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| Peter prepares for his Lecture |
Last week SAUL's own Peter Carroll of
A2 Architects delivered the third lecture in the Lecture@SAUL series this week hosted by Jan Frohburg.
Peter, a Limerick native, graduated from UCD in 1995 and went on to work with
O'Donnell + Tuomey in Dublin and Rafael Moneo in Madrid. In 2005 he established A2 Architects with Caomhán Murphy a fellow classmate from UCD. After 10 unsuccessful competition entries, with many near misses, A2 were successful in winning the commission for the Tullamore Community Arts Centre.
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| The crowds gather for a lecture |
Peter began the talk by showing us images of the Mosque of Cordaba, a building which has been an inspiration through his career. Following this he showed us a recent competition entry for European 10 on the Ballymun competition site. Peter thanked Sinéad OShaughnessy, a student here at SAUL, for her help on the project during her time working with A2 and mentioned how elements of this competition helped in the design of the Tullamore Community Arts Centre.
Peter then gave a brief description of Tullamore, the historic site of the end of the Grand Canal 'til its extension in the 1780's, and its history. Following this Peter identified the site and places of note in the town. The site, on the banks of the grand canal and adjacent to the Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre, posed many chalenges not least the 30m high poplar trees which stabilise the banks of the canal to protect park below water level. The site was also once an important quarry to the town and the stone from the site can be seen in many churches and other building in the area.
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| The captive audience |
One of 119 entrants, Peter showed the initial design of a 100% timber building of 48mx48m, which was entered into the first round of the competition. Peter described the design as reactive yet permeable and flexible. Peter then moved onto the winning design, now incorporating a core ten steel band encasing the buildings facade and the innovative details of the roof structure. Peter also described how working with
Dermot Foley on the landscape design was a push and pull effort that help bring new meaning to his design. Peter finished by describing the many subtle and not so subtle design decisions that helped the building gain the approval of the Tullamore people.
In the following Q&A, Peter was asked many questions regarding the design decisions and material choices from both fellow competitors of the competition, students and staff of SAUL. One person who stood out form the crowd was John Allen, a Tullamore native who brought a local perspective to the discussion.
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| Peter Carroll and Miriam Dunne |
The next lecture in the Lecuture@SAUL series will be Architecture Travel Experience where SAUL students will discuss their experiences when traveling.
