Meet the Speakers

Meet the Speakers

RĂłisĂ­n Murphy MRIAI

RĂłisĂ­n Murphy MRIAI

Conference MC
RĂłisĂ­n Murphy MRIAI
RĂłisĂ­n Murphy MRIAI
Conference MC

We are delighted that Architect, artist, broadcaster and writer Róisín Murphy will once again moderate the RIAI Conference 2021. 

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.

Darragh O’Brien TD

Darragh O’Brien TD

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Darragh O’Brien TD
Darragh O’Brien TD
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Darragh O’Brien will brief the conference on the Housing for All programme and other initiatives.

Darragh O'Brien TD was appointed Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in June 2020. He is an elected TD for the constituency of Dublin-Fingal. Prior to his election to the 30th Dáil in 2007, Minister O’Brien worked mainly in Financial Services and was elected to Fingal County Council in 2004. He was elected to Seanad Éireann in 2011.

He has held various positions within the Oireachtas including Vice-Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Member of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Law Reform, Leader of Fianna Fáil in the Seanad and Opposition Frontbench Spokesperson on Dublin, Foreign Affairs and Housing.

Claire McManus MRIA and David Dwyer MRIAI

Claire McManus MRIA and David Dwyer MRIAI

RIAI Response to 'Housing for All'
Claire McManus MRIA and David Dwyer MRIAI
Claire McManus MRIA and David Dwyer MRIAI
RIAI Response to 'Housing for All'

Claire McManus MRIAI (Chair RIAI Housing Committee)

Claire is a director of JFOC Architects, a practice which specialises in housing and has to date helped deliver over 9000 dwellings in Ireland. She is the RIAI Spokesperson on Housing and is a sitting member of the RIAI Council. She holds an MBA and is involved in the research and the development of RIAI policy with respect to Housing and Building Control.

David Dwyer MRIAI (Chair RIAI Urban Design Committee)

David Dwyer is an Architect-Urban Designer in private practice. He studied architecture at Dublin Institute of Technology, architectural technology at Bolton St. College of Technology and completed an urban design masters at UCD. Having worked internationally in the UK and Ireland on large scale urban projects he set up in private practice in 1997. 

He founded ‘Box Urban’ in 2007 as an architecture and urban design practice at the forefront of quality space creation, adopting a people centred approach to design, with an emphasis on sustainability – socially, economically, and environmentally. The practice focuses on the delivery of excellence in the built environment to fulfil peoples’ needs in enabling place creation.

David teaches in TU Dublin in the planning school and in the school of Food Science and Environmental Health. His research and practice are focused on retrofit of the existing sub urban condition to enable walkable neighbourhoods and initiate resilience at an urban scale. Projects include, urban design strategies, engagement practices, and the delivery of completed buildings.  His work has been widely published and exhibited. He is the recipient of many awards and commendations both nationally and internationally. He is a founding member, and currently chair of The RIAI Urban Design Committee and is co-author of the RIAI Town and Village Toolkit.

Professor Carlos Moreno (France)

Professor Carlos Moreno (France)

The 15 Minute City
Professor Carlos Moreno (France)
Professor Carlos Moreno (France)
The 15 Minute City

Carlos Moreno is the thought leader behind the 15-min city concept which has been adopted by the city of Paris under its directly elected Mayor Anne Hidalgo. He is Associate Professor at the Panthéon Sorbonne University IAE in Paris and also co-founder and scientific director of eTi (Entrepreneurship – Territory – Innovation). Moreno is renowned for his ‘Smart City’ concept, and a scientific advisor of national and international figures of the highest level, including the Mayor of Paris.

He works at the heart of issues of international significance as a result of his research, including the following concepts: the ‘Digital and Sustainable City’ in 2006 (before the appearance of the ‘Smart City’ concept in 2010), overtaken by the ‘Human Smart City’ launched in 2012, the ‘Living City’ in 2014, as well as the ‘City of 15mn’ followed by the ‘Territory of 30mn’ launched in 2016.

Carlos Moreno’s contributions are internationally valued for their originality and incorporated in multiple projects of local governance and urban transformations in France and worldwide. His works aim at promoting the transformation of our lifestyles and urban spaces, and to offer solutions to the issues faced by the cities, metropolises and territories during the 21st century. Carlos Moreno was awarded Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor in 2010 by the French Republic. In 2019 he received the Foresight Medal by the French Academy of Architecture.

Valerie Mulvin FRIAI

Valerie Mulvin FRIAI

Irish Towns - lessons in space and geometry
Valerie Mulvin FRIAI
Valerie Mulvin FRIAI
Irish Towns - lessons in space and geometry

Valerie Mulvin FRIAI will present 'Irish Towns - lessons in space and geometry' from her highly regarded new book Approximate Formality- Morphology of Irish Towns. Valerie Mulvin co-founded McCullough Mulvin Architects with Niall McCullough.

Based in Dublin, Ireland, the focus of the practice is on the design of sustainable cultural, educational and civic buildings, with a dynamic synergy of interest in innovative contemporary architecture, place, and history. Valerie is currently working in Ireland on a series of radical conservation / intervention projects and in third level education projects, while in India she is creating new spaces for learning and living at Thapar University in the Punjab.

Her work is extended by publications, teaching and research, and has been exhibited in the UK, USA, Germany, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Venice Biennale. Her upcoming book Approximate Formality – Morphology of Irish Towns” discusses the origin, originality and potential of towns and town plans in Ireland.

Niall McLaughlin MRIAI

Niall McLaughlin MRIAI

Design Innovation
Niall McLaughlin MRIAI
Niall McLaughlin MRIAI
Design Innovation

Niall McLaughlin MRIAI will discuss design research and innovation in the work of his practice including the forthcoming International Rugby Experience in Limerick.

Niall McLaughlin MRIAI was born in Geneva in 1962. He was educated in Dublin and studied architecture at University College Dublin between 1979 and 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker for four years and established his own practice in London in 1990. He designs buildings for education, culture, health, religious worship and housing. He won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998, received the RIBA Charles Jencks Award for Simultaneous Contribution to Theory and Practice in 2016 and elected an Aosdána Member for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Ireland and as a Royal Academician in the Category of Architecture in 2019. In 2020 he was awarded an Honorary MBE for Services to Architecture. Niall exhibited in the Venice Biennale in 2016 and 2018 and has been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2013, 2015 and 2018.

Niall is Professor of Architectural Practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He was a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles from 2012-2013 and was appointed Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale for 2014-2015. Significant projects from the practice include the Bandstand (Bexhill 2001), Pier Cafe (Deal 2006), Dirk Cove House (Cork 2004), ARC Building (Hull 2005), Goleen House (Cork 2008), Bishop Edward King Chapel (Oxford 2013), Olympic Athletes’ Housing (London 2012), Peabody Housing (Whitechapel 2015), Somerville Student Residence (Oxford 2010), West Court Jesus College (Cambridge 2017) and The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre (Oxford 2017).

Ben Channon (UK)

Ben Channon (UK)

Supporting Mental Well-being in Architecture
Ben Channon (UK)
Ben Channon (UK)
Supporting Mental Well-being in Architecture

Ben Channon is an architect, author, TEDx speaker and mental wellbeing advocate, and is well known in the industry as a thought leader in designing for happiness and wellbeing.

He is a Director at wellbeing design consultancy Ekkist, where he helps clients and design teams to create healthier places, and researches how buildings and urban design can impact how we feel. 

He developed an interest in design for mental health, wellbeing and happiness after suffering with anxiety problems in his mid-twenties. This led him to research the relationship between buildings and happiness, which formed the basis of his first book: Happy by Design. Ben now speaks on this subject to businesses and universities around the world. 

Ben then went on to qualify as WELL Accredited Professional, broadening his knowledge to encompass design for physical wellbeing. In January 2020 he was invited to join the WELL Mind Advisory panel, using his expertise to raise the bar for healthy buildings worldwide.

In 2017 Ben co-founded the Architects’ Mental Wellbeing Forum, which is focused on improving mental health within the industry. He is also an accredited mindfulness practitioner with the Mindfulness Association, and is interested in how buildings can help us to be more mindful and present every day. 

Tara Gbolade and Seun Lanre Gbolade (UK)

Tara Gbolade and Seun Lanre Gbolade (UK)

Challenging conventions: practice and projects - Gbolade Design Studio
Tara Gbolade and Seun Lanre Gbolade (UK)
Tara Gbolade and Seun Lanre Gbolade (UK)
Challenging conventions: practice and projects - Gbolade Design Studio

Lanre and Tara will discuss innovation and housing design and delivery and their work as part of the Paradigm Network.

Gbolade Design Studio is an emerging architectural practice based in London, focused on achieving high regenerative performance on all its projects; particularly stressing importance on human socio-economic factors as well as the ecological and environmental qualities of places and building components. Led by its co-founding directors Lanre and Tara Gbolade, the practice seeks to break the mould of traditional practice through an approach that is collaborative across international borders, explores product design and instigates self-initiated projects.

RIBAJ Rising Star Winner, Tara is a co-founder of Gbolade Design Studio, and part of the Architects Declare steering group. Architect by trade and Passivhaus designer by passion, her expertise in design and planning policy saw her lead the Harlow & Gilston Garden Town Sustainability Strategy.  Tara sits on a few Design Review Panels including RBKC, Lambeth, and Merton Councils - advising on major planning applications. She is a founding committee member of the Paradigm Network, a professional network championing Black and Asian representation in the built environment, sits on the Public Practice Board as an Alumni Observer, and is part of the advisory committee for the Guys & St Thomas Charity Impact on Urban Health initiative.

As an architect and client lead, Lanre brings a unique perspective to the affordable housing development industry in the UK. With extensive experience in architectural design and construction design management he has a passion for leading design teams using a collaborative working methodologies to deliver high quality, innovative project outcomes. As co-founding Director of Gbolade Design Studio (GDS), he oversees strategic project design approaches, practice R&D initiatives and management activities. In a client capacity, he has established and leads the in-house multi-disciplinary Production Innovation Team for one of the UK’s largest affordable housing providers. His role focuses on transforming the organisation's affordable housing delivery targets of 3,000 homes per annum through adoption and integration of sustainable DfMA, MMC and Offsite methods. Between 2017-20 Lanre was an elected RIBA Council member and recently completed a four-year term on the RIBA Practice & Profession Committee where he contributed to a number of policy initiatives and most recently, the launch of the DfMA Plan of Work Overlay, As well as being on numerous industry panels and co-founding Paradigm Network, he has also recently been appointed to the Women’s Economic Imperative as a sustainable communities & environment expert; providing development and delivery expertise on local, affordable, community based-project opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Professor Dietmar Eberle, Baumschlager and Eberle (Austria)

Professor Dietmar Eberle, Baumschlager and Eberle (Austria)

Building Innovation and Energy Efficiency
Professor Dietmar Eberle, Baumschlager and Eberle (Austria)
Professor Dietmar Eberle, Baumschlager and Eberle (Austria)
Building Innovation and Energy Efficiency

Professor Dietmar Eberle, a co-founder and director of award-winning Baumschlager and Eberle Architects, will discuss the innovative sustainable work of the practice including their own 2226 offices in Lustenau, Austria. 2226 is a building that is a functioning part of its environment rather than just “architecture”. The choice of name is no accident: the ambient temperature inside is a constant 22°C to 26°C. The only heat sources it contains are there for other purposes, from the users themselves – every individual gives off an average of 80 watts of heat – to lights, computers and photocopiers, even coffee machines.

Denise Murray MRIAI and Jonny McKenna MRIAI

Denise Murray MRIAI and Jonny McKenna MRIAI

People Power Places, Metropolitan Workshop
Denise Murray MRIAI and Jonny McKenna MRIAI
Denise Murray MRIAI and Jonny McKenna MRIAI
People Power Places, Metropolitan Workshop

Denise Murray Studio Lead (Dublin) BSc Arch, BArch, MArch MRIAI

Denise is currently Studio Leader at Metropolitan Workshop, Dublin. She has more than 15 years’ experience and has worked on a range of projects from public buildings to complex, urban projects in Ireland, the UK and France. Housing has been at the heart of many of these projects. Working with private and public sector clients, she has a particular interest in urban regeneration and engaging with multiple stakeholders to create successful places.

She has delivered a number of award-winning schemes in the UK that have set a high benchmark in terms of how the design has been developed in close consultation with stakeholders and the public. Denise is also on the Dublin City Council Housing Strategic Policy Committee and is a Design Fellow at University College Dublin.

Jonny McKenna Director (Dublin Studio) BSc BArch MA (Urban Design) RIBA, RIAI

Jonny is a director of architecture and urbanism practice Metropolitan Workshop. He studied architecture at University College Dublin and received an MA in Urban Design at the University of Westminster. He is Hon. Secretary of the RIAI Urban Design Committee, teaches on Urban Design London’s foundation course and sits on the RIAI’s design review panel (having previously been a member of Hackney’s Design Review Panel). He is a member of Dublin City Council’s Strategic Committee for Planning and Urban Form. Jonny specialises in residential led master planning and housing and has particular skills in estate regeneration and public engagement.

Karen McEvoy MRAI and Merritt Bucholz MRIAI

Karen McEvoy MRAI and Merritt Bucholz MRIAI

Making Architecture of Wood in Ireland and Canada
Karen McEvoy MRAI and Merritt Bucholz MRIAI
Karen McEvoy MRAI and Merritt Bucholz MRIAI
Making Architecture of Wood in Ireland and Canada

Having worked in New York and Paris, Karen McEvoy and Merritt Bucholz co-founded Bucholz McEvoy Architects in Dublin in 1996, following a competition win for Fingal County Hall, in response to an ambitious sustainability brief.

In the making of civic architecture, the practice aims to create healthy‘breathing’ environments designed to respond to site-specific microclimates. In crafting the materiality and bones of architectural projects, wood is increasingly used as a core structural component.

Karen and Merritt have taught at SAUL, DIT and UCD in Ireland, Harvard University USA, IE Segovia, Spain, and have given various guest lectures and workshops in Europe and USA.

The work of the practice has been exhibited in the USA, Germany, Italy and France, and at the Venice Biennale (2002, 2008 and 2018).

Sponsors

RIAI Premier Conference Sponsor

RIAI Premier Conference Sponsor

Contact Details & Location

RDS Main Hall Merrion Rd, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 & Online

Main Contact: Sonila Papa
Tel: +353 (0)1 669 1483
E-mail: communications@riai.ie