What Do Buildings Do All Day?: Recent Episodes
Emmett Scanlon
n this episode Emmett Scanlon talks to Conor Sreenan. Conor is the Director of Strategy & Design at Grangegorman Development Agency. Conor's work involves being involved with a dizzying array of design and building projects across this part of Dublin. The Grangegorman Development area is a significant part of Dublin - it stretches from the Phoenix park in the West, to Dorset Street in the west, into Cabra and Phibsborough on the North and down to the river Liffey quays in the south. Much of the building work though is centred on the old Grangegorman Campus hospital and a whole series of new buildings for a range of uses is under construction there. Conor moved to the Agency from Heneghan Peng, one of Ireland’s most well know architecture practices, they are the architects who worked on the recent refurbishment of the National Gallery and the last project Conor worked on at that practice was the Museum of Palestine. Avid listenings to the podcast would know Conor wrote a piece about that building under the Building Me Building You strand of this podcast, and that text was called Building Palestine in which he beautifully sets the scene for the construction site of this project, in Palestine. Conor talks about the move from so-called private to public practice and indeed this anchors much of what we discuss, this artificial binary between the two strands of architecture endeavour and the idea of working for the public good. We start though with the text, and I asked Conor why he wrote it and what it meant.
The podcast was recorded on zoom. The bin collection is real. __ Conor Sreenan graduated from University College Dublin in 2001, with an honours degree in Architecture. In 2006 he received a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practice and Management, since which time he has been a registered architect. Following graduation he joined O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects as a Project Architect to oversee the design and construction of the Press Auditorium at Dáil Éireann, Irish Government Buildings, Dublin. This project received awards from the Architectural Association of Ireland (2003) & the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (2003).
In 2004 he accepted a position with Heneghan Peng Architects, remaining there for 13 years. In that time he led teams across public and private sector projects, including the delivery (2016) of the Palestinian Museum, Ramallah, West Bank of Palestine. The project was a recipient of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland President’s Award (2017). The Museum was listed for the Royal Institute of British Architects International Prize (2018), and in 2019 the Museum received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
In Spring 2018 he was appointed as a Director of the Grangegorman Development Agency, with responsibility for Strategy and Design. As part one of the diverse Agency team, and with a variety of design teams and building contractors, he supports the implementation of the Grangegorman Masterplan (c.30ha) for multiple stakeholders. These stakeholders include the Health Service Executive, Technological University Dublin, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, and utimately the existing and emerging communities within the Grangegorman neighbourhood. __ Music is by Sinead Finegan, played by the Delmaine String Quartet (Philip Dodd, leader). The podcast was recorded on Zoom.
In this episode host Emmett Scanlon talks to Sheila O Donnell, one of Ireland’s most celebrated architects. With John Tuomey, Sheila has been running their practice O Donnell+Tuomey in Dublin for over 30 years.
The practice have designed and built theatres, cinemans, primary schools, university buildings, libraries, student centres, bridges, art galleries - It is impossible to summarise there their achievement and influence on architecture culture and discourse in Ireland and around the world, and in 2015 the pair were awarded the Royal Gold Medal in London one of architecture’s highest awards.
The conversation with Sheila though was triggered by the death earlier this year of writer, cartographer and publishers Tim Robinson and Mairead Robinson who were based in Roundstone in Galway. Sheila and John were good friends of Mairead and Time and Sheila is now involved in the campaign to hold this house and its place for future use. During the conversation Sheila talks about the house as she had experienced it, what it was like, and from there the conversation moves to thinking about houses as dynamic, unfixed things, to Tim’s own writing on the house, to working with old buildings, to theatre design, to how designing housing would be a pinnacle in Sheila’s career and more.
Sheila was intrigued though by the question of what it is that buildings do al day, and it is right there, that the conversation began. ___ O’Donnell + Tuomey is a studio-based practice, with offices in Dublin, Cork and London. Committed to the craft and culture of architecture, they have been involved with urban design, cultural, social and educational projects at home and abroad. The practice has an international reputation for its engagement with complex urban situations and sensitive landscapes. They have completed schools and university buildings, theatres and cinemas, community centres and social housing, art galleries and libraries in Ireland, the UK and on the European mainland. Winners of more than 120 awards, recent buildings include the Glucksman Gallery Cork, Timberyard Housing Dublin, Irish Language Centre Derry, Sean O’Casey Community Centre Dublin, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Photographers’ Gallery London, LSE Student Centre and the Central European University Budapest. They have exhibited six times at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with installations which advance their research into the useful beauty and poetic purpose of architecture, exploring areas of overlap with other art forms.
Sheila O’Donnell graduated from University College Dublin in 1976, when she moved to London. In 1980 she was awarded an MA in Environmental Design from the Royal College of Art London. She worked for Spence and Webster, Colquhoun and Miller and James Stirling before returning to Dublin to teach at UCD and set up her practice. She co-founded O’Donnell + Tuomey in 1988. She is a Practice Professor in Architecture at University College Dublin. She has taught and lectured at schools of Architecture in Europe, Japan and the USA, including the AA, Cambridge, Princeton and Harvard GSD. Her watercolours have been exhibited in the Royal Academy and the Royal Irish Academy. In 2009 she was elected a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of Irish artists.
In 2015 she was joint recipient with John Tuomey of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Brunner Prize, both awarded in recognition of a lifetime’s work.
Sheila was named Architect of the Year at the 2019 Women in Architecture (WIA) Awards for her work on the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. ___ Music is by Sinead Finegan, played by the Delmaine String Quartet (Philip Dodd, leader). The podcast was recorded on Zoom.
In this episode, Emmett Scanlon talks to Eamonn Hall and Cormac Murray about their new publication COSMOFORM. This is a 'zine on the Met Eireann Building in Glasnevin, Dublin 9 by architect Liam McCormick. During the conversation, we hear some of the history of this building and how the architect was influenced by the work of Swiss architect, Justus Dahinden. This leads to a conversation on how one might make books about buildings and the death (or not) of print publications. We also hear about their first publication, The Forgotten Frontier, a study of the infamous Phibsborough Shopping Centre, in Dublin 7. Eamonn Hall is a Dublin based graphic designer and art director. He is the founder of Phibsboro Press, an independent publishing imprint focused on architecture, photography and design. He is also the lead designer at EHGD (ehgd.xyz), a small design studio based in Cabra. Eamonn's work is focused on branding, logo design, print production and web design. Cormac Murray is an Irish architect and writer based in Toronto. In addition to his two essays for the Phibsboro Press, he has edited and published numerous essays and reviews for Irish Architectural publications and has co-authored a book: The Dublin Architecture Guide 1947-2014 with Paul Kelly and Brendan Spierin. Both 'zines are available for purchase at Phibsboro Press. Support Irish Design! Podcast music by Rachel Lavelle. This episode was recorded using ZOOM.
This is a bonus edition of the podcast What Do Buildings Do All Day? In this first bonus episode you will a text by Conor Sreenan read by actor Ste Murray. Building Me, Building You is the title of this occasional bonus edition of the main long-form podcast. New writings on encounters with or stories of living in or with buildings will be read by the authors themselves or by others on their behalf. If you wish to submit a text for consideration for future editions of the podcast, please listen to the end and get in touch with us at whatdobuildingsdoallday@gmail.com. Thanks for listening. Music is by Rachael Lavelle.
Conor Sreenan is a Director of the Grangegorman Development Agency, with responsibility for Strategy & Design. From 2004-2017 he worked with heneghan peng architects. The Palestinian Musuem was designed by heneghan peng architects for Taawon (Welfare Association), and built by Tubaila Target United and Consolidated Contractors Co. Image Title: Feras Tubaila, Nablus Workshop, Palestine, taken by Conor Sreenan.