Meet the Speakers

Sean Mahon FRIAI is the RIAI President for 2024-2025. 

Seán Mahon served previously as RIAI First Vice-President and chaired the workgroup that developed the RIAI Strategy 2023-2027. Sean has worked across many areas of the RIAI over the last 30 years including education, practice and architecture. He has worked to strengthen the position of the architect within the design team and to bring awareness to the diverse range of skills within the profession.  

He has also served on various boards and committees within the architectural and healthcare sectors in Ireland, including as a former President of the Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI).

Seán is a Registered Architect with over 25 years’ experience in design, planning and development of healthcare facilities. His projects include many of the recent national projects, including the new National Children’s Hospital; the National Maternity Hospital; the National Rehabilitation Hospital (RIAI Award 2021); and the North-West Cancer Centre (RIAI Award 2018). He continues to advise many healthcare providers and the HSE on current projects and strategies.

Seán graduated from the School of Architecture UCD in 1986 and worked with James Stirling in London and Berlin before returning to Dublin in 1990 to work with O’Donnell + Tuomey on cultural projects in Temple Bar. He is a founding Director of O’Connell Mahon Architects in 1998 and has been Managing Director since 2008. 

Bridget Smyth is an architect urban designer and advocate for public art.

She is the City Architect/ Executive Manager City Design and Public Art at City of Sydney. She has held this role since 2001. She leads the organisations strategic urban design, public space and public art programs. Bridget co-directed Sustainable Sydney 2030 and Sustainable Sydney 2030 to 2050. Bridget leads the City’s public art program City Art, commissioning new works and managing the collection of 262 works, including cultural heritage valued at $72M.

Bridget was Design Director for the Sydney 2000 Olympics from 1996 to 2001, leading its public art program and prior to that Bridget worked in private practice in the United States on the US $14 billion Big Dig project in Boston leading its public art program and Wood Marsh Architects and Hassell in Melbourne.

Bridget holds a Master Degree in Design (Urban Design) from Harvard University’s GSD and a Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Hons) from the University of Melbourne, including studying Fine Arts at University of Melbourne.

She was awarded the 2014 Marion Griffin Prize and the 2016 NSW President’s Prize.

Bridget sits on the board of the Placemaking New South Wales, Lenity charity and the UTS Design and Built Environment School Dean's Advisory Council. Bridget was a board member of Object Centre for Design and Craft from 2003 to 2010 and University of NSW National Institute of Experimental Arts from 2010 to 2015.

Bridget is a founding ambassador for the Venice Architecture Biennale and a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects. She is an active member of the World Cities Cultural Forum, a network of world cities whose mission is to develop the culture of cities.

Bridget is a champion for cities and has dedicated her career to improving them through design excellence, strategic thinking and the inclusion of artists in shaping cities.

John Pawson CBE will give a lecture, looking back over 30 years of practice, making rigorously simple architecture that speaks of the fundamentals but is also modest in character. Established in 1981, Pawson’s work has focused on ways of approaching fundamental problems of space, proportion, light and materials, rather than on developing a set of stylistic mannerisms. Whilst private houses have remained a consistent strand, projects have spanned a wide range of scales and typologies. A particular focus is on environments of historic, landscape and ecological significance, including the Sackler Crossing – a walkway over the lake at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Nový Dvůr in Bohemia; and the remodelling of the former Commonwealth Institute in London as the home for the Design Museum.

Image credit: Gilbert McCarragher

John Moran took office as the first directly elected Mayor of Limerick City and County in June 2024. Son of a builder and raised on a family farm in Mungret, he studied at St. Paul’s National School and CBS Sexton Street before earning a Law Degree from University College Dublin and a Master’s from Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania Law Schools.

John began his career as a lawyer on Wall Street before returning to Ireland to work in the aviation sector and later in banking, including leadership roles at Zurich Financial Services.  In 2010, he helped steer the country’s recovery as a senior bank supervisor at the Central Bank and as Secretary General in the Department of Finance.

John has been a board member on a number of organisations, including the European Investment Bank, and has chaired the Land Development Agency during its set up period.  He has been involved on a number of renovation projects especially in Georgian Limerick. His vision for Limerick is to create an inclusive, sustainable city that enhances the quality of life for all its residents.

Shane de Blacam, B.Arch. (NUI) 1968, M. Arch. (PENN) 1970, MRIAI 1972, RIBA 1976, FRIAI 1986, HLFRSAI 1994, will deliver a lecture at the RIAI Conference, with slides taken from a lecture delivered at the RA London (October 2023) at the award of The Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2023.

Born in Dublin in 1945, Shane attended Undergraduate School of Architecture, University College Dublin (1963-68) and Post Graduate School of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania (1969-70). He worked in London with Chamberlain, Powell and Bon, and in Philadelphia with Louis I. Khan, where he worked for two years on the Mellon Centre for British Art and British Studies Yale University New Haven Connecticut. In 1972 he returned to Ireland as a first-year master at the School of Architecture, UCD. Shane commenced de Blacam and Meagher in 1976 and worked in architectural partnership with John Meagher in Dublin for 45 years until John died, early 2021.

They shared a friendship and close exchange of criticism and drawings and shared design responsibility for the work of de Blacam and Meagher, sometimes with others in the practice. De Blacam and Meagher are the recipients of the RIAI Gold Medal and five Silver Medals for architecture and conservation, including the RIAI Gandon Medal and the Europa Nostra Silver Medal. He is a Grade 1 Conservation Architect since 2003. Shane is a member of Aosdána, an institution to honour achievement in art of the Government, and the recipient of The Royal Academy Architecture Prize 2023.

Roddy Doyle is the author of thirteen novels, including the THE COMMITMENTS, THE SNAPPER, PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA, for which he won the Booker Prize in 1993; THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS, and, most recently, THE WOMEN BEHIND THE DOOR.  He has also written three collections of short stories, eight books for children, the TWO PINTS series, and memoir of his parents, RORY AND ITA. He co-wrote THE SECOND HALF, with Roy Keane, and KELLIE, with Kellie Harrington. 

He co-wrote the screenplay for THE COMMITMENTS, and wrote the scripts for THE SNAPPER and THE VAN.  His most recent screen work was the script for ROSIE, released in 2018. His four-part TV series, FAMILY, was produced by the BBC in 1994. He has also written for stage, including the book of the Commitments musical.  

He is a co-founder of Fighting Words, which was set up to help and encourage children and young people throughout Ireland to write creatively. He lives in Dublin. 

Muyiwa Oki is President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 2023-25 and a senior Architect at Mace. Muyiwa was elected following a campaign which included pledges to promote more flexible routes into the profession, increase transparency, dial up efforts to improve diversity, and embrace digital culture.

As an Architect at Mace, Muyiwa is focused on technology, innovation, modern methods of construction. Throughout his career, Muyiwa has worked on large-scale infrastructure projects - including Qiddiya, HS2 Euston and the North London Heat and Power Project – and projects with public estate clients that have a strategic mission to revitalise cities.

Muyiwa is an ambassador, speaker and mentor for aspiring architects via programmes such as Mayor of London Design Challenge, Scale Rule, and POC in Architecture which exists to encourage greater social mobility within the profession.

Image credit: Kemka Ajoku

Máire Henry is a director of dhbArchitects based in Waterford City.

A graduate of UCD, Máire worked with Scott Tallon Walker Architects in London before moving to Paris where she worked in the offices of Marcel Breuer Associates and Renzo Piano Building Workshop. She then returned to Ireland where she led the development of a new School of Architecture at the Waterford Institute of Technology (now SETU).

Máire established dhbArchitects in 1999 with her husband Fintan Duffy. Their recent portfolio of work includes public realm, cultural, conservation and refurbishment projects as well as rehabilitation of historic town centres. The office provides Grade 1 Conservation and Passivhaus design.

Máire is the RIAI representative on the Taoiseach’s Task Force for Dublin City Centre.

She is currently Vice President of the RIAI and a member of the Architecture and Public Affairs Committee.

The practice was founded in The Liberties in 2001 by Marcus Donaghy MRIAI and Will Dimond FRIAI, engaging with a shared interest in the material processes of making architecture and the particularities of place.  It has developed a reputation for high quality innovative, sustainable design working from first principles and applied research. Scales of work range from urban design to landscape, to housing, to educational projects and furniture design. The practice has worked for the Department of Education and Skills, local authorities, universities, arts organizations, charitable bodies, commercial organizations, housing bodies and domestic clients. 

The practice has won numerous awards for its built projects, including the Downes Medal of the Architectural Association of Ireland (2016), and was also shortlisted for the EU Mies Award 2017 for European Architecture, and the BSI Swiss International Architecture Award (for sustainable practice) 2012. Donaghy and Dimond were selected participants in the Close Encounter exhibition at Vencie Biennale 2017.

In 2022 the Practice was a winner in the IAF and Housing Agency, Housing Unlocked Competition. The development of their selected research exhibition entry – Model Housing/Urban Horticulture won an AAI Award 2024 and was winner of an RIAI Award for Research 2024.

David Browne FRIAI is a former President of the RIAI and chairman of RKD Architects.

Based in Dublin, he has worked on master planning, urban design and building projects in Ireland, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, China and Africa.

David is one of the leaders of the Irish Cities 2070 Group which is working to envision the future form and sustainability of Irish cities with the many challenges which they face.

Orla Connolly & Jens Weber are a photography and film team specialised in architecture and portrait. The core essence of their collaborative work is the fusion between the clear structure of architectural photography and the ambiguity of people photography – uniquely capturing the relationship between humans and architectural spaces.

They are based in Munich – Dublin – Donegal and work internationally. Their clients include German and international architects such as John Pawson. Their work is published regularly in international architecture journals such as AD, A+U, Wallpaper, el croquis. They’ve exhibited in the Design Museum London and Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, amongst others.

Their film, 7 Chapels, premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh 2023 and is screening due to popular demand in Art House Cinemas throughout Germany and Europe. Lauded in the German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung as A masterpiece of spatial perception. And even catching the attention of Germany’s most renowned film director, Wim Wenders: radical in the best sense and beautifully shot.

7 Chapels is a film where architecture is a protagonist. It’s a meticulous visual study of seven chapels in the Swabian Danube Valley, built by seven architects: John Pawson, Hans Engel, Wilhelm Huber, Frank Lattke, Alen Jasarevic, Staab Architecs & Christoph Mäckler.

The intrinsic qualities of architecture and how structures elicit reactions from people are observed through precise frame composition – witnessing intermittent, random interactions, between people and the structures.

The film’s distinct aesthetic, with long takes, combined with music, draws the viewer in, evoking a near-trance-like state – in the spirit of slow cinema.

7 Chapels will be screening at IFI in Dublin on 12 October at 2pm. There will be a post show discussion with Orla Connolly, Jens Weber and composer Wolfram Oettl. Moderated by Dr Carole Pollard.

Dr. Jackie Bourke is a lecturer in the MSc in Spatial Planning at TU Dublin and an urban geographer with research interests in children's urban geographies, feminist geographies, and creative data collection methods.

Her doctoral thesis focused on primary school children's experiences of their urban neighborhoods, highlighting both the challenges they face and their playful, imaginative insights into the public realm.

Dr. Bourke has received funding from the Irish Research Council and the Arts Council of Ireland to explore teenagers' experiences of the city through creative mapping techniques. She also led a study, funded by the UN Women Safe Cities Programme, on women and teenage girls' experiences in public spaces, commissioned by Dublin City Council.

A founding member of the Children's Rights Alliance, Dr. Bourke has been a lifelong advocate for children's rights, particularly their right to play and to have a voice in decisions affecting them.

Her recent publications include Toddlers in the City on Type.ie, Mary Street, Dublin 1 in Dublin Exchange: Reflections on a City in Flux, and Using Innovative Communication Pathways to Reframe the Perception of Young People within the Political Establishment in Children and Society.

Tiago Oliveira graduated as a Geographer/Urban Planner from Lisbon in 1997, including a year of study in the Netherlands. Since then, Tiago has gained extensive experience in various aspects of Transport Planning, such as Traffic and Transport Assessments, Masterplanning, Streetscape design, Sustainable Transport, and Transport Strategies.

His career began at the Lisbon Metropolitan Transport Authority, where he contributed to the Transport Plan for World Expo '98 in Lisbon and participated in multi-modal interchange studies.

After relocating to Ireland and a period working with the Financial Times, Tiago joined SIAS, where he worked on Land Use and Transportation Studies for towns across Ireland, including involvement in the 2003 Special Olympics Transport Strategy.

Following a move to the UK, Tiago worked with Atkins in partnership with Hampshire County Council and later joined WSP, contributing to Transport Assessments for residential and commercial developments and providing masterplanning advice for large projects.

Since joining Arup in 2006, Tiago has worked on a diverse range of projects, including transport assessments, mobility management plans for large developments, and masterplans. He has managed Movement Framework Plans and Local Transport Plans for towns and cities across Ireland and provided transportation advice to institutions such as University College Dublin. Tiago has worked with private clients (e.g., Hines, Ballymore, IPUT), local authorities (DCC, DLRCC, SDCC), and other institutions (LDA, UCD, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, National Maternity Hospital, UCC).

In addition, Tiago has contributed to the transportation aspects of masterplans, strategic plans, and design competitions in countries including Russia, Romania, Switzerland, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Italy, Denmark, and Germany. He led the technical team that developed a Cycle Masterplan for Ankara, Turkey, and a Transport Masterplan for Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. Currently, Tiago is working with the Norman Foster Foundation on a Reconstruction Masterplan for Kharkiv, Ukraine.

While his career as a transport planner, particularly within an engineering setup, wasn’t initially planned, it has offered the opportunity to pursue a lifelong ambition: contributing to projects that positively impact the way city’s function and how people live.

Tiago has developed a keen interest in how movement - especially pedestrian and cycling mobility - can be a key factor in enhancing the quality of urban life. He believes that quality design across all modes of transport can lead to successful projects, regardless of their size.

Hugh Campbell is Professor of Architecture in UCD where he is currently working on the BuildingChange curriculum reform project.  Since July 2024, he is Academic Director for Campus Space Management and Development for UCD. With Nathalie Weadick, he curated Ireland's pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2008, The Lives of Spaces. He worked with Grafton Architects on curating the Close Encounter section of the 2018 Venice Biennale, Freespace. He has published widely on architecture, photography, visual culture and cities, including the 2021 book Space Framed - Photography, Architecture and the Social Landscape.

David McRedmond was appointed Chief Executive Officer of An Post in October, 2016 where he has led the transformation of the old State company into a contemporary and vital public service.  He was previously CEO of TV3, concluding with its sale to Liberty Global in December 2015. Prior to TV3, David was the Commercial Director of Eircom and the Managing Director of Eircom Enterprises. His early career was as a retail industry executive in the UK and USA where he held senior roles such as Operations Director of Waterstones, Managing Director of WH Smith Travel Retail and CEO of WH Smith Inc.

A native of Dublin, David holds a Masters degree in Modern Irish History from UCD. He completed the Top Management Programme at the Cabinet Office, UK and the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD. He has also recently completed the INSEAD International Director Programme. David is the non-executive Chairman of Eir, Ireland’s leading telecoms company, ex-Chairman of Premier Lotteries Ireland; a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime Fellow of the Irish Management Institute, and a special recipient at the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2023. 

David was appointed in 2024  by the Government to chair the High-Level Taskforce for Dublin City Centre. The Taskforce delivered its report to the Taoíseach in September, and expects the report to be published in October 2024.

Founding Director of Bucholz McEvoy Architects, Dublin, Ireland

Having graduated from UCD School of Architecture, Karen worked in New York and Paris before returning to Ireland. In 1996 she co-founded Bucholz McEvoy Architects with Merritt Bucholz, further to an international competition win for a new County Hall in response to an ambitious sustainability brief. In the 28 years since, the practice has completed award winning civic projects, following a holistically sustainable design approach.

Emphasis is placed on carefully crafted, site specific solutions, optimising the use of natural energies, natural daylight & ventilation, in integrated low carbon architecture fine-tuned to its particular setting and micro-climate. Mass timber is increasingly used to form the bones of architecture, which combined with responsive building skins seek to create healthy environments in collaboration with the natural & climatic systems in which they are set.

Karen has taught at various Schools of Architecture in Ireland, Harvard University USA, IE Segovia, Spain, has given various guest lectures and workshops in Europe and USA, and has served on national and international design juries. The work of the practice has been exhibited in the USA, Germany, Italy, France, and at the Venice Biennale (2002, 2008 and 2018)

B.Soc.Sc (Arch)(Edinburgh) B.Arch (Hons) (UCD), MRIAI

Seán has been practicing as an architect for 38 years. He studied architecture at Edinburgh University and University College Dublin, receiving double first class honours.  For nine years he worked in London for the highly regarded practice of Edward Cullinan Architects, seven of which as a partner, where he was the project and design architect for a variety of new-build projects including urban design, housing and bridges, before returning to Dublin.

Seán’s work has won numerous awards for architectural and urban design in both Ireland, Germany and the UK, including several RIAI, RIBA and Opus awards, for both new build and conservation projects.  Winning architectural design competitions include the Dublin Millennium Bridge and the Dublin City Council Affordable Housing Building.

Seán has a great interest in and experience of people-focussed urban design, streetscape design and place-making. Projects have included; The Parnell Square masterplan, Temple Bar Urban Framework Plan, Tallaght Zip cycling and pedestrian promenade, Dublin One Laneways project, Talbot Street redevelopment plan, Granby Community Park, Clonmel Kickham Barracks public plaza, Meeting House Square, Kilkenny urban tourism plan and The Dubline urban tourism plan.

Infrastructure and transportation projects have often been central to urban design and connectivity projects, where Seán has always worked closely and harmoniously with civil and structural engineers as part of integrated design teams. These have included; Dublin Millennium Bridge, Dublin Rosie Hackett LUAS Bridge, Athlone Greenway Bridge, Droichead an Dóchais in Galway. Current projects include the  Dodder and Point Bridges in the Dublin Docklands, Castleknock Royal Canal Greenway, 2 pedestrian bridges in Cork City, Cherrywood Grand Parade LUAS bridge and the new Waterford Railway and Transport Hub. Recent research has included principles of low carbon bridge design.

Professor Karen Wiltshire is a distinguished climate ecologist and the inaugural CRH Chair of Climate Science at Trinity College Dublin. An expert in coastal research and a Trinity alumna, Professor Wiltshire has recently returned to the university from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, where she served as Vice-Director in combination with a professorship in Shelf Sea Ecology at the University of Kiel.

Bringing a wealth of international and multi-disciplinary research experience, Professor Wiltshire's research interests are on 'whole-system climate resilience', focusing on innovative ways to combine the needs of society, renewable energy and nature towards a sustainable climate and human future. This includes research into long-term climate-related shifts in vulnerable ecosystems and food webs. 

Professor Wiltshire emphasises the need for inter-stakeholder dialogue, holistic systems-oriented education and trans-disciplinary research. Her return to Trinity also promises to forge strong links with AWI, offering Trinity researchers access to a suite of unique expertise as well as large-scale research resources and experimental facilities.

The CRH Chair of Climate Science is a joint appointment by Trinity's School of Engineering and the School of Natural Sciences, highlighting the university’s commitment to integrating engineering and natural sciences in tackling climate challenges.

Niall Rowan graduated from University Dublin School of Architecture in 1994, joined Derek Tynan Architects in Dublin, was a founding director of DTA Architects in 2005 and Managing Director since 2021.

Over that period Niall has led the design direction of the practice, delivering numerous key projects from the MACRO Community Building on North King Street (2001), Social and Affordable Housing at Santry Demesne (2009), winner of the RIAI Silver Medal for Housing in 2015, to recent larger scale projects including Highfield Park Student Accommodation on North Circular Road Dublin (2020) (winner of Best Housing Towards NetZero Ireland Awards 2022).

Current projects include both public and private sector residential, mixed-use and cultural developments, including the design and delivery of social and affordable housing and regeneration projects for South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council and Cork City Council.

A commitment to quality of architectural design, expertise in high density urban/ suburban sites and challenging contexts, with an emphasis on tectonic rigour, underpins the work of the practice, as recognised in numerous awards, including the RIAI Silver Medal for Housing on three occasions.

Jim Coady is an Architect, urban designer and advocate for collaborative design of cities and mixed-use, mid-density neighbourhoods. He graduated from University College Dublin, completed a Masters in Urban Design in Manchester University and worked on social housing with Dublin City Council before joining O’Mahony Pike Architects and teaching for three years in the School of Architecture in UCD. He led the architectural team in Brady Shipman Martin until 1987 when he started COADY Architects, focused on education, housing, master planning and urban design projects, and remains a consultant with the firm. He is a member of the Irish Cities 2070 Group and jointly edited and recently contributed to ‘Irish Cities in Crisis’, a collection of essays on urbanism in Ireland.

Teresa Novais graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto in 1991. In the same year, she co-founded aNC arquitectos with Jorge Carvalho.

Their work has been recognised with awards such as the Honorable Mention of the João de Almada Prize (2019), the Prize of the IX Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (2014) and the nomination for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award (2011). The aNC studio is currently involved in public and private housing projects and facilities for various communities.

Teresa Novais regularly teaches design courses and participates in design studios reviews at various national and european schools of architecture.

 She was President of the North Board of Directors of Architects Order (2008-2010) and co-responsible member of the Culture Activities (2005-2007). Teresa was co-curator, with Margarida Quintã, of Open House Porto 2024, with the theme ‘building freedom during 50 years’.

She is co-curator, with Luís Tavares Pereira, of a vast programme launched in 2023, entitled ‘More than Housing’, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution (25 April 1974), involving all Portuguese public and private schools of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Fine Arts. This programme is an initiative of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto.