Group 91 exhibition at UCD

In the autumn of 1991, Group 91 Architects won the Temple Bar Framework Plan competition and were awarded the commission of making new public spaces and surrounding buildings as proposed in their competition entry. Within Group 91, there were eight practices and thirteen architects: Rachael Chidlow, Shay Cleary, Yvonne Farrell, Paul Keogh, Niall McCullough, Shelley McNamara, Michael McGarry, Valerie Mulvin, Siobhan Ní Eanaigh, Sheila O’Donnell, Shane O’Toole, John Tuomey, and Derek Tynan.

This modest exhibition takes the question of how these individuals and practices collaborated – how they handled the challenges of working in a large group on a project that underwent many changes – and presents Group 91’s own exhibition panels (shown at the Architecture League of New York in 1998) interwoven with written excerpts from interviews conducted by Lisa Cassidy in 2011 with Yvonne Farrell, Shelley McNamara, Michael McGarry, Siobhan Ní Eanaigh, Sheila O’Donnell, Shane O’Toole, John Tuomey and Derek Tynan.

The opening event at 6.30pm on Wednesday 12th October 2011 in the Red Room at Richview (UCD School of Architecture) will feature a discussion moderated by Prof. Hugh Campbell between McGarry Ní Eanaigh Architects, Sheila O’Donnell, John Tuomey, Derek Tynan, Shane O’Toole, and Grafton Architects (project architects Ger Carty and Philippe O’Sullivan). In the course of the discussion, this question of collaboration will be explored further – how did the experience of Group 91 prepare the practices for other, future collaborations, and what can architects and students learn from this?

The exhibition will be open in the Front Room Gallery (Richview) until 26th October.