McCullough Mulvin Architects - lecture and exhibition at NTK
On Tuesday January 31, 2017, at 4:00 PM, a festive evening and a lecture by the Irish architectural firm McCullough Mulvin will take place in the Balling Hall of the National Technical Library in Prague. An exhibition of works by McCullough Mulvin is also taking place at the NTK until February 11, 2017.
Contemporary architecture is realized everywhere but strives to achieve significance and seriousness. Many architects are forced to deliver standard concepts that reflect magazine culture; works are quickly consumed, satisfying an audience focused solely on what is new. While the state, laws, and high finances pompously speak of supporting architecture, they actually burden it with enormous loads – excessive regulations, demands to explain everything in the name of democracy, and the introduction of additional layers of management. All of this diverts architects from the decision-making process, drains time that should be spent on design, and gradually suppresses individual expression, originality, and uniqueness. True architecture is driven to the margins – the effort for monotonous and purposeless promotion of brands and big names predominates, and the level of craftsmanship declines.
This should not be the case. The world is suffering greatly from centralization and homogenization, but there is still an opportunity to carve out practices in a region, city, or country that prioritize the quality of place (the experts in this locally universal world are from RCR in Catalonia's Olot). The scale of the work is not important. Alejandro Aravena, the director of the architecture section of the Venice Biennale 2016, managed to capture what architects can do – he presented their results in everyday life, at a scale of 1 mm.
The work of McCullough Mulvin Architects should be viewed in this light; as an attempt to be active on a small island at small scales and to implement things of universal nature. The firm is also dedicated to exploring the breadth and depth of architecture that goes beyond standard expressions of form and material through film and critical writing.
McCullough Mulvin Architects is an architectural firm based in Dublin that focuses on modern architecture in Ireland. The themes of its work revolve around the interrelationships between art, landscape, and historical memory; these include projects from the public sector, cultural and community buildings, libraries, and schools; relatively simply conceived public buildings serving the definition of new public interests in a changing society, addressing the issues of dispersed light, and coping with harsh conditions in Ireland; projects exploring the potential for mundane monumentality and creating architecture in line with clients' visions, but also beyond this framework.
Award-winning projects: Dublin Dental Hospital (RIAI – Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, for best hospital building); Trinity Long Room Hub (RIAI award for best educational building, shortlisted for RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) award, nomination for Mies van der Rohe award; special recognition from the citizen movement Europa Nostra for the library in Rush, RIAI award for best renovated building; psychiatric unit for children and adolescents in Bessboro: RIAI award for best healthcare building; James Ussher Library at Trinity College Dublin, shortlisted for the RIAI gold medal (triennale), nomination for Mies van der Rohe award; Source Arts Centre and Library: RIAI for best public/cultural building; Waterford City Library: regional RIAI award; offices on Lincoln Place, recognition from the UK charitable organization Civic Trust.
The office's work includes the exploration of the urban context: McCullough Mulvin became the winners of the Group 91 framework plan competition for the Temple Bar district in Dublin, where they built three standalone cultural buildings, and in the urban areas of Digital Hub and Newmarket designed live-work environments suitable for post-industrial landscapes.
Their scope is expanded by publishing activities, teaching, and research: A Lost Tradition (with Niall McCullough, Gandon Press, Dublin, 1987); The Morphology of Irish Towns (1991 TCD M Litt); WORK – McCullough Mulvin Architects (Anne Street Press and Gandon Press, 2004); Rush Library (Anne Street Press and Associated Editions, 2009); The Long Room Hub at Trinity College (Gandon Press, 2010); Dublin Dental Hospital: Embedded Space (Gandon Press, 2011); Blackrock Quartet (Gandon Press, 2014).
The work of McCullough Mulvin Architects has been exhibited in Germany, the UK, Spain – Mies van der Rohe Awards 2005 & 2011, World Architecture Festival 2009 & 2010, Prague Quadrennial 2007, Lisbon Triennale 2007, and Venice Biennale 2008. Lectures on the office's work have been held in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Norway, England, Poland, and the USA; teaching and examinations at the National University of Ireland in Dublin, at the DIT School of Architecture, at Queen's University Belfast, at Cesuga (Centro de Estudios Universitarios de Galicia) in A Coruña, Spain, at Cardiff University and Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, at the University of Dundee, guest critics at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at Cesuga in A Coruña, Spain. McCullough Mulvin Architects have accreditation within the RIAI focusing on grade 1 heritage preservation.
The exhibition and lecture are under the patronage of Charles Sheehan, the Ambassador of Ireland to the Czech Republic.
More information >
Contemporary architecture is realized everywhere but strives to achieve significance and seriousness. Many architects are forced to deliver standard concepts that reflect magazine culture; works are quickly consumed, satisfying an audience focused solely on what is new. While the state, laws, and high finances pompously speak of supporting architecture, they actually burden it with enormous loads – excessive regulations, demands to explain everything in the name of democracy, and the introduction of additional layers of management. All of this diverts architects from the decision-making process, drains time that should be spent on design, and gradually suppresses individual expression, originality, and uniqueness. True architecture is driven to the margins – the effort for monotonous and purposeless promotion of brands and big names predominates, and the level of craftsmanship declines.
This should not be the case. The world is suffering greatly from centralization and homogenization, but there is still an opportunity to carve out practices in a region, city, or country that prioritize the quality of place (the experts in this locally universal world are from RCR in Catalonia's Olot). The scale of the work is not important. Alejandro Aravena, the director of the architecture section of the Venice Biennale 2016, managed to capture what architects can do – he presented their results in everyday life, at a scale of 1 mm.
The work of McCullough Mulvin Architects should be viewed in this light; as an attempt to be active on a small island at small scales and to implement things of universal nature. The firm is also dedicated to exploring the breadth and depth of architecture that goes beyond standard expressions of form and material through film and critical writing.
McCullough Mulvin Architects is an architectural firm based in Dublin that focuses on modern architecture in Ireland. The themes of its work revolve around the interrelationships between art, landscape, and historical memory; these include projects from the public sector, cultural and community buildings, libraries, and schools; relatively simply conceived public buildings serving the definition of new public interests in a changing society, addressing the issues of dispersed light, and coping with harsh conditions in Ireland; projects exploring the potential for mundane monumentality and creating architecture in line with clients' visions, but also beyond this framework.
Award-winning projects: Dublin Dental Hospital (RIAI – Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, for best hospital building); Trinity Long Room Hub (RIAI award for best educational building, shortlisted for RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) award, nomination for Mies van der Rohe award; special recognition from the citizen movement Europa Nostra for the library in Rush, RIAI award for best renovated building; psychiatric unit for children and adolescents in Bessboro: RIAI award for best healthcare building; James Ussher Library at Trinity College Dublin, shortlisted for the RIAI gold medal (triennale), nomination for Mies van der Rohe award; Source Arts Centre and Library: RIAI for best public/cultural building; Waterford City Library: regional RIAI award; offices on Lincoln Place, recognition from the UK charitable organization Civic Trust.
The office's work includes the exploration of the urban context: McCullough Mulvin became the winners of the Group 91 framework plan competition for the Temple Bar district in Dublin, where they built three standalone cultural buildings, and in the urban areas of Digital Hub and Newmarket designed live-work environments suitable for post-industrial landscapes.
Their scope is expanded by publishing activities, teaching, and research: A Lost Tradition (with Niall McCullough, Gandon Press, Dublin, 1987); The Morphology of Irish Towns (1991 TCD M Litt); WORK – McCullough Mulvin Architects (Anne Street Press and Gandon Press, 2004); Rush Library (Anne Street Press and Associated Editions, 2009); The Long Room Hub at Trinity College (Gandon Press, 2010); Dublin Dental Hospital: Embedded Space (Gandon Press, 2011); Blackrock Quartet (Gandon Press, 2014).
The work of McCullough Mulvin Architects has been exhibited in Germany, the UK, Spain – Mies van der Rohe Awards 2005 & 2011, World Architecture Festival 2009 & 2010, Prague Quadrennial 2007, Lisbon Triennale 2007, and Venice Biennale 2008. Lectures on the office's work have been held in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Norway, England, Poland, and the USA; teaching and examinations at the National University of Ireland in Dublin, at the DIT School of Architecture, at Queen's University Belfast, at Cesuga (Centro de Estudios Universitarios de Galicia) in A Coruña, Spain, at Cardiff University and Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, at the University of Dundee, guest critics at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at Cesuga in A Coruña, Spain. McCullough Mulvin Architects have accreditation within the RIAI focusing on grade 1 heritage preservation.
The exhibition and lecture are under the patronage of Charles Sheehan, the Ambassador of Ireland to the Czech Republic.
More information >
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