Visiting lecturer encourages architectural reimaginings

Ruth OHerlihy says architects should be part of debates around development

In a coffee shop with a view of the intersection of Ordnance Street, Gower Street, Kings Bridge Road and Military Road, Irish architect Ruth OHerlihy said there is a touch of Ireland in Newfoundland and Labrador.

But it is mostly heard, in local accents, rather than seen in the structural landscape, she said.

In Ireland, we tend to build with heavy materials and houses are of brick or of stone. Timber structures are kind of few and far between. And you come here (to Newfoundland and Labrador), and its kind of extraordinary everything is made of timber, with the odd exception, she said Friday.

Her trek to St. Johns followed an invitation from the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Architects. She became guest speaker at a public lecture at the LSPU Hall on Sept. 25 a first in a series offered from the association this fall.

From the firm of McCullough Mulvin Architects, based in Dublin, OHerlihys work is contemporary. She has worked on new building developments, but also on projects based on existing structures.

Were involved a lot in how to re-imagine buildings to make them relevant for current use, she said.

McCullough Mulvin Architects has been recognized for tapping into the often polar-opposite positions of change and preservation in the case of older, even protected, structures bringing the two camps together with a single idea.

The buildings need to be made relevant in an ordinary way in terms of servicing and access and all of that, she said, but also for people to be able to touch something that can be relevant to them today.

An example would be the Rush Library. Fingal County Council commissioned McCullough Mulvin Architects to transform the deconsecrated St Maurs Church.

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Visiting lecturer encourages architectural reimaginings