The project, a crematorium and garden for the burial and scattering of ashes, is situated in Menlo village. The site lies between an existing cemetery and a small woodland, with the River Corrib running along its boundary. The intention of the project was to create a strong link between the traditional burial ground and a new garden of remembrance, embedding the new crematorium into the landscape. Visits to recently established crematoriums revealed a lack of depth in these spaces, which often feel commercial and do not fully serve their purpose. The programme is structured around two distinct orders: the symbolic, centred on the chapel; and the industrial, serving the cremators. In interpreting the brief, the design evolved as a series of parallel constructions: Existing cemetery – Proposed crematorium and grounds Crematorium building – Burial landscape Chapel – Cremator Entrance with coffin – exit without The building is aligned with a natural path that runs from the cemetery to the woodland on the opposite side of the site, while maintaining a safe distance from the river to address potential flooding. The final design comprises three independent thatched roofs covering an arrival space, chapel, and condolence room. A grass roof covers the sunken staff areas and the cremator. The car park is positioned behind an existing ditch, screening vehicles from the burial grounds. As mourners approach the crematorium, they follow a path along an external wall beneath a canopy that reaches out to invite visitors into the arrival space. Inside the chapel, seating is arranged in an informal circle around the catafalque, the focal point of the space, with mourners seated in light surrounding the coffin. A concrete gable wall, read independently from the timber roof structure, frames views through carefully placed openings, including a view to Menlo Castle, and acts as a transition between chapel and the cremator. The coffin passes mechanically through an aperture in the concrete wall. In the surrounding garden, limestone burial walls radiate into the meadow, decreasing in scale. Formed from precast concrete niches set within dry limestone walls, they reference local stone field boundaries.
Project Tag: Community
Meitheal Distillery: A Holistic Approach to Integrating Town, Community and Industry
Meitheal Distillery reimagines the role of industry in the town as a centre of community life rather than a privatised operation. Drawing on the Irish tradition of Meitheal, when communities would work collectively, this project explores how whiskey production can be meaningfully integrated into the social, spatial, and economic fabric of a rural town.
The project stemmed from my own interest in the role of the pub in the community and I drew from my own experiences running a family owned pub. I wanted to explore how this unusual setting was the heart of many villages and towns throughout Ireland and how the same sense of community and engagement could be transferred to an industrial site.
Various opportunities for the distillery to engage with the surrounding town and community was explored. The creation of internal squares encourages spontaneous interactions between workers and locals. By embedding the distillery within the urban grain, this encourages the community to engage with the site. By retaining the natural features on the site, the locals can learn about the role of foraging in whiskey flavouring and continue to use the natural landscape in the greater town to contribute to a more authentic product. Using paving to outline the private and public areas furthermore allows visitors and workers to explore the distillery safely and within their means. Reintroducing dying skills such as coopering would promote local employment, revive craftsmanship and encourage the uptake in apprenticeships within the industry. The use of charred timber allows for both the distillery to be self-sufficient in repairing and advertising the craftsmanship of the coopers creating a greater sense of pride in place. Meitheal is not just a distillery but a regenerative model for industry that is porous, productive and proudly local.
Laindéar Dhroichead Átha – Drogheda’s Lantern
Restoring Drogheda’s Urban Design – Reclaiming the Identity of the Mall. This thesis is set in the medieval town of Drogheda, a place rich in history and cultural significance. It investigates the town’s past and examines the urban characteristics it once possessed, with a particular focus on public spaces designed for community use. The research traces Drogheda’s development over time. It highlights how the urban fabric has evolved, looking at how communal spaces have been neglected or forgotten.
The study looks at the shift in urban priorities following the introduction of the car in Ireland. Like many towns and cities, Drogheda adapted its infrastructure to accommodate vehicles which is often at the expense of pedestrians and public life. This research argues for a reimagining of Drogheda’s urban design through the reclamation of these overlooked spaces. It emphasises that the town historically embraced public generosity through its spatial design and explores how these values can be revived. The medieval quarters of Drogheda are rich with significant landmarks, and this project seeks to integrate these urban features into the design proposal. In doing so, it aims to reinforce a sense of local identity and create a civic space that invites the public to engage with and appreciate the town’s unique historical and architectural character.
Functional Follies
“Functional Follies: The Liminal Utility Square” reimagines everyday public infrastructure – laundrettes, toilets, parcel lockers – not as background utilities but as active civic architecture. By investigating unintentional communal infrastructure, such as petrol stations, bus stops, laundrettes and shrines, we can begin to understand how ambiguous spaces can become places of meaningful social interaction and community.
Set on a disused backlands site in Wicklow Town, the project proposes a granite tower and public square that form a new route from sea to hill, transforming functional needs into shared social experiences. Drawing from Irish tower houses and local Wicklow granite stone construction, the project assembles a series of “functional follies” including laundry, café, bike repair, recycling, gym, and public toilets. A custodian’s dwelling supports long-term care, while dry, modular construction allows the building to adapt over time. Stainless steel mesh wraps the stone frame to create service cavities, enabling flexibility and housing passive drying cupboards. The ground-floor laundry acts as a thermal engine, transferring heat to communal spaces above. In a context where communal life is increasingly designed out or monetised, the project proposes a civic architecture rooted in use, care, and everyday ritual.
Sligo School of Architecture
The project is a School of Architecture building situated along the river in Sligo, designed to foster an environment of collaboration, connectivity, and community engagement. At the heart of the building is a vast central atrium, serving as the core around which all architectural studios and staff offices are oriented. This central void not only provides a visual and spatial connection between the different levels but also encourages interaction and collaboration among students from various year groups.
The ground floor is designed as a publicly accessible area, creating a connections between the school and the local community. This space is intended to host exhibitions, events, and activities, making the building a lively hub of architectural discourse and community engagement.
Overlooking this public area from the upper levels through the atrium enhances the sense of openness and connectivity within the building. Additionally the project collaborated with a nearby project to create a waterfront walking area for the public to enjoy In addition to the central atrium, the building features roof gardens and terraces, providing students with accessible outdoor spaces to take breaks and engage with the natural environment.
Degrees of Repurposing Architecture
The thesis explores whether material can be reused within its local context to enhance the essence of place. In particular by exploring the ways in which materials could be recycled, the author searches for grounded sense of place for the surrounding community.
Given a fading sense of community in the town centre of Drogheda, the chosen programme was inspired by the urgency of the needs and values of the community. A need for safer spaces for the present community and for future generations is identified.
Repurposing the Abbey ruins of St. Mary d’Orso, which historically embodied a culture for caring in the community, the proposal brings it back to the forefront once more to tackle the issues of the present day, working through its materiality to establish an essence of place.
Social Architecture and its Impact on Mental Wellbeing
Architecture has the power to influence our lives in a profound and impactful way. Conscious and considered design has the ability to alter the way we think and behave, therefore affecting the way we feel. Design has proven its ability to assist in recovery or prolong the suffering of people dealing with mental health issues. Our growing understanding and awareness of mental illness and its complexity has helped destigmatize many mental disorders. The aim of my thesis is to research and implement architectural techniques and designs that promote positive mental health in urban areas.
The overarching aim of my thesis is to create a community within an existing area that promotes interaction between individuals. A driving force behind my thesis is the prevalence of loneliness and the feeling of isolation in many communities today. This is a growing issue that is incredibly hard to properly identify and has only been pushed to the forefront of the public consciousness in recent years. Intense loneliness has been proven to lead to depression and anxiety as well as many other mental illnesses, which I will explore further throughout my thesis. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a relatively new practice which involves mindful and meditative techniques. Studies over the last thirty years have shown the positive impact MBCT has on patients suffering from various mental illnesses. By using similar techniques within architecture, I intend to explore how we can design spaces that benefit mental health on a community level.
The site I have chosen to work with is an existing carpark on Ellen Street in Limerick City centre. The space has an interesting and dynamic history in terms of use. St. Michael’s church and a derelict 1800s corn store sit to the west of my site while retail bookmarks the space to the east and west. The parallels between my research and the existing church create an interesting dynamic which I will explore further throughout my thesis.
My intention is to create a space within the city that can cater for a variety of demographics, promoting social interaction, mindfulness, communication and cultural/spiritual growth. For this reason, I have chosen a sculpture gallery as the focal point of my project. This will also include community rooms, a meditative garden, a food hall and a small number of rental workspaces.
Living, In-between
My thesis investigates an alternative to the profit-driven development that currently shapes the housing market in Dublin City. I am proposing a new housing typology and development model to provide a collective and affordable way of living. The site chosen for this investigation currently sits vacant in the North Inner City.
The scheme consists of 16 dwellings over four floors with shared functions and a communal garden at street level. The dwellings vary in size from 69 m2 to 155 m2 in order to invite a mixture of household sizes and profiles. The dwellings are generous in size allowing the typology to sit somewhere in-between high-density city apartments and suburban housing.
The plan opposite shows two apartments and an external circulation core. Different coloured ceramic floor tiles spill out from each apartment into the shared circulation space creating different levels of threshold and ownership.
In both shared and private areas the design proposes generosity of space, encouraging freedom of use. The design aims to give people as much from the architecture as possible before they can appropriate it themselves.
The shared external circulation functions as a social meeting space for residents and allows for a gradual transition from city to dwelling. The design invites residents to take ownership of this space, occupy it and use it as an extension of the individual dwellings. The collage model below explores this concept.
Finding Value in the Invaluable
This thesis is an exploration into the sequence of spatial experiences which is afforded to the individual by their built environment. It is an investigation of the urban condition, ideas of procession and promenade, and adaptation in an endeavour to curate a responsive architectural attitude to designing within our urban fabric.
My area of study is Limerick city centre. I investigate the character of the city realm and the experience of the everyday. This is a place plagued by urban decay and vacancy; however, it is also rich in its history and design. The Georgian grid is a renowned example of urban planning and is considered a special area of conservation. This thesis examines building heritage, conservation, and dereliction in Limerick city.
The chosen site forms part of a Georgian block in Limerick city. It contains the derelict buildings of nos. 34-41 Catherine Street, and their associated brown-field site in the block interior. The site borders Glenworth lane to the northeast, Catherine street to the south east, the Mallow Street terraces to the south west, and a laneway from Malow Street to the northwest. The block in which it sits faces onto O’Connell Street, a primary thoroughfare in Limerick, and its location is an area of transition between primarily commercial and residential parts of the city.
The proposal of this thesis aims to create a piece of urban fabric which enables a richness of interface between the human and their build environment. The intervention strives to enhance the spatial experiences of the city-goer as they move through the city and provide public spaces within for city and community happenings to take place.
Tradisiún a Chaomhnú – an teanga, an cultúr agus na healaíona
This thesis investigates the role that architecture has or can have in preserving cultural ideas that strengthen our expression and sense of identity. When thinking about our féiniúlacht, who we are, we often think of our mother-tongue and the heritage of ceol, scéalaíocht, filíocht, and béaloideas. It is our language that evokes a sense of place, Béal Bán, the white mouth, Cloichear, a place of stones or An Daingean, the fort.
My area of interest lies on the Dingle Peninsula, Corca Dhuibhne, the Gaeltacht where I grew up. This place where my identity is rooted. A place that has provided me with a connection and moulded my understanding of what the essence of Irish people is and has been for generations. In Dingle town, there’s a building which provoked an interest within me. An art deco façade amongst the patchwork of coloured townhouses in the fishing town. The Phoenix Cinema, one of the last old Irish cinemas of its kind which was, until recently, a space for people to gather and experience an interpretation of culture from around the world.
I will be taking the typology of the Old Irish Cinema as an existing infrastructure that lies empty within many towns scattered across our island and look to repurpose these spaces that once acted as cultural hearths within our communities. Initially, these were places of film, of dance, of music and of interaction. We must reignite these spaces to allow them to be places of cultural importance once again. A place where language, song, dance, and lore can thrive, where culture can flourish once more.
A place to house Irish Identity