In this episode host Emmett Scanlon talks to Sheila O Donnell, one of Ireland’s most celebrated architects. With John Tuomey, Sheila has been running their practice O Donnell+Tuomey in Dublin for over 30 years.

The practice have designed and built theatres, cinemans, primary schools, university buildings, libraries, student centres, bridges, art galleries - It is impossible to summarise there their achievement and influence on architecture culture and discourse in Ireland and around the world, and in 2015 the pair were awarded the Royal Gold Medal in London one of architecture’s highest awards.

The conversation with Sheila though was triggered by the death earlier this year of writer, cartographer and publishers Tim Robinson and Mairead Robinson who were based in Roundstone in Galway. Sheila and John were good friends of Mairead and Time and Sheila is now involved in the campaign to hold this house and its place for future use. During the conversation Sheila talks about the house as she had experienced it, what it was like, and from there the conversation moves to thinking about houses as dynamic, unfixed things, to Tim’s own writing on the house, to working with old buildings, to theatre design, to how designing housing would be a pinnacle in Sheila’s career and more.

Sheila was intrigued though by the question of what it is that buildings do al day, and it is right there, that the conversation began.

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O’Donnell + Tuomey is a studio-based practice, with offices in Dublin, Cork and London. Committed to the craft and culture of architecture, they have been involved with urban design, cultural, social and educational projects at home and abroad. The practice has an international reputation for its engagement with complex urban situations and sensitive landscapes. They have completed schools and university buildings, theatres and cinemas, community centres and social housing, art galleries and libraries in Ireland, the UK and on the European mainland. Winners of more than 120 awards, recent buildings include the Glucksman Gallery Cork, Timberyard Housing Dublin, Irish Language Centre Derry, Sean O’Casey Community Centre Dublin, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Photographers’ Gallery London, LSE Student Centre and the Central European University Budapest. They have exhibited six times at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with installations which advance their research into the useful beauty and poetic purpose of architecture, exploring areas of overlap with other art forms.

Sheila O’Donnell graduated from University College Dublin in 1976, when she moved to London. In 1980 she was awarded an MA in Environmental Design from the Royal College of Art London. She worked for Spence and Webster, Colquhoun and Miller and James Stirling before returning to Dublin to teach at UCD and set up her practice. She co-founded O’Donnell + Tuomey in 1988. She is a Practice Professor in Architecture at University College Dublin. She has taught and lectured at schools of Architecture in Europe, Japan and the USA, including the AA, Cambridge, Princeton and Harvard GSD. Her watercolours have been exhibited in the Royal Academy and the Royal Irish Academy. In 2009 she was elected a member of Aosdána, the affiliation of Irish artists.

In 2015 she was joint recipient with John Tuomey of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Brunner Prize, both awarded in recognition of a lifetime’s work.

Sheila was named Architect of the Year at the 2019 Women in Architecture (WIA) Awards for her work on the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

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Music is by Sinead Finegan, played by the Delmaine String Quartet (Philip Dodd, leader).

The podcast was recorded on Zoom.

11. Sheila O' Donnell | HOUSES 58:26 Share

What Buildings Do: An architecture podcast.

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11. Sheila O' Donnell | HOUSES