2023 CCAE Summer Undergraduate Catalogue: Year 4

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3 CONTENTS Year 04 Dissertation Machine Learning Of Memory 04 06 12 28

YEAR 04

Year Coordinator

JohnMcLaughlin

TaraKennedy

Design Studio Staff

NicciBrock

RuairiFinucane

JosephMackey

Applied Technology Staff

JohnMcLaughlin

PaulMcNally

CO-LAB Workshop

AoifeBrowne

Studio Contributors

GaryA.Boyd

LorenzoCammoranesi

PeterCody

TomDePaor

PaulDillon

CatrionaDuggan

KevinDonovan

DanielGarvey

ConorHayes

LiviaHurley

NiamhHurley

Merlo Kelly

DrConanO’Ceallaigh

SheilaO’Donnell

FergalO’Sullivan

MichaelPike

DeclanScullion

JohnTuomey

GiuilaVallone

SamVardy

Integration and Practice

Fourth year is a synthesis of the learning from the undergraduate programme where the students are asked to develop a position relating to a studio theme and their own research. The class is organised into two studios which are led by two architecture practices. The students select the studio that appeals to them at the start of the year, and they remain thereover both semesters. Thethesis project is theculmination of a series of choices that they have made, and the thesis positionisareflectiononhow tobest elaboratetheir positionas buddingarchitects.Thisyear weaskedthepracticestoaddress issues relating to the current crises under the general thematic ofEntropyandUtopia.

The Machine Learning studio, led by Brock Finucane Architects, took the brief for a new school of engineering for UCC as thestartingpoint for exploringtherelationshipbetween the university and Cork City. Students explored the historic development and social contexts to consider ways to develop Cork as a learning city. Their work acts as a testbed for new culturalandtectonicrelationshipswithinCork.

The studio of memory was led by Joseph Mackey Architects, and they took texts by the philosopher Michel Foucault and architecture theorist Sebastien Marot as lenses through which they looked at Cape Clear Island off the south west coast of County Cork. Foucault’s text introduces the concept of heterotopia as a space apart, and the island with its rich histories proved to be a treasure trove of heterotopic spaces. The theme of memory led to rich readings of the places and of ways that their changes over time could become the means of theirownrenewal.

We place a strong emphasis on the integration of technical and environmental thinking into the student’s design projects. They are acutely aware of the growing environmental challenges associated with climate change and many of the designs address these directly or obliquely through the choice of theme or programme. We were very fortunate to have contributions from Daniel Garvey, Conor Hayes, and Fergal O’Sullivan, from Arup Engineering and environmental consultants on technical matters.WealsoconnectedwithleadingCork-basedtimber

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We were very fortunate to have so many visiting contributors to our design reviews and workshops from leading academics and practitioners and we would particularly like to thank; Gary A. Boyd, Lorenzo Cammoranesi, Peter Cody, Tom De Paor, Paul Dillon, Catriona Duggan, Kevin Donovan, Livia Hurley, Merlo Kelly, Sheila O Donnell, Michael Pike, Declan Scullion, John Tuomey, Giuila Vallone, Sam Vardy, along with many of our colleagues here in CCAE, for their generous advice to the students.

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Figure 4.0.01 (top) CiaraO’Connell,Geological Analysis,CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.0.02 (bottom) GraceKiernan,FaçadeStudy, UCCEngineeringSchool.

DISSERTATION

Module Coordinator

Tara Kennedy

Dissertation Tutors

Alastair Brook

Kate Buckley

Kevin Busby

Jim Harrison

Tom Keeley

Tara Kennedy

Sarah Mulrooney

Contributors

Irish Architectural Archive

Gary A. Boyd

Kevin McCartney

Catherine Brown Molloy

Samuel Vardy

Henrietta Williams

The Dissertation is an opportunity to experience architectural research and to study in-depth a specific field of interest. Sparked by eight thematic tutor-led groups, subjects in 2022.23 ranged across studies of significant buildings and architects; representations of architecture in the visual and literary arts; alternative architectural and related art practices; wider social, cultural and theoretical investigations; historical studies.

Approaches included primary archival research; critical and reflexive engagements with design; qualitative and ethnographic/interview-based research methods; philosophical, ecological, aesthetic interpretations; critical histories of technology.

In all cases there must be a focus on the importance of the written word to communicate ideas about the built environment, supported by visual illustration. The dissertation research was supported by lectures and workshops. Students also presented their research at a Dissertation Symposium in February, airing their work to their peers for wider discussion and engagement with the value of writing as practice.

“AN ARCHITECTURE OF EVENTS”: DECONSTRUCTING THE HOUSE THROUGH PLAY

Alastair Brook

PUBLIC GENDERED SPACE CAN A CITY BE FEMINIST?

Kate Buckley

SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

The house remains an architectural monument to past ideologies that no longer suit the needs of contemporary society. The French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida called architecture ‘the last fortress of metaphysics’ precisely because it preserves a certain perspective of existence, whilst excluding anything other- new, strange, or unknown. In an act of philosophical and architectural radicalism, Derrida calls for a ‘deconstructive architecture’; an “architecture of events” that invites the other, the unknown, into the very foundations of architectural theory and practice, so that they can distort and transform spatial reality beyond its current confines. Unfortunately, Derrida never gave any clear instructions on how to achieve this in reality, leaving architects to experiment with different methods of transformative, dynamic, and ‘radical’ architecture. The house has remained a focal point for these experimentations and now, for your own.

“We live in the city of men. Our public spaces are not designed for female bodies. There is little consideration for women as mothers, workers or carers. The urban streets often are a place of threats rather than community. Gentrification has made the everyday lives of women even more difficult. What would a metropolis for working women look like? A city of friendships beyond Sex and the City. A transit system that accommodates mothers with strollers on the school run. A public space with enough toilets. A place where women can walk without harassment.” (Kern, 2020)

United Nations Strategic Development Goal 11 is concerned with how to make cities and human settlements inclusive. Subsections deal with issues such as: accessible and sustainable transport systems for all; capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management; Supporting positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas. Who decides how cities grow and prosper in an inclusive and sustainable way? How does national and regional development planning affect the positive outcome for a successful urban place to live. Starting from an Irish context, we will look at the pressures influencing; the historical and, in particular, the recent and future growth of Cork City, under the above themes. We will also look at related themes of public participation, protest and influence, both within Ireland and beyond.

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Tara Kennedy Kevin Busby

SENSE AND SENSITIVITY: USERFRIENDLINESS, THE SENSORY, AND SPACE

Dr Jim Harrison

OVERVIEW + GROUPS

Understanding human experience and the way in which all our senses respond to a number of external stimuli are essential elements in successful design, not only in the built environment but also in other forms of design, literature and the arts. This can be through recognition of space, appropriate acoustics or levels of lighting, or ‘user-friendliness’, as well as in the added and often intangible value of aesthetic quality – ‘Venustas’ or delight as defined by Vitruvius and others. Appreciation of the way in which painting and sculpture have influenced and extended the designer’s palette, for example, can help in gaining a better understanding of many of the major architectural movements in recent times.

TOPOGRAPHIC PRACTICES

Tom Keeley

TAKING CARE

Tara Kennedy

THE ARCHITECTS OF THE CITY: SHAPING CITIES AND SPACES THROUGH VISIONARY THINKING

Dr Sarah Mulrooney

This seminar Topographic Practices seeks to understand our world via creative means. The seminar places itself within architecture while reaching beyond. It is focussed less on specific examples of architecture or landscape and more on methods for looking at, being in, moving through, and responding to architectures and landscapes as a form of critical spatial practice. Dicussions might include: Susan Schuppli’s work, where we will begin to think about how buildings might act as Material Witnesses, challenging histories and complexities of being reader and writer; Donna Harraway’s writing where we will consider Situated Knowledges of knowing and being in the world; older forms of indigenous wisdom in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass and Marcia Bjornerud’s ‘rocks as verbs’; and Irisih example Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s Thin Places, asking whether places can ever ‘know us’?; consider Julieanna Preston’s Performing Matter and Jorge Otero Pailos’s work on the ethics of debris and rubble; and the spatial qualities of writing about place in Jane Rendell’s Site-Writing, where we will consider the practice of writing as a mode of architectural practice. This seminar takes a step back, not analysing architecture as such but asking questions of what is or can be considered within the architectural canon? What and whose histories are permitted to be told? How might these be evidenced? And what recentring knowledge forms show us?

This dissertation group will research how social structures are maintained and can be questioned through architecture. We will discuss places, projects and practises that set up new forms of social framework, work that inherently questions status quo and that considers developing new theories of social organisation and civic engagement as part of the possibility of compelling architecture and spatial practice. Architecture is about building, but also the negotiation, politics, relationships and situations that surround the making and inhabiting of buildings. We will think together about how design makes visible social and political structures that might otherwise be invisible. In particular we will research the politics of care and how these might overlap with questions of design in this era of radical global change.

This dissertation group is particularly interested in the following themes: The relationship between journalism and architecture, the role of the critic and activist: We will continue the research of the Members of the Class of 1956 and The City Seventy group with access to the archive of interviews and drawings compiled to date. We will examine the articles by journalists such as Mary Leland and Ada Louise Huxtable, who challenged the status quo through their writing. Large-scale planning and critical interventions that shape our cities: Projects such as the Jack Lynch Tunnel, Bantry Library and Cork County Hall will be examined. Large-scale plans for cities such as Paris, Chicago and Curitiba are of interest. Travel as an architectural education: The role of travel in architectural education has been a recurring theme with the class of 1956. The sketchbooks and photographs taken on these trips become valuable documents. Jim Harrison’s sketchbooks are an example that we can study within CCAE. Film making, interviews and oral history as architectural research methodologies: Films such as Paddy Cahill and Shane O’Toole’s Commonspace (2020) and Michelle Delea’s The Sprawling Octopus of an Elevated Highway 2022) will be viewed and discussed.

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Figure 4.0.03 (top) KateCrowley,BuildingFunction Analysis,CorkCity. Figure 4.0.04 (opposite) Daniel Quane, Celestial Formation+PrinciplesAnalysis, CapeClearIsland
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SCULPTING URBAN COMMONS:

THE EVOLUTION AND IMPACT OF THE NATIONAL SCULPTURE FACTORY,CORK.

NESBITT

This dissertation presents an analysis of artistic and cultural common spaces within the urban realm of Cork city. The main case study investigated is the National Sculpture Factory – an old electric tramcar depot reconditioned into one of the only collaborative artistic workspaces in the city today. This study will tell the story of the evolution of the Sculpture Factory, from itsoriginalusetothepresentday,throughdrawings,interviews, and meetings, while proposing theoretical questions about its life in relation to its conception and its contribution to the city of Cork. It will explore the thoughts of the artists at the time of the genesis of the sculpture factory, which occurred amid a dark recession in 1980’s Ireland. This dissertation will investigate how this group of newly graduated young artists were able to influence the development of the sculpture factory site in oppositiontotop-downdevelopmentandtheeffectoflate-stage capitalism on art as a profession. This research will be carried out through speaking with Maud Cotter, one of the National Sculpture Factory founders, Valerie Byrne, director of the organisation, and Elma O’Donovan (artists liaison and administration) while also exploring key academic resources. It will analyse how they had the agency to create a grassroots artistic network to support culture and the liberal arts in Cork city.

“[The function of the artist’s studio is] less dispensable to the artist than either the gallery or the museum, it precedes both…the studio is a unique space of production and the museum is a unique space of exposition…before a work of art is publicly exhibited the studio is a space where critics may be invited in the hope that their visits will release works from this, their purgatory, thus the studio is a place of multiple activities: production, storage and finally, distribution. It is a kind of commercial depot.” (Buren, 1979)

This dissertation also aims to investigate the theory of cultural and artistic commons in terms of the link between art and architecture. There is a strong link between the National

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Tutor SarahMulrooney EMMA Figure 4.0.05 (opposite) EmmaNesbitt,DiagramofUses, NationalSculptureFactory

Sculpture Factory and the architectural profession – many architects including Tom de Paor, Clancy Moore and James Tyrell (hybrid artist and architect) have worked closely with the Sculpture Factory, completing installations in it or simply using the building as a workspace. This study will explore how this type of industrial building serves as an exemplary space for sculpture-making and large-scale artistic works, and how the architecture of the space and the location of the building links back to the inherent principles of this ground-up organisation.

Key writers researched include David Harvey’s “The Right to the City,” 2008, Zilberstein’s writing on “Space Making as Artistic Practice: The Relationship between Grassroots Art Organizations and the Political Economy of Urban Development,” 2019, and Castell’s “The City and Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements” 1983, in conjunction with the primary resources of my interviews with Maud Cotter, Valerie Byrne and Elma O’Donovan. The interviewees were asked a series of targeted questions touching on related themes to the dissertation, including their initial impressions of the space upon receiving it, their opinions on artistic collaboration and theirviews on the success of the space.

This dissertation will conclude by investigating the future of the National Sculpture Factory and its plans for expansion. It will examine what can be learned from the creation of the sculpture factory, its benefits, and limitations.

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MACHINE LEARNING

Group Leader

NicciBrock

RuairiFinucane

Year Co-ordinator

JohnMcLaughlin

TaraKennedy

Students

KateCrowley

AlyssiaCunningham

ThomasFoley

AnaGarrido

FionnbharrHickey

AnastasiyaKarabanava

Sadhbh Kennedy Millea

GraceKiernan

ChloeMcDonnell

ShaneMcCullagh

ConorMcGeever

RachelMeagher

SarahAnnMurphy

DavidOLeary

ConorRyan

Sarah Murphy, 1600s-1800s

TimelineCollage,North+South MainStreet

Machine Learning

A group examining and developing a proposal for a new school of engineering inUCC, andthroughwhich, exploringtheimpact and relationship between the growing campus of UCC and the CityofCork;functionally,physically,fiscally.

Working from an existing brief, developed by the school of engineering, UCC, we proposed to design an engineering facility for UCC which will promote and teach engineering, combining the currently disparate faculties in one environment. In creating an open, collaborative and enriching learning environment,tofostercollaborationandcollegiaterelationships, we sought to explore the technical / social / philosophical environments of educational campuses and buildings, and their relationship with the city. As the University expands simultaneously within the bounds of the campus, and through disparate satellite campuses across the city, the students examined the role of UCC in the development of Cork city and thesymbioticrelationshipbetweenboth.

Weasked:

What, where and how is the relationship between the Campus and City influencing and impacting on the form and type of development of educational buildings? What happens when the university expands beyond its campus enclosure, and inhabits disparate areas in the city, creating satellite faculties and campuses?

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Figure 4.1.01 (top) AlyssiaCunningham,CorkCity Map. Figure 4.1.02 (bottom)

What are the wider societal / political attributes of campus development and its educational buildings? What specifics and nuances are there / should there be in a building for a specific (orbroad)rangeofeducationalrequirements?

What are the physical attributes and requirements for an educationbuilding: what arethe appropriatephysicalspaces for arequiredphysicalprogramme?

Can we explore the potential of the building to be used as a teaching tool, as Alvar Aalto made his own experimental house totesthisownteaching/research?

Isabuildingforeducationjustlikeanybuildingforanyprocess? Is it like just like an industrial/ process manufacturing plant? Raw material (students) in one end…. Products (graduates) out theother…..isitlikeacarfactory.

We wanted to explore the concept within society now, and in the future, asking how will buildings of STEM foster and promote learning into the future? Asking what is the architectural / philosophical relevance in designing such spaces? We wanted to try to make beautiful, useful and environmentally responsible proposals that address the complex requirements of an ever evolving discipline. The project design solutions sought to support reduced carbon impacts in terms of the building operation, its life cycle and also embodiedcarbon.

NicciBrock+RuairiFinucane

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KATE CROWLEY

My research began with investigating the relationship between city and campus in terms of human interaction and how the different social institutions, like the university, have affected the form of the city and the location of social groups within it. The city was examined as an open system in which the processes and outcomes are dynamic and spontaneous, just like the social interaction happening within it. To translate the concepts formed through research and mapping in to architectural form, I looked at my engineering school as a system that promotes social interactions and merges the campus with the city, the students with the public. A system that enables function flexibility but designed for engineering teaching processes. The building becomes a factory within the city, taking in raw materials like students and outputting graduates and innovative ideas. An homage to high tech architecture, to ensure the building holds the values discussed in the research about connecting to the public realm, looking at the ground floor plane as part of the city is key. The undercraft of the building must encourage public integration. The city centric campus will create a new atmosphere for the area bringing students in to the city and showcases of young innovation and encourages the idea of the open system spontaneous, dynamic, and experimental.

Figure 4.1.03—4.1.05 Kate Crowley, Section + Axonometric+DetailUCC EngineeringSchool.

ALYSSIA CUNNINGHAM

Redefining boundaries

Semester 1 focused on mapping and exploring spatial relationships through drawing, looking at UCC’s existing relationship with the public realm within the context of Cork City. An intervention involved the designing a space, for public engagement but remains a student focused, situating this in theMardykearea.

My semester two project uses the information from semester 1 to design an engineering school that explores the relationship between UCC and Cork city, blurring the boundaries which existwithinthecontextofUCCto strengthen the feeling of student life for those who study in satellite buildings in and around the city centre. This thesis explores the idea of relationship not only between student vs. campus, but also the campus vs. the city. This exploration seeks to understand how space can be provided for students outside the bounds of the traditional campus which serves students while maintaining a controlled level of interaction between the city and the urban realm. My scheme proposes an extension to the North Mall campus, inserting itself along the existing route of circulation within the context of UCC owned buildings and working to solve issues which are prevalent on the North Mall campus.

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Figure 4.1.06—4.1.08 Alyssia Cunningham, Sections + Axonometric+ElevationUCC EngineeringSchool.

THOMAS FOLEY

The thesis project intends to exist alongside nature by providing space for it in an urban context. The chosen site is located at the beginning of Mardyke Walk adjacent to the main gates of UCC. This area is minimally developed and used as the main route to the north campus. The area is subject to tidal flooding and is River Lee’s relief flood plain. Creating an environment where nature is integrated in the design allows us to construct spaces where we promote growth and celebrate nature’s existence within urban grainsofexpandingcities.

Theproject iscentredaroundthe relationship between the building’s occupants building and the tidal river that has shaped our city. The design seeks to maintain the direct route of pedestrian traffic from the north campus to the main campus and using the site as a key in strengthening the University’s presence within the city. Il Bagno di Bellinzona by Aurelio Galfetti serves as an influence with its creation of raised circulation with interchanging planes of landscape. The circulation space made of heavy concrete space introduces the user to the alternating landscapes within the building connecting to the Subtle cantilevering elements of the design over the moving water introduces users to the building’s main purpose of coexisting alongside nature within an urban context.

Figure 4.1.09—4.1.11 Thomas Foley, Sections + ElevationUCCEngineering School.

SADHBH KENNEDY MILLEA

The North Mall campus is a filled area with greenery, marshes, and various flora and fauna located along the river. It houses several UCC buildings scattered along a steep slope to the north of the site. To strengthen the connection between these buildings and the s maincampus, ananalysis must be done of Cork City's development and its relationship with UCC. This analysis would reveal the strong horizontal language of Cork's development in its building fabric, transportation routes, and

To connect the separated buildings on slope a vertical connection is necessary to join the long horizontal axis together. This would allow for an increase in foot and cycle traffic and promote student safety and social policing. The aim is to connect the long horizontality of the site through a vertical axis, creating stronger connectivity for students in the UCC music building to UCC Main Campus via the North Mall campus engineering school. This would allow for a merging of students who inhabit the buildings on the top and bottom of the slope and encourage student congregation alongtheverticalaccess.

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Figure 4.1.12 (top) SadhbhKennedyMillea,Thesis Axonometric,UCCEngineering School. Figure 4.1.13 (bottom) Sadhbh Kennedy Millea, Elevation,UCCEngineering School.

GRACE KIERNAN

With an initial study into the prevalence of dereliction across Cork City, my project explores how UCC can reuse the existing vacancy within the city centre to solidify itself as part of the urban fabric.

Semester One was spent exploringtheextent of dereliction and vacancy across Cork City, mapping the location, construction period, and dereliction period. This study was carried out alongside an analysis of the development of Cork and UCC, examining how they both have outgrown their historic walls. A vertical study of the vacancy of dereliction along North Main Street culminated from this research, outlining a fragmentation of space and opportunity within the historic centre.

This research culminated in an experimental intervention in 63 North Main Street, reclaiming a medieval laneway for the public realm and restitching a history of craftintotheurbanfabric.

Semester Two focused on the development of a School of Engineering, exemplifying how underappreciated derelict and vacant structures can be adapted for a new function whilst also creating unique spatial experiences. This school is to set the standard for how other institutions can develop more sustainably and integrate within ahistoricurbanenvironment.

Figure 4.1.14—4.1.16

Grace Kiernan, Axonometric + Sections,UCCEngineering School.

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Figure 4.1.17 GraceKiernan,Axonometric, UCCEngineeringSchool.

CHLOE MCDONNELL

Through both semesters, my intention was to explore the forgotten streets of Cork City in all their forms suffering extensive vacancy and dereliction through to streets which have been almost entirely erased from the city

In semester one, I explored the possibility of unlocking the potential of the largely derelict Adelaide Street by establishing perpendicular connections through the street. To achieve this, I made use of a series of uninhabited sites along both sites of the street as a site for a new indoor for the use of students and the public alike. This introduced a new life into a historically important thoroughfare in the city centre. For thesecondhalf of the project, I turned my attentions toward the historic city spine erased streets and laneways. I intended to utilise the historic layout of the city to transform part of South Main Street into a largely pedagogical space, piercing through internal and external learning spaces which make up a new School of Engineeringforthecity.

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Figure 4.1.18 + 4.1.19 (top) ChloeMcDonnell,SiteSections, UCCEngineeringSchool. Figure 4.1.20 (bottom) ChloeMcDonnell,Perspective, UCCEngineeringSchool.

RACHEL MEAGHER

Re-placing Displacement

By mapping Cork City through the socially strategic placement of UCC campuses, the individual experience of Cork City could be analysed through the interconnected routes to each campus. From the thesis of how to integrate Cork City into its rich historical heritage arose. In the first semester this was executed through an intervention that is designed around the seasonal tides of the river, not only allowing for the inevitable natural flooding of many sites around Cork City, but using it to create a newandexploratoryarchitectural landscape.

The introduction of a School of Engineering into the urban fabric of Cork City acts as an institutional responsibility to UCC. By placing the School at thegeographical centreof Cork’s historical heritage, a renewal, or a re-placing of heritage and socio-politicalconsciousnesscan happen, supported by the preexistinginstitutionalframeworkof UCC. The school acts as a container to replace the connection between the individual, the City, and their responsibility to it through replacing facilities displaced by dereliction or the careless development of the city. Through architectural consideration of movement, the thresholds between public and institution (UCC) become blurred, including the roles that each plays in our

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Figure 4.1.21 + 4.1.22

SARAH MURPHY

Centredaroundahistorical study of Cork, a detailed study of historic maps and imagery led to the illustration of North/ South Main Street through time periods of a 100 years. A conclusion arose that shifts in transportation methods largely affected the development of the town.

This conclusion prompted the questioning of the current function of multistorey carparks within urban areas. An intervention evolved with the intention to reclaim this under used infrastructure, consisting of workshops that could co-exist with the existing function of parking, growing outwards, slowly, eventually reclaiming the whole structure as a public amenity.

Continued intervention: a series of student-led interventions, encourages creativity and innovation, whilst fostering a relationship between student and industry. The existing concrete structure engulfs a large proportion of a city block, the proposed scheme intends to exaggerate this further through outwardly and upwardly expansion of the grid. The scheme grows and sprawls across the block, leaving more space for people and activity through its open framework. The reuse or adaptation of the carpark structure acts as a physical representation of the changes needed in society in reactiontotheclimatecrisis.

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Figure 4.1.23 + 4.1.24 Sarah Murphy, Plan + Elevation +Axonometric,UCC EngineeringSchool.

CONOR RYAN

Architecture is privileged in our domain as a physical thing.

The literal physicality of architecture grants direct guarding of life in response to our environments, but it’s expressional qualities can also grant the special basis to support, reflect and guard social concepts and ideology. Architecture gives stature to our human conceptions. Architecture establishes power for the conceptions through a pedigreed architectural language. This architectural language is using valuable materials and monumental proportions to belittlethehumanscale.

Religious architecture is extremely pedigreed in its form and function. This project tunes this architecture into a new dialect,toutilisethelargespaces that exist within these religious buildings that are becoming exanimateofuse.

This project began with archival research of the existing church. This led to an obsession of the St Augustine's Church on Washington Street, Cork. The poodle for the church's story led to an enjoyable rabbit hole of storiesandlocalhistory.

The thesis established itself as an understanding that the predefined spaces of our built environment can be adapted into juxtaposedideologiesofuse.

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Figure 4.1.25 + 4.1.26 Conor Ryan, Section + Perspective,UCCEngineering School. Figure 4.1.27 Conor Ryan, Sectional Perspective,UCCEngineering School.

OUT OF THE CLOSET AND INTO THE STREETS

DARREN O’CONNOR

HowIreland'squeercommunitynavigatedan ever-changing societal and political landscape and how this impacted the location and visibility of the spaces they inhabited.

ABSTRACT Ihopetoexaminehowcriticalmomentsofqueerhistories,such as the first pride parade in Ireland in 1983 following the murder of Declan Flynn in Fairview Park, the decriminalisation of gay sex in 1993, the advent of queer dating apps in 2009, and the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2015 has altered the progressionof the queer community's useof space; from public toprivate, from thecountrysidetocity, from physical todigital exploring how public opinion surrounding these times of significantchangealteredthevisibilityofthesespaces.

The work of Orla Egan, a Cork LGBT historian, has been vital in documenting the stories of Cork's queer community, alongside Jeremy Atherton Lin, who documents his life autobiographically through gay bars in his book Gay Bar: Why We Went Out. In addition, the collation of stories in Adam Nathaniel Furman and Joshua Mardell's Queer Spaces provide constant threads of the queer community's entanglement in the built environment; they help inform the sentiments of specific periods through a very personal voice. I hope to overlap these personal stories with historical events, critical pieces of legislation and historical newspaper articles and examine how thesemanifestinthebuiltenvironment.

Cork

Through critical texts in the field, photographs, articles, crucial government legislation and historical narratives, I hope to formulate a concise image of the changes in queer space with specific reference to Ireland. A timeline will succeed in tying these changes together and inform the alterations through multiple viewpoints. This image will help inform us of how the community's strength and adaptability, shed light on the historical significance of these buildings in illustrating the story of queer people and provide rationale as to why safeguarding thesespacesisvital.

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Tutor TomKeeley Figure 4.1.28 (opposite top) D.Scully,NationalGay Conferenceposter,UCCQueer Conference2023. Figure 4.1.29 (opposite middle) DarrenO’Connor,Image, Recreationofworkerssupportat earlyPrideparades. Figure 4.1.30 (opposite bottom) LGBT Archive, The Other PlaceSundayClubNightPoster 1990.

QUEERNESSINARCHITECTURE

Queer space is not easily defined; one of the first connections between queer identities and architecture that jumps to mind is oftenthatof'TheCloset.'

While the closet is a pervasive image in ideas of architecture and queerness, the space which will be addressed is far less abstract. Instead, it examines where queer people meet for socialising, pleasure, or campaigning. While these spaces, historically and well into the current day, are not purpose-built for the community, the LGBT community has adopted many locations for gathering. Queer space is less a material-based object but fundamentally any space where people from the queer community gather. Doron von Bieder, in an essay in the 2022 'QUEER SPACES' speaks to the human nature of queer spaces 'I learned that some special people were selfmanifesting infrastructures of queerness; they kept bravely, or stupidly, changing the use and entire meaning of the spaces they occupied, or had access to.' (Furman et al., 2022) In Ireland, queer spaces were not concentrated in one area but forever adapted from bars to meeting rooms to public bathrooms. [see Figure 4.1.30]. Queer spaces followed the people of the LGBT community, serving the needs of the persons. The exposure of a queer space could be detrimental, whichmeantthattheyneededtobeabletoshiftandadapt,one closed and another embraced. In an unaccepting world, these spaces bore witness to the happiness, love, sorrow, pleasure and isolation of the queer community, their walls eternally imbued with their stories, some of which were never documentedandwilldieunheardbythespacesthemselves.

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'The very idea of the closet is rife with contrasts, invoking interior and exterior, storage and room, pride and repression, homo- and heterosexuality. Although it was not until the 1960s that the term "coming out of the closet" entered the cultural lexicon, the closet itself is foundational to queer narratives and how they have been told.' (Pavka, 2020)

OF MEMORY

DarrenO’Connor,StoneWall Detail,CapeClearIsland.

DanielQuane,ThesisStudy, CapeClearIsland.

CiaraO’Connell,Rewilding Masterplan,CapeClearIsland.

Figure 4.2.01 (top) Figure 4.2.02 (middle) Figure 4.2.03 (bottom)

of memory – mnēmonikos

The belief that works of Architecture can prolong or embody memory of people or events has been a feature of architecture since antiquity. Rossi argued that memory could be used to read and understand urban fabric and that an Architect who built in a city would not only change the physical form but also alter the collective memory of its inhabitants. T.S Elliot proclaimed that any work of art, alters the memory of all previous and proceeding works. Gottfried Semper argued that materials and architectural form could remember previous applications and typologies and Freud suggested that memory on its own is not interesting, what matters is the tension betweenmemoryandforgetting.

This year our unit researched the idea of memory in Architecture on Cape Clear Island off the south west coast of County Cork. We investigated how the concept of memory can influence design thinking and practice and how memory can be used as a strategy for analysing selected sites. The students proposed architectural interventions sought to amplify, manipulate,ornegatetheseexistingmnemonicconditions.

We looked at how Architecture can communicate historic memories and parables and act as an expression of communal meaning and memory. We investigated how memory can be used as a design technique, creating a dialog with the site that critiques and acknowledges past occurrences and previous states in order to draw and discover a programme of present requirements.

In Semester 1 students were asked to explore Cape Clear and create a spatial investigation and mapping of its mnemonic conditions. Semester 2 thesis proposals emerged from our research and interests developed during Semester 1 and explored how memory can be made manifest in the inscribed andincorporatedpracticesofform,functionandtectonics.

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Figure 4.2.04 RóisínHayes,Exploded SectionalPerspectiveAdaptive Scheme,CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.05 (opposite) CiaraO’Connell,Assemble+ Disassemble Axonometric, CentreforRewildingand ReforestationCapeClearIsland.
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EIMEAR AHERNE

Tools for Conviviality

the theories of philosopher Ivan Illich: community axis such as intergenerational living, common energy, localised agriculture and communal dining. These devices work to promote interdependence, dissolving the nuclear family and restructuring systems of care, domestic labour and maintenance. The specification of standard sized, natural materials that can be simply adapted by the users promotes not only community engagement and adaptability but sustainable construction practices that reduce material waste.

Figure 4.2.06 + 4.2.07 (top)

EimearAherne,SectionDetails, CapeClearIsland

Figure 4.2.08 + 4.2.09 (bottom + opposite)

EimearAherne,Perspective, CapeClearIsland.

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CHARLIE BUCKLEY

Cape Clear has a strong connection to the surrounding body of water. They could retain Irish culture and traditions through remoteness and harvest fish to eat and trade, and seaweed to fertilize crops. This sustained the population once over 10 times what we have today.

My thesis seeks to rejuvenate Cape Clear by the introduction of a new industry that follows a similarlineof harvestingfrom the seathatissodeepintheisland's traditions. An industry both sustainable in the way of ensuring the longevity of the inhabitation of the island, but also respectful to the natural environment that gives it its beauty.

My proposal is todevelop abase point for the research and operations for off-shore renewable energy. In creating an industry that produces power, it not only cuts the umbilical cord that is the island's dependence on the mainland, but reverses it, restoring the island’s independence.

CharlieBuckley,Thesis

CharlieBuckley,Sectional

Charlie

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Figure 4.2.10 (top) Diagram,CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.11 (middle) Axonometric,OscillatingWater Column,CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.12 (bottom) Buckley, Section Detail, ClearAirOMF,CapeClear Island.

JACK CREAGH

“The threshold can be physical, psychological, emotional, social, economic, etc. definitions.”

The idea I explored for my thesis is thresholds. The spaces I wish to link with thresholds are the land and sea; public and private; commercial and domestic; formal andinformal.

These thresholds were explored through the design of a filigree on stereotomic pier that contained a fish smokery for mackerel fishing and a communitycentrefortheisland.

The smokery and community centre were designed to have both tension and interaction between them. The spaces can be two separate zones when the smokery is infull effect and there are meetings in the community space. The two spaces then become one large community space when the smokery is not inuse.

Figure 4.2.13 (top)

JackCreagh,Section,Smokery +CommunityCentre,Cape ClearIsland.

Figure 4.2.14 (middle)

JackCreagh,Perspective, Smokery+CommunityCentre, CapeClearIsland.

Figure 4.2.15 (bottom)

JackCreagh,Exploded Axonometric, Smokery + CommunityCentre,CapeClear Island.

RÓISÍN HAYES

My thesis explored Heterotopias as ‘slices in time’. Cape Clear hasbothalayeringofhistoryand culturebut alsofeelstemporal as a peripheral island. It’s coastline couldbesubjecttofuturechange which threatens its built history. I attempted to explore how islanders could adapt to climate change.

A solution is found in a shellfish farm, providing for housing, community, economic and defensive needs. Inspired by Kate Orff’s work, shellfish beds are used as wave breaks on the coast. A series of residencies, community dining hall and break room for the farm’s workers is located uphill from the shellfish farm. The scheme is designed to adapt to future changes incorporating raised stilts, material transitions, southwesterly-faced structure and a hierarchyofspacesetc.

The building is an experiment into resilient architecture but also a lesson into why we need resilience in design. Final drawingsdemonstratethedesign inundated by the sea becoming deconstructed as another layer ofbuilthistory.

Figure 4.2.16 + 4.2.17 (top) RóisínHayes,Sections, AdaptiveScheme,CapeClear Island. Figure 4.2.18 (bottom) Róisín Hayes, Exploded Perspective,AdaptiveScheme, CapeClearIsland.

CATHAL MCLOUGHLIN

The application of seaweed has played an essential role in the everyday functioning of island communities along the west coast of Ireland for centuries. My semester 1 research focused on this historical application of seaweed through the botanical documentation of these plants on Cape Clear. From this research, mysemester1interventioncame about through the form of a Seaweed drying hut where islanders could continue to harvest seaweed together as a community. Through this study, my semester 2 Seaweed Research Facility became active. This Facility would contain Marine Labs, Workshops, Accommodation, Archive space, Seaweed harvesting space, and a Seaweed Vault that would safeguard and conserve seaweed plant species for future generations. The essence of this Facility acts as a community initiative to preserve, educate and protect Cape Clears unique MarineEcosystem.

Figure 4.2.19 (top) CathalMcLoughlin,PlantLife Analysis,CapeClearIsland Figure 4.2.20 + 4.2.21 (bottom) CathalMcLoughlin, Perspectives, Seaweed ResearchFacility,CapeClear Island

EMMA NESBITT

This scheme explores the theme of communication on Cape Clear Island, applying Foucault's principles of hidden order and compensation. The research navigates the island's historical significance as a fulcrum for communication advancements, with an overarching focus on the endangered Irish language and its connection to the island's identity. The importance of preserving traditional methods of communication emerges as a key objective. Archival materials related to the Irish language are found primarily on the mainland, leading to the proposal of a design that repatriates and celebrates Cape Clear's cultural heritage.

The structure enhances spatial ergonomics, creates varying atmospheric conditions in the triad of focal zones – the introduction, the complication, and the resolution. The design seeks to provide a platform for preserving and revitalising traditional communication methods, while embracing the island'scontemporaryneeds.

Through this approach, the aim was to create a meaningful and carefully arranged collection of spaces that fosters a sense of community andconnectiontothe island's unique heritage and encouragesengagement.

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Figure 4.2.22 (top) EmmaNesbitt,Perspective, CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.23 (bottom) Emma Nesbitt, Contextual Plan, NarrativeStructure,CapeClear Island.

CIARA O’CONNELL

Return to a Temperate Rainforest

There is a point in our history where Ireland, would have been covered in a temperate rainforest. Over time, this rainforest was gradually cut down and destroyed, primarily to clear land for agriculture. In this devastatingprocess,manyofour native flora and fauna have been slowly pushed out of their natural environment as non-native and invasive species were introduced.

My thesis was an investigation of Cape Clear’s possible return toa temperate rainforest, aided by the introduction of a new Centre for Rewilding and Reforestation. The scheme’s main function is to educate those who wish to learn about the importance of preserving our natural wildlife and landscape, and the delicate process of restoring our native plant life back into the landscape.

The aspiration of the project is to rewild and reforest Cape Clear through building acommunity led project, involving participation and support of the entire island of Cape Clear. As such, a vital aspect of the project is to work with the local community to create a space where knowledge can be shared and stored, where the island’s community can gather to learn and discuss differentaspectsoftheproject.

Figure 4.2.24 + 4.2.25 CiaraO’Connell,ContextualPlan + Site Section, Centre for RewildingandReforestation, CapeClearIsland.

DARREN O’CONNOR

The 'Feirm Chléire' project emerged from extensive research on the dry-stone walls of Oileán Chléire and their impact on the divided land along with unsustainable farming practices brought about through British rule and colonisation of Ireland and the islands.

The Irish islands serve as microcosms, magnifying the challenges faced across the country. The design of the project explores how systems of regenerative farming and sustainable land use can address climate change issues and prevent the forced evacuation of Ireland's declining islands. The plan centres around three existing structures that house the essential functions of the community. A pattern of perpendicular walls overlays the existing farm walls to form service areas within the farm buildings. This approach draws inspiration from mediaeval tower walls, which were thickened walls creating cavities that accommodate services, utilities, and vertical circulation. Consequently, the remaining sections of the structure can function as lightweight pavilions that can expand and contract over time, supporting the evolving farming community. All elements have the potential to degrade but are protected within the heart of the adapted structures.

Figure 4.2.26 4.2.28

Darren O’Connor, Contextual Plan+Perspectives,'Feirm Chléire',CapeClearIsland.

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JULIA PRZADO

My thesis investigates the dialogue between structures and their external environment, creating a focus on material and time. With material being a crucial aspect of this theory, I captured it through the direct investigation of tectonics and geology.

My design proposal portrays architecture as the direct link between people and the history of space as well as its physical environment. The design captures this theory in the form of rebirth of the structures of our past in turn highlighting how something physical can become uniquely sensual. The concept investigates how architecture captures our history through its physical features as well as the spatialatmosphereitcreates.

In the context of the island’s of Ireland, Cape Clear acts as the setting of the design investigation. Taking its unique heritage as an example, the Dun an Oir fort creates foundations for the semester two design proposal. Originally acting as a “safe retreat” in the 16th century, the design reincarnates its purposecreatingasecularspace of pilgrimage on the coast of Cape Clear. The project simultaneously incorporates the site’suniquehistoryaswellasits breathtakingscenery.

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Figure 4.2.29 (top) JuliaPrzado,Sectional Perspective,Workshop,Cape ClearIsland. Figure 4.2.30 + 4.2.31 (bottom) JuliaPrzado,Section+Plans, Workshop,CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.32 JuliaPrzado,Plan,Workshop, CapeClearIsland.

DANIEL QUANE

With initial research on neolithic practice, a brief was forming that essentially aimed to reinstate the lost relationship between islanders and celestial events through communal construction all while creating a vector in which islanders and visitors can converge upon as a focal point of congregation and celebration. The scheme developed itself into becoming a multifaceted series of communal buildings that orientated entirely around an alignment between celestial events and communal construction. Consisting of a harvesting pavilion, two large workshops, two teaching spaces, a communal kitchen and a solstice pavilion, the scheme stands between two conflicting bodies of water with the calm freshwater of the lake to the east and the abrasive ocean to the west. Incorporating an overflow channel into the scheme, the idea of bridging between realms becomes fundamental, not only between bodies of water but also between the present and the past and the ground and the sky. Reintroduction of water reed growth in Loch Loral provides a new asset is given to the islanders which can be used in construction but also as an export as the island typically imports much of its produce and constructionmaterials.

Figure 4.2.33 + 4.2.34 (top) DanielQuane,PassageTomb Study,CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.35 + 4.2.36 (bottom) DanielQuane,Sections,Cape ClearIsland.

LEAH WALSH

The thesis of this project drew inspiration from the architectural palimpsest of the site, which hosts the remains of a Napoleonic Signal Tower from 1805, a historic lighthouse built in 1818, as well as the cottages of the islanders who serviced these buildings. Gradually over time the buildings changed function and dilapidated into ruin but maintained their core features. An analysis was undertaken of each of their values according to Alois s writings on “The Cult of Monuments”, and the site of intervention was selected via this

Similar to the palimpsest of buildings, upon closer inspection, the walls themselves displayed an array of layered materials, laid by dozens of people over dozens of years, but connected by the site and the erosion of time. This concept of missing materials and memories deteriorating influenced the negative space of the design, and contributed an additional palimpsesticlayertothesite.

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Figure 4.2.37 + 4.2.38 (top) LeahWalsh,Axonometric, LighthouseFormer+Proposed, CapeClearIsland. Figure 4.2.39 + 4.2.40 (bottom) Leah Walsh, Model Photos, LighthouseAdaptiveReuse, CapeClearIsland.

A PLAYFUL HOUSE: RE-TELLINGTHESTORY

ABSTRACT

Thisworkattemptstore-tellthestoryofthehouse.

It explores the concept of the house as a familiar and domestic space, and how this familiarity has resulted in a lack of playfulness in its architecture. We challenge pre-existing typologies and normalcies of the house, using deconstruction and play to provoke the reader to rethink the space of the home. By introducing more play into the architecture of the house, it could be redefined into a more homely space once more.

This work takes a playful approach to architectural deconstruction. Exploring architectural play, with a specific focus onthehouse, it proposes radical interventions inaneffort to begin to re-tell the narrative of the program of the house. By engaging the reader in different forms of play as they read, I attempt to encourage a childlike desire for world-play and fun, challenging the familiar and comfortable to reveal the uncanny andnewopportunitiesforplayalongsidethem.

Architectural play has the power tochange the way the world is experienced. Currently an underutilised tool, it is my hope that perhaps this piece of work can help to open eyes on how play couldpossiblybeusedtoredefinenotjustthehouse,butspace aidsusinrevealingtheuncanny.

Try and list every where that ve’you slept.

Task No.5

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Tutor AlastairBrook+KateBuckley
“whether you’re an architect, carpenter, artist, or hobbyist” (Pethink, 2021), and “pay no attention to conventional expectations regarding home design”.

SPECIESOFSPACE

Georges Perec explores a playful method of communicating and describing spaces in Species of Spaces and Other Pieces (2008). Throughout the book, he describes a selection of seemingly mundane ‘species’ of spaces at different scales, each space directly relating to human day-to-day life. From the [empty space]

of a blank piece of paper, to the bed, the bedroom, the apartment. He assigns each chapter its own ‘species’ of space, at its own scale. The spaces, or chapters, each ascend in scale, growing larger and larger, from a piece of paper, eventually reaching the greater scale of the ‘The World’ and ‘Space’ itself. The way he chooses to describe these spaces, however, is inherently playful and has an interesting effect on the reader. He succeeds in pulling the reader so wholly into these spaces and takes the reader on a kaleidoscopicjourneyashe zooms slowly Out

becoming more and more abstract as he ascends. He offers up histhoughtsandideasashegoes,

creatively writing in the margins

andmaskingthoughts as footnotes atthebottom ofpages1. He plays with the text as he writes, using the spaces between words and sentences, the space of the page, to further emphasise his words. Perec describes the world around us not as one large space, but as “a whole lot of small bits of space” which we inhabit (Perec, 2008, p. 6). Spaces which have multiplied and diversified until the point where there are spaces ofeverykindandeverysize,foreveryuseandfunction.

1 “I am very fond of footnotes at the bottom of the page, even if I don’t have anything in particular to clarify there.” (Perec, 2008, p. 11)

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CCAE Director

KevinMcCartney

CCAE Administrator

GerryMcCarthy

Year Coordinators

Year 1 OrlaMcKeever

Year 2 DeclanFallon

Year 3 KevinBusby

Year 4 JohnMcLaughlin+TaraKennedy

M.Arch JasonO’Shaughnessy

Publication Coordinator

NiamhHurley

Cover featuring work from: Year4 SarahMurphy

Year4 CiaraO’Connell

Year4 DanielQuane

CCAE

CorkCentreforArchitecturalEducation

DouglasStreet

Cork Ireland

T.353(0)214205676

E.architecture@ucc.ie www.ucc.ie/en/architecture

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