butler, is something that always plays on the mind in their beautiful western inlet.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Superfolk website

Photography courtesy Superfolk

The Palestinian Museum, designed by Heneghan Peng Architects, has been compared to a Bedouin tent – described as a building dancing on top of a hill and noted for its complex geometries. But for project architect Conor Sreenan, the inspiration for and execution of the museum perched on a hillside in Birzeit was 'straightforward and simple'.

'It deals with facts on the ground,' he says from his office in Dublin, 'with the topography and geography of Palestine.' The museum was inaugurated in May after two decades of planning and fundraising by the Welfare Association (an NGO backed mainly by Palestinian exiles), and three challenging years of construction. At once a hub for Palestinian culture and a connector to the larger diaspora via global satellite galleries and an extensive online archive, the museum boasts spaces for exhibitions and performance as well as research and education, all set within four hectares of planned gardens (designed with Jordanian landscape architect Lara Zureikat).

The architects chose to express the often-fraught issue of Palestinian identity by deriving form directly from the landscape. 'The design is not a glib reaction to occupation,' says Sreenan, but rather 'a response to physical context.' Working with the existing contours of the land, they created a building that emerges organically from the site. Employing construction methods used for thousands of years in Palestine, they cleared the land of stones and then used them to build retaining walls that support a series of cascading terraces tracing historical agricultural terrain.

While many institutional buildings in Palestine read like stone fortresses, this museum opens up to the land and to its people; in a place of barriers there is no perimeter wall around the site. Sweeping vistas of the West Bank and the Mediterranean beyond are a constant reminder of connection to place.

Rather than imposing itself upon the site, the long, narrow building of concrete, clad in local limestone, rests lightly upon the land. A series of zigzagging terraced gardens hug the hill that slopes from East to West, unfolding like sedimentary layers of history. Agricultural plantings including wheat and chickpeas embrace the base, while a variety of orange, almond, oak and pine trees weave their way to the top.

An eastern angular entranceway beckons museumgoers into a light filled space, with offices, a cafe and shop to the north, and exhibition area to the south. The main exhibition room is complemented by a glass gallery delineated by a subtle spatial shift that reveals the roof’s geometry. It looks westward across the site and to the sea, and out into a sunken outdoor amphitheatre, offering a constant connection to the physical reality of Palestine – as well as a device for both national memory and global connections, honouring ongoing struggles while speaking to future aspirations.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Heneghan Peng Architects website

ADDRESS

The Palestinian Museum
Museum street (off Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Street)
Birzeit

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With rambling green fields, ancient stone walls, and a higher population of sheep than people, Ireland might not seem like a haven for cutting-edge design. But, particularly in its cobblestoned cities, the country is undergoing a style revolution. Here are four of the best design shops to hit in Dublin—plus one paving the way in Galway.

Coffeewerk + Press, Galway
Stop by this bright ground-floor coffee shop in the western port of Galway for some of the city’s best coffee and tea, then follow the winding wooden staircase to two sparse rooms of beautiful design. The second floor houses artful utilitarian objects (brushes, scissors, cups) while the third floor is a quiet gallery, complete with fireplace, above the bustle of Quay Street. Pick up a few postcards of local artists’ work if you're tight on room in your suitcase.

Industry & Co, Dublin
Brother and sister Marcus and Vanessa Mac Innes’ shop on Drury Street—named the Best Gifts, Design and Interiors Shop 2015 by The Irish Times—highlights excellent products from throughout Europe. Look for revamped industrial-style lamps and Irish woolen blankets and, in the cafe, local Wall & Keogh tea (also available by the bag) and healthy Middle Eastern-inflected food.

Irish Design Shop, Dublin
Everything in this tiny shop, owned by jewellery makers Clare Grennan and Laura Caffrey, is made in Ireland. Hand-carved wooden coffee scoops from Galway, Clarkes of Dublin shaving soap (made with beeswax from County Meath and seaweed from Donegal), and geometric brass earrings by Grennan and Caffrey’s newly-launched jewelry line, Names, make ideal straight-from-Ireland souvenirs.

Considered, Dublin
After working in the New York fashion world, designer Helen James returned to Ireland to marry her love of style with her love of cooking. James stocks her new Dublin shop (which feels like stepping into the designer’s own open kitchen) with her own line of stylish kitchen tools, persimmon-coloured tablecloths, ceramics, and root ginger-scented candles. The jams and chocolates are made in Ireland, and the café serves excellent pastries.

Article, Dublin
Inside Dublin’s historic Powerscourt Centre market is this trove of tableware and stationary. Browse the shelves of ceramic and metal vases or pick up an illustrated print of Dublin’s famous Georgian doorways. There’s no coffee shop inside, but just across the Powerscourt atrium is The Pepper Pot, where a towering slice of Victoria sponge cake, layered with jam and cream, is a must after a day of shopping.

This article originally appeared on the Food & Wine website 

When artist James Ireland walks around a city, he clearly sees things differently to the average urbanite; but he also understands how appreciation for the unglamorous functional items that make up the daily landscape takes a certain sensibility. ’I think most artists would like their work to be looked at slowly and poignantly for hours on end, but in reality know that most people squeeze past on the way to the bar,’ he says. ’But more seriously, I hope the works are not too quick to be looked at. Of course, it could be "there’s a shoe lace and some concrete". But I hope the question of why these things have been put together is raised.’

At a new presentation of his work – titled ’Flow//Flow’, curated by Paul Luckraft, and part of the Zabludowicz Collection’s ’Invites’ series – Ireland uses ubiquitous everyday items, a mainstay in the language of his sculptural installations: burger cartons, shoelaces, cable ties, breeze blocks, plastic bags and fluorescent tubing are all utilised. ’They are so prosaic, there is no need to innovate their design, or do anything interesting with them. They are sort of clichés, but also strangely pure things too.’ Ireland is drawn to items that don’t belong to a specific culture or single place but that are not neutral either. They’re items churned out by the mass production machine of advanced capitalism and they connote a lifestyle that could be aligned with a certain kind of thinking.

’They are part of a repertoire of objects that I have been referring to as generic – items that come from industrialisation and are found all across the planet,’ explains Ireland. ’I guess at their root they are "Western", but are found in all cultures. There are also little nods to the navigation of spaces and landscapes in items such as running shoe laces and bike tyres. Thirdly, they possess a sculptural fascination – the weave of the cable and the lace, the repetition and the cast and foamed form of the carton, the elegant line of the tyre.... There is all this stuff going on in these items whose individual value is not much above zero. So, there are a lot of thoughts in there about value and manufacture that I am co-opting.’

Ireland is as much interested in the physical properties of these things. His studio practice is, he says, something like a science experiment, where he tests and stretches the limits of his materials. ’There is a lot of moving and arranging of items,’ he says of the process that goes on behind closed doors. ’Sometimes it is obvious what I should do with an item, sometimes they just sit around waiting to be used (or binned!).’

How preoccupied is he with the wider issues raised by a mass produced landscape? ’Very,’ Ireland asserts. ’But my work is not a reaction against it – no such thing is possible. I’m interested in making work from the world of the mass produced; I’m a mass produced individual. In fact, I think the idea of the "individual" comes from a mass produced logic. I think this situation drives the call for an escape, an untainted space. I’m trying to make work out of that.’

INFORMATION

’Zabludowicz Collection Invites: James Ireland’ is on view until 12 June. For more information, visit the Zabludowicz Collection’s website

Courtesy the artist and Zabludowicz Collection

ADDRESS

Zabludowicz Collection
176 Prince of Wales Road
London, NW5 3PT

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As far as the cyclical nature of invasion, subjugation and colonisation goes, it’s a familiar tale in our species’ short history. When the Anglo-Normans invaded western Ireland in 1172, such was the direness of the natives’ situation that whole settlements were burned to the ground to prevent the invasion’s progress. When the area was finally captured, the invaders constructed a grand castle named for their ruler, King John, that presided dauntingly over the area on the banks of the River Shannon in what was to become the city of Limerick.

While today, the structure’s impressively preserved external walls and towers are a marvel to both scholars and tourists alike, the castle’s presence is an ancient reminder of the area’s history of invasion and oppression. It’s this subject matter that Koyo Kouoh, the curator of Ireland’s Biennial (referred to as EVA, short for Exhibition of Visual Art), has taken and explored via the medium of contemporary art, with the intention of encouraging dialogue within the artistic community around topics surrounding today’s postcolonial aftermath and scattered diasporas.

Entitled 'Still (The) Barbarians', after Constantine Cavafy’s 1898 poem 'Waiting for the Barbarians', the 2016 Biennial coincides with the important centennial of the 1916 Easter Rising, an armed insurrection mounted by Irish Republicans while Britain was occupied by the First World War. Kouoh’s background as the founding artistic director of Dakar’s RAW Material Company and curator of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s education programme makes the discussion a natural one, and she draws parallels between Ireland’s history of oppression at the hands of the British and today’s postcolonial narrative. ‘Ireland is the first and foremost laboratory of the British colonial enterprise, that was subsequently exported across the globe,’ she says.

Artists’ projects were selected through an open and invited call for proposals, and have been installed throughout the city, from the sprawling complex of a former condensed milk factory to the more accessible Limerick City Gallery of Art. London-based Ghanaian artist Godfried Donkor’s piece Rebel Madonna Lace displays a Limerick-made design of the artists’ own creation, inspired by the area’s history of lace production as well as symbols from the Ashanti people in Ghana. Accompanying mannequins are clad in a straitjacket and a fluorescent orange jumpsuit, recalling a penitentiary's finest, albeit woven from pretty commercially-produced lace in a striking visual representation of commercial enslavement as colonial legacy, while juxtaposing the city’s manufacturing heritage with the material’s status as a luxury item in Ghana.

Other artists were similarly direct in their engagement of the subject matter. Korean-American artist Michael Joo’s three-part installation This Beautiful Striped Wreckage (Which We Interrogate)... sets up shop at the city’s historical Sailor’s Home, a 19th century building stripped bare save for a few select pieces. His video projection of an emaciated Buddha from 3rd century Pakistan, filmed in the British Museum, is haunting and beautiful, but also a stark reminder of Britain’s unsavoury history of claiming ownership over that with which it has little association.

Latter-day variations on our species’ affinity for oppression and violence abound. Uriel Orlow’s work with microhistories brings Nelson Mandela’s incarceration on Robben Island into focus with the installation Grey, Green, Gold, which refers to the garden the prisoners were allowed, and one that concealed a manuscript of the biography that was to become 1995’s Long Walk to Freedom. A slide projection and wallpaper of the prison garden and the events surrounding it culminates in a tiny flower grown from a seed, which was renamed 'Mandela’s Gold' and symbolises a new era in post-apartheid South Africa.

Similarly, Canadian duo Public Studio’s film Road Movie has been staggered and projected onto sweeping screens in a vast factory space, depicting a system of segregated roads that have been built as part of the Israeli military control over the West Bank. There are roads for Jewish-Israeli settlers and roads for Palestinians – thus, the roads are commonly referred to as ‘Apartheid Roads’, underlining the continued occupation and modern-day colonisation of an intensely contested territory.

While the scope of engagement that EVA has produced in relation to discussions of colonial legacy is impressive, the engagement with the host nation as a departure point for this discussion – and particular the core centenary of the Easter Rising – has been less marked, something that Kouoh has acknowledged. The city is bidding for European Capital of Culture in 2020, with the Biennial a core part of its application, and while a few artists have put Ireland at centre stage – notably, Deirdre Power and Softday, as well as Jonathan Cummins and his complex trio of films – the mood is far more global in outlook, as the curator invites us to draw historical comparisons between far-flung regions like Southeast Asia and the Congo, and not merely in isolation.

‘The colonial enterprise from the Western Europe perspective was understood as a capitalistic and social project played out in faraway "uncivilised" societies as opposed to one played out next door,’ she replies when asked about Ireland’s modern relationship with its colonial past. ‘Ireland being geographically located in Western Europe makes it difficult to recognise that the country served as a laboratory of imperialism before its global expansion. Another may be that the extended duration of the British occupation of Ireland brought about a strong degree of assimilation, which finds its most visible expression in the contemporary situation of Northern Ireland divided between Unionists and Republicans.’

It’s an enormously complex subject to grapple with and as ever, one with deleterious aftershocks that reverberate through the fabric of the contemporary news cycle. ‘Europe cannot exonerate itself from the conduct and consequences of imperialism through denial and silencing,’ Kouoh concludes. ‘The current refugee crisis is just the tip of an iceberg of intricate and entangled fraught relationships forged during that era of massive exploitation. Their impacts continue to define our present day.’

INFORMATION
’Still (The) Barbarians’ is on view until 17 July. For more information, visit the EVA website

Photography courtesy EVA

County Waterford in south eastern Ireland is an unlikely place to find a gathering of top contemporary artists. Yet at Lismore Castle, Irish seat of the art loving Duke of Devonshire, you will find just that.

A not-for-profit initiative founded in 2005, Lismore Castle Arts aims to promote contemporary art in southern Ireland and has real pulling power, as its two current exhibitions demonstrate.

Earlier this month, Tate director Nicholas Serota swapped London’s Bankside for the neo-gothic Lismore to open the group show, 'A Weed Is A Plant Out Of Place' (on view until 30 September).

This quiet, contemplative show starts with Michael Landy’s series of 12 meticulously executed ‘portrait’ etchings of weeds, titled Nourishment. From here, curator Allegra Pesenti draws in depictions of weeds in different media by other contemporary artists including Mat Collishaw and Dorothy Cross, alongside vintage photographs by Anna Atkins and Harry Callahan.

Together they form an ode to the wiry resilience of these rebellious cousins of the cultivated flower, an antidote to the saccharine floral study, while also considering the broader theme of migration.

Set within Lismore’s gardens, the show befits its surroundings, as does sculptor Enrico David’s recently unveiled site-specific work, Autoparent, in Lismore’s second exhibition space, St Carthage Hall.

A dominant presence suspended across the former Victorian church hall, this fibreglass and jesmonite figure is typical of David’s surreal, anthropomorphic work.

'We have been interested in Enrico’s work for some time and felt he would be an exciting artist for us to work with,' says Eamonn Maxwell, director at Lismore Castle Arts.

David undertook a site visit to St Carthage Hall in April 2015, and the project, his only major solo exhibition this year and supported by London's Michael Werner Gallery, grew from there.

'Like many artists, Enrico was inspired by the architecture and history of St Carthage Hall. He wanted to make a response that was both sympathetic but also disruptive to the atmosphere of the former church,' continues Maxwell. 'Autoparent is a single intervention in the gallery, yet it conveys a multitude of meanings.'

INFORMATION

’A Weed Is A Plant Out Of Place’ is on view until 30 September. ’Enrico David: Autoparent’ is on view until 3 July. For more information, visit the Lismore Castle Arts website

Photography courtesy Lismore Castle Arts

Any visitor to Dublin’s fair city will quickly sense the iconic presence of Jameson whiskey, which is woven into the fabric of life in Ireland’s capital. The brand began producing whiskey in Dublin in 1780, and has always been closely linked with the city’s rich cultural scene, championing its music, literature, and art.

Not content to simply rest on the laurels of an impressive heritage, Jameson continue to carry the torch for contemporary Irish culture – and they take a broad and directional view.

For 2016, they have called upon the talents of celebrated artist James Earley to design a limited edition bottle. The choice is inspired, as his work perfectly captures the contrast and connection between Dublin old and new.

Earley’s style originates from a background in street art and graphic design – a stroll though Dublin’s Temple district reveals striking examples of his work that rear up unexpectedly between Georgian buildings. His limited-edition label design features the bridges of Dublin, which symbolise the links between the different sides of city life, and its creative past, present, and future.

The productive relationship between whiskey, and art in all its forms, has long been noted, with Jameson’s new bottle a shining example.

INFORMATION
Jameson Limited Edition Bottle, from €39.95, and Jameson green glasses, from €3.95 each. For more information, visit James Earley’s website

The Irish are coming to London, with 20 designer-makers showcasing at Heal’s this month. It’s being hailed as the biggest retail presentation of Irish-made design in the capital for decades, and features some of the country’s best furniture, lighting, ceramics, textiles and glass designers.

Highlights include monochrome scarves and cushions by Mourne Textiles, a family business set up in 1940 in a workshop at the foot of the Mourne mountains by Norwegian design pioneer Gerd Hay-Edie; as well as wares from Joe Hogan, who has been making baskets since 1978 from willow grown at Loch na Fooey, where he is based.

Newcomers include potter Arran Street East, whose hand-thrown pieces are inspired by Dublin’s Markets Area; and Superfolk, who make simple tableware, such as ash and oak trivets.

'Design Ireland' is born of past exhibitions organised by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCoI) at Tent London during London Design Festival.

After being decimated by Ireland’s financial collapse, the country’s designer-makers are now thriving, with DCCoI’s registered clients increasing from 1,701 in 2009 to 3,214 in 2016.

'We are experiencing a period of great creativity and innovation in Irish design businesses, and we are producing world leaders,' says Karen Hennessy, chief executive of DCCoI, which has worked with Heal’s on the event. 'We are a resourceful nation, and after years of austerity and recession we are ready to take on the world and shine a spotlight on Ireland’s creative talent.'

INFORMATION

'Heal's Design Ireland' is on view until 27 March. For more information, visit the Heal's website

ADDRESS

Heal's
196 Tottenham Court Road
London, W1T 7PJ

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While the masses descended upon Fort Mason for the third installment of the FOG Design+Art fair last weekend, a decidedly quieter, more limited crowd headed to San Francisco’s Mission District for the opening of 500 Capp Street, also known as the home of the late, beloved Bay Area artist David Ireland.

After returning home from travels in the Far East in 1975, Ireland, who earned an MFA from and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, purchased 500 Capp (previously home to an accordion-maker) for $50,000. He then began a 30-month renovation project that transformed the non-descript space into a home and studio, as well as a living Gesamtkunstwerk filled with art crafted from the objects left behind by the former tenant. These included everything from old wooden dining chairs fitted with issues of the San Francisco Chronicle for cushions and mason jar portraits made with all sorts of bric-a-brac, to cement and wire sculptures, and his famed late 1970s junk dada masterpiece, Broom Collection with Boom, hewn from 18 multi-colored sweeps and now in the collection of SF MoMA.

Over the course of four decades in the home, Ireland famously varnished the walls to the point of amberising them and managed to excavate the clay in the basement — for his gold mine/grotto —to a depth that left the foundation teetering in place by a few shims or four-by-fours, while the staircase was chockful of sediment.

‘Structurally, it was in an incredibly precarious position and luckily [in] that part of town – and specifically where David’s house was – there was more solid ground. It’s a miracle it survived the 1989 earthquake,’ says Carlie Wilmans, who purchased the home eight years ago and saved it from certain destruction at the hands of developers by securing its structural integrity and turning it into the 500 Capp Street Foundation.

‘The decision to purchase the house was an impulsive one,’ admits Wilmans, who is a board member of SF MoMA, but did not know much of Ireland’s work aside from a mid-80s residency he did at the Headlands Center for the Arts. But in December of 2007, Ireland’s Broom... sculpture was being presented to the SF MoMA board for acquisition. ‘By that time David and his friends had exhausted all of their efforts to get the house either set up as a foundation or as an annex of a museum, all his efforts had failed.’

Having moved out of the home in 2005 due to his deteriorating health, Ireland was under the gun to get it sold to the right buyer before tax codes forced him to sell it on the open market. As luck would have it, just one week before it went up for sale in early 2008, Wilmans happened to be discussing the space with Ann Hatch, the chairman of the California College of the Arts, and agreed to buy the place and figure out a plan to save it.

‘I had never met David before I purchased the house but we met [there] half a dozen times before he died,’ says Wilmans, who would follow the artist as he ambled around the space, and told stories about the various installations, projects and dinner parties that transpired there. ‘He didn’t give me any instructions for what to do with the house. All the suggestions I received came from his friends.’

After eight years of delicate negotiations with the city and the building itself, Ireland’s newly refurbished wunderkammer jewel box is open for visitors, who will be received in groups of eight by local artist docents — each of whom made their own mason jar portrait as an exercise to familiarise themselves with Ireland’s practice.

Once inside 500 Capp Street, visitors will find a delicate curation of Ireland’s sculptures (including the brooms, which will travel back to SF MoMA for the institution’s grand re-opening in May), his beloved South China wicker chairs, placards marking the spots where a safe crashed down the stairwell (demonstrating the artist’s Duchampian embrace of the accidental in his practice), as well as a new garden and subterranean flat file archive featuring 2000 objects (many works on paper) that is accessed via elevator. While Wilmans hopes to one day digitise Ireland’s papers, currently in the collection of the Smithsonian, and have them in-house, for now she just wants people to experience the space the way the artist did when he was still in residence.

‘David would invite people over for tea and whiskey all the time and have these legendary dinner parties, but very often when it was a one-on-one visit. He would let people in the front door then immediately lead them upstairs where the two parlours were and disappear into the kitchen for 45 minutes or so – way longer than it takes to make a cup of tea,’ she explains. ‘But it was intentional. David left them in these rooms that were curated by him so they could come up with their own interpretation of what they were seeing. David was not the type of artist to lord over a visitor and explain what everything meant. It was very immersive, very experiential – very personal to every individual.’

INFORMATION

500 Capp Street Foundation is now open. For more details, visit the website

Photography: Henrik Kamm

ADDRESS

500 Capp Street Foundation
500 Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

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The rolling hills of Ireland's County Cork has a bold new intervention courtesy of the Swiss. Tacked onto an unassuming cottage is an extension that overcomes and positively takes advantage of the topography. It's the work of Zurich firm Markus Schietsch Architekten, and was commissioned by a member of the founder's family.

Ireland is peppered with small houses, often built on family-owned farmland, that have evolved over the years with a series of add-ons. 'In Ireland it is normal to build new houses next to the old ones,' says Markus Schietsch, 'The old houses get abandoned and function as stables, stone pits or just become ruins.' This house on the outskirts of the village Inchigeelagh was last expanded in the 1990s. But while the Irish are used to seeing all manner of architectural forms and tastes amalgamated on a single plot, Schietsch's design has significant stand-out.

Take an interactive tour of House in Inchigeelagh

The extension, which is no higher than the chimney of the existing property, travels from the main house along the flat ground and then curves up into what the architects call 'an expressive sculpture'. 

The architects pulled off this feat by borrowing from boat-building techniques. 'A wooden rib structure was erected, onto which multiple layers of plywood were applied.' Schietsch explains. To add to the hull or funnel reference, the structure was covered with a slate-grey coating of liquid plastic.

The upshot is fabulous views of the wild countryside from the upper storey master bedroom, and a house embedded  'even more strongly into the surrounding area,' adds Schietsch, whose firm completed another intriguing roof design in the summer of 2014 at Zurich Zoo's Elephant House. As well as the master bedroom, the 150 m sq extension houses a partially-subterranean bathroom and large living space the width of the structure, which has large glazed sliding doors on either side. 

Tacked onto an unassuming cottage, the extension has a twist - it sculpturally curves up, off the ground, to take advantage of the topography

INFORMATION

For more information on the architects visit the website

Photography: Andreas Buschmann

An architectural revival is underfoot in Ireland, driven by Irish Design 2015, a year-long government initiative promoting Irish design at home and abroad. The positive outlook is long overdue, after a difficult few years for the Irish construction industry. With opportunity restricted by the recession, Irish firms cast their nets further afield – and the results are paying off.

The 2015 Stirling Prize shortlist included Dublin-based Heneghan Peng Architects for the University of Greenwich Stockwell Street Building, and London-based, Dublin-educated Niall McLaughlin Architects for Darbishire Place. 2015 has also seen O’Donnell + Tuomey become worthy recipients of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal, putting Irish architects in the limelight.

What's been happening on home turf? We hand-picked 15 projects to showcase the variety of recently completed works in Ireland. Ranging from celebrated public buildings to a miniature pavilion, there is a commonality in bold forms and an economy of materials. There are the industrious place-makers of dlr LexIcon by Carr Cotter & Naessens, breathing a new lease of life into Moran Park on Dun Laoghaire’s waterfront, and the Picture Palace by dePaor Architects creating a landmark building for the burgeoning Galway film scene.

Continued government investment in education, in times when capital expenditure was dramatically reduced elsewhere, has led to the creation of inspiring learning environments. The crimson form of Athlone Community College by Mc Garry Ní Éanaigh Architects and the timber clad cluster of Teagasc College of Amenity Horticulture by OPW (Office of Public Works), redefines preconceived notions of institutional buildings. Education embraces heritage in the sensitive restoration of Blackrock Further Education Institute by McCullough Mulvin, in which four listed buildings have been united by a striking addition. Integrating restoration and new build is seen via examples such as the Inchicore Model School by Donaghy + Dimond and St Angela’s College, Cork by O’Donnell + Tuomey; both enhance existing protected structures with contemporary interventions.

Tailor-made houses including Alma Road in Dublin by ODOS, The Lake House in Howth by Aughey O’Flaherty and Church Road in Belfast by Hall McKnight, demonstrate a mastery of materials and meticulous attention to detailing, whilst tackling planning restrictions and variable site conditions. In the same vein, The Haven in Killarney by Gottstein Architects, nestles into its residential setting in a formal composition.

A contrast in scale is demonstrated by the smart Merrion Cricket Pavilion by TAKA Architects, a mere stone’s throw from the RDS Arena, Dublin’s multipurpose sports stadium. The RDS is earmarked for a multi-million euro development with a competition winning proposal by Newenham Mulligan & Associates in collaboration with Grimshaw Architects.

Finally there are the miniature muses, a small but perfectly formed collection of pavilions to provoke thought and celebrate cultural heritage. 5Cube Energy Pavilion by de Siún Scullion Architects addresses the reliance on fossil fuels. The thatched folly of Jeffrey’s House by Thomas O’Brien and Emily Mannion provides a retreat from the weather, and Square Moon by Shindesignworks commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Irish Nobel prize-winning poet William Butler Yeats.

Times have been difficult on the island, but it looks like the road to recovery is well underway. Commencing in 2016, the Irish Government have released plans for a six year capital investment framework called 'Building on Recovery', setting an agenda for significant development in education, healthcare and social housing, making Irish architecture a definite one to watch.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Irish Design 2015’s website

There is something ethereal about the Ogham Wall installation at the V&A's softly lit Tapestry room. Which might feel like a bit of a paradox, when on close inspection visitors realise that each of the tall, upstanding fins that form the composition weigh up to 400 kg each. The installation, designed by Ireland's award-winning Grafton Architects for Irish Design 2015's inaugural presence at the London Design Festival, is also a masterful blend of the country's past and future design culture. 

Commissioned by Irish Design 2015 - the country's initiative to promote Irish design internationally - to mark the first time the organisation shows during LDF, the monumental installation stretches almost three metres high. 

The fins' patterns were inspired by the Irish Ogham alphabet, which dates back to approximately the 4th century and consisted of 23 letters - each paying tribute to a different tree species. The clusters of fins - each of them unique - relate to different letters in the alphabet. Similarly, the 23 fins each feature a relief hinting to the tree they represent and were masterfully crafted at the Dublin workshop of design, engineering and manufacturing company Graphic Relief.

The stone-like elements were made using special techniques and digital moulding to combine different stones, concrete and metal and create the visually rich and tactile relieves. Visitors are invited to touch and engage with the structure, which is securely set in place by steel beams and supports.

'The idea of the 'The Ogham Wall' is to translate the abstract 'musical rhythm and pattern of the ancient Irish Ogham script into a three-dimensional, architectural element,' explain Grafton's directors, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. 

The atmospheric exhibition will remain on display at the V&A until the 11th October and is only one of the several events Irish Design 2015 have planned during the capital's design celebration. The installation is scheduled to eventually return to Dublin, where it will find its permanent home.

INFORMATION

The Ogham Wall will be at the V&A until 11 October. Photography: Michael Paul

ADDRESS

Tapestry Room, V&A 
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL 

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Slotting in a trio of luxury family homes - each equipped with garage, three bedrooms, ample living space and two distinct outdoor areas - into a site of just under 300sqm, required careful planning and intelligent design solutions by award-winning Irish architects ODOS. The stylish properties at One Percy Lane occupy what once was a car park, conveniently close to the Grand Canal in central Dublin.

Take an interactive tour of One Percy Lane

In stark contrast to the surrounding area's Georgian and Victorian properties, ODOS opted for a modern design in metal, creating a short row of terraces, which read as a robust single volume. The three-storey height is tempered slightly by a gentle roof curve and the striking black zinc clad exterior is one of the project's most defining features, capturing an aesthetic which harks back to the traditional corrugated iron barn. While the sturdy construction is made of a structural amalgamation of concrete blockwork and steel framework, the interiors are light and airy in comparison. Cool white walls and overhead openings stream light down to the middle floor with the help of a top floor setback and the reflective curved ceiling.

Extensive full height glazing to the front of the property allows further daylight to pour in. This is softened by an arrangement of powder coated metal fins on the façade, which were formed from industrial flooring planks. This external device delivers privacy to the homeowners, whilst generating visual interest to the front elevation. The striped pattern of the exterior continues inside, with evenly spaced recessed strip lighting rising vertically along corridors, and an intriguing slotted partition beside the solid concrete stair, casting a barcode of shadows onto the opposite wall. A minimalist grayscale interior supports a sophisticated living environment, featuring sleek polished worktops of Calacatta marble, and a mixture of poured concrete and Oak Fendi Herringbone hard wood flooring.

Whilst asserting a strong architectural aesthetic, One Percy Lane also manages to be very environmentally conscious, combining zone controlled underfloor heating, photovoltaics, and triple glazed Reynaers windows to prevent heat loss over extensive glass surfaces.

A lively addition to Dublin’s sometimes staid hotel scene, The Dean has already made its mark. To say music is a common thread throughout the centrally located property is an understatement: rooms — all with themed names like Hi-Fi, Mod Pod and Punk Bunks — are filled with Rega turntables, vinyl and books from Tower Records Dublin, and Marshall amps. Beyond the 52 guestrooms, a handful of lively venues, each adept at pulling in local crowds, buttress the building. The ground floor Dean Bar, offers breakfast, rotisserie, cocktails and live DJs, and the on upper levels guests will find the Rooftop Terrace, and Sophie’s Restaurant and Bar, where an Italian/New York/Irish menu is served up with panoramic views of Dublin city and county as a backdrop.

ADDRESS

33 Harcourt St
Dublin 2
Ireland

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