Aerial - Symposium celebrating Niall McCullough: architect, writer, thinker A celebration of Niall’s life, work and ideas was held on 4th November 2022 at the Provost’s House, Trinity College Dublin. It was moderated by Niall's great friend and fellow architect, Eddie Conroy, and featured presentations from architects, historians, colleagues, friends and family. A video of the evening is presented here, along with transcripts of the talks at the links below.
Niall McCullough died on 20 August 2021, before he could see his Printing House building in Trinity College fully completed, and before he could finish his latest book – Dublin: Creation, Occupation, Destruction. His startling freshness and originality of thinking about buildings and spaces offer a way to sustainably use our cities and our landscapes, bringing to bear the weight and depth of close observation, deep historical knowledge, and sheer imagination, to create conditions for an intervention into an existing building, or to make a new building within a context.
A range of speakers discuss the continuum of his life and work - woven through with buildings and books –and its significance for the future as a way of thinking imaginatively about our material culture. At a time when it has never been more relevant to question how we should build, and where the answer may sometimes be not to build at all, but to repurpose, Niall’s approach to architecture and the environment puts an urgent value on the actual fabric of our historic cities, asking us to read beyond immediate appearances to ensure we carry this fragile construct with us into the future.
Click on the links below to read transcripts of the presentations
Speakers:
Introduction - Dr Linda Doyle, Provost, Trinity College Dublin (00:10)
Moderator - Eddie Conroy, South Dublin County Council (02:28)
Niall and Style - Prof. Roy Foster, Emeritus Professor of Irish History, University of Oxford (03:34)
Excerpt from Dublin: Creation, Occupation, Destruction - James Conway, English Touring Opera (19:47)
View from Europe - Ricardo Meri de la Maza, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Editor TC Cuadernos - Read by Ruth O'Herlihy, McCullough Mulvin (32:15)
A Blast of Magnificence: Niall and Architecture - Shelley McNamara, Grafton Architects (53:32)
Into the Future - Iseult McCullough, McCullough Mulvin Architects (01:18:06)
Introduction to "Aerial" film - Nathalie Weadick, Irish Architecture Foundation (01:21:23)
A Good Kicking - Eddie Conroy, South Dublin County Council (01:31:55)
Creative Partnership - Valerie Mulvin, McCullough Mulvin Architects (01:38:53)