Meet the Speakers

Charlotte is a Registered Architect and town planner with over 20 years’ professional experience as a director of Sheridan Woods, an architecture and urban planning practice. A passionate advocate for quality-led plans for towns, villages and urban neighbourhoods, Charlotte has specialised in urban regeneration, housing, sustainable communities and collaborative planning in towns and cities in Ireland, with past experience in London and Berlin.

Charlotte Sheridan was elected to the RIAI Council in 2018 and appointed Honorary Secretary for 2019-2020. She is a Non-Executive Director and Board Member of the RIAI since 2019 and a member of the Joint RIAI / DHLGH Housing Committee since 2018. She represents the RIAI on the Fingal Heritage Forum since 2020. She is also a member of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) and its Urban Design Committee. Charlotte is a Board Member of NAMA since 2020

We are delighted that Grafton Architects' founders, Yvonne Farrell FRIAI and Shelley McNamara FRIAI are keynote speakers at this conference, discussing 'Making Places'. Grafton Architects are the 2022 recipients of the European Union's most prestigious architecture prize, the EU Mies  Award for contemporary Architecture for 'Town House' at Kingston University in London.

This is the first time that a firm of Irish architects has won the Award and the first time a university building has won the coveted Architecture prize. This latest accolade is further international acclaim for Grafton Architects work. In 2020 the practice was awarded both the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. 

Caroline Pidcock is an Australian architect learning to be a regenerative practitioner. She was born in Grafton, land of the Bunjalung Nation, and raised in Sydney, land of the Eora Nation, and has been shaped by their mighty water systems. She is passionate about architecture, biophilia and regenerative design, and how she can joyfully co-create “socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative” ways of living in Australia.

Focusing on how to strategically accelerate meaningful action on climate change, Caroline has moved from traditional practice to advice. She helped establish the Living Future Institute Australia (in 2012) and Australian Architects Declare (in 2019). She is a member of the AIA Climate Action and Sustainability Taskforce and Chair of the Environment Notes Committee, Chair of 1 Million Women and advising on Living Building Challenge projects and various council advisory panels.

Dr. Marjan Colletti is Tenured Professor of Architecture and Postdigital Practice in the UK and Chair Professor of Building Design and Technology in Austria. Academic achievements include co-directing the professionally accredited programme Architecture MArch at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL London, chairing the Institute for Experimental Architecture at Innsbruck University, and guest-professorships in Los Angeles California, Arlington Texas, and Vienna Austria. He acts as scientific reviewer in the EU, UK, USA, UAE, Australia, Canada, Russia, Switzerland etc. He has exhibited approx. 100 times in international venues, writes and lectures regularly on contemporary paradigms in architectural design and education.

Born in Norway in 1957, a trained architect from the Norwegian Institute of Technology graduating in 1988, with a Master of Arts in Urbanism from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design from 1999. He has worked with city and area planning since 1989, and with the Oslo Waterfront since 1992.

He has led the work with the technical and urbanistic foundation for the Fjord City Strategy Resolution by the City Council of Oslo, and since 2002 he has managed the planning and research functions by the Oslo Waterfront Planning Office. He has participated in several international conferences and has written a book on urban development in Oslo and articles on the development of the Oslo Waterfront

Cristina Gamboa, a Chartered Architect and educator (AA, London) from Lacol Architects, will be discussing ‘Housing as a Collective Process', sharing how the city of Barcelona supports community-led housing.  A cooperative of architects founded in 2014 in the neighbourhood of Sants, in Barcelona, Lacol are the Emerging Winners of the Mies Award. They aim to generate community infrastructures for the sustainability of life, as a key tool for the eco-social transition, through architecture, cooperativism and participation.

Psychologist, broadcaster and author Dr. Maureen Gaffney will speak at the conference on the theme of ‘resilience’. She will provide insights into how we can develop tools to cope with the challenges in our professional lives as well as transform our thinking to reclaim control.

Louise Cotter MRIAI of Cotter & Naessens and Dr. Denis Byrne MRIAI of Denis Byrne Architects will be giving a Preview of Dominick Street Regeneration: a Social Housing and Mixed-Use Project for Central Dublin.

The design and contract administration of the Dominick Street Regeneration Project was undertaken as a joint venture between Cotter & Naessens and Denis Byrne Architects.

Cotter & Naessens

Louise Cotter MRIAI is a director of Cotter & Naessens, an architecture and design studio established in 2001 with David Naessens. Prior to this, both partners practiced in London specialising in cultural, civic and university buildings. Cotter & Naessens have a particular interest in the complexities of mixed-use developments in urban locations and  have completed a number of projects contributing to the regeneration of Limerick city: Howleys Quay, Bishopsgate and the Grainstore, and most recently Gardens International for Limerick 2030.

The work of the practice output is informed by design research, and commissions won following design competition include dlrLexicon in Dun Laoghaire and most recently the FOCAS Research Institute, Technical University Dublin. Cotter & Naessens participated in Close Encounters at the Venice Biennale 2018.

Denis Byrne Architects

Dr. Denis Byrne MRIAI is founder of the RIAI-registered architecture practice, Denis Byrne Architects, based in Dublin. The practice has a wide experience of projects at all scales and types, the quality of which has been acknowledged by national and international design award bodies.

In addition to many residential and workplace development projects, the work also encompasses the fields of education and culture, tourism and interpretative design. In addition, the practice is active in the wider planning environment; on strategic reviews, feasibility studies, masterplans, and on urban and landscape design projects. The work is situated within the wider parameters of our environmental and social concerns. Denis Byrne Architects look to harness appropriate modern technologies and proven sustainable design principles to the eternal qualities of light and space to produce a humane, contemporary architecture of depth and significance.

Grace Keeley MRIAI and Michael Pike MRIAI will discuss the Transformation of St Senan’s Hospital, Enniscorthy.

Grace Keeley and Michael Pike are Directors of GKMP Architects. The work of GKMP Architects is primarily concerned with the design of domestic space, both individual houses and housing projects, and with the design of the public realm. The practice has received a number of architectural awards and has been exhibited and published internationally, including the Venice Biennale 2018 and the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015.

Esmonde O’Briain MRIAI will discuss the Ard Cre Social Housing project (Phase 2), Ballymoneen, Galway by O’Briain Beary Architects. 

After graduating from UCD in 1987 Esmonde O’Briain worked with Koetter Kim, Stirling Wilford and Derek Tynan Architects before setting up in solo practice in 1995. In 2001 he founded O’Briain Beary Architects with Mike Beary. The practice is based in Dublin City Centre and is focussed on projects in the healthcare, social housing and public buildings sectors.  O’Briain Beary has a record of competition-winning and award-winning projects, including the Westport Civic Offices International Competition, Leixlip Garda Station, Capel Street LOTS Apartments and the Department of Psychiatry at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.  The practice has a balanced portfolio of the public sector and private sector work, building on a reputation for excellence in both design and project management.

We are delighted that Architect, artist, broadcaster and writer Róisín Murphy will once again moderate the RIAI Conference 2022. 

Róisín is the Presenter of Home Rescue on RTE1 and the resident Architect on Newstalk’s Home Show, which features her iconic object of design series. Qualifying with a first class honours degree in Architecture, Róisín had already established a reputation in the Irish design world, whilst still in college. She had won private commissions in London and had started a student movement ‘SADD’ campaigning for the conservation of Georgian Dublin. She was one of a new breed of ‘designer Irish’ awake citizens. Exhibiting student architectural work in Trinity College’s Atrium, she caught the attention of RTE and was interviewed on television. Once qualified, she began working in Douglas Wallace architects and rose to be a Director. Róisín subsequently set up her own practice.

Minister Burke was appointed Minister of State for Local Government and Planning in July of 2020.  He hails from Mullingar and was first elected to the Dáil in 2016, having being involved in electoral politics since 2009 when he was first elected to Westmeath County Council. 

Peter represents the people of Longford and Westmeath and trained as a Chartered Accountant, working in the private sector for 10 years before becoming involved in national politics. He previously sat on the Oireachtas Finance and Public Accounts Committees and was a frequent media commentator on tax and financial matters. Peter is married to Olivia and they have two sons, Leo and Ted.