Buildings End - an online repository
This space hosts an assembly of references, images, fragments of information and material to provide contextual support to the exhibition Buildings End at the Irish Architectural Archive, September 15 - October 18 2023.
To get in touch with your feedback or to request further information please feel free to contact the Department of Ultimology at the following email address:
Image: a gathering of materials, from stained glass to rubble, on-site at the Church of the Annunciation, Finglas West. Photo by Ellen Rowley.
Supplementary Reading
Graeme Brooker, 50|50 WORDS FOR REUSE – A minifesto
Sofie Pelsmakers et al, Designing for the Climate Emergency
Amitav Ghosh, The Nutmeg’s Curse
Dieter Helm, Net Zero - How We Stop Causing Climate Change
Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital
David Benjamin, Embodied Energy and Design
gestalten, Building for Change: The Architecture of Creative Reuse
Kiel Moe, Unless - The Seagram Building Construction Ecology
Timothy Morton, Being Ecological
Cairns and Jacobs, Buildings Must Die
Daniel M. Abramson, Obsolescence: An Architectural History
Making of Fragment Mediation
Fragment Mediation is the title of the large terrazzo and steel rebar table the occupies the length of both exhibition rooms at the Irish Architectural Archive. It was produced by artist Fiona Hallinan at VISUAL Carlow in Spring 2023, with the support of the technical team of VISUAL Carlow, and Lar O’Toole and Mollie Anna King. It is composed of fragments of rubble collected from the demolition site of the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West. The table both preserves and activates these fragments, welcoming visitors to the exhibition to use its surface as a reading desk.
Image: the making of Fragment Mediation by Fiona Hallinan at VISUAL Carlow. The fragments are carefully placed in wooden casts produced by the team at VISUAL Carlow along with pieces of recycled glass.
Image: the making of Fragment Mediation by Fiona Hallinan at VISUAL Carlow. Here artist Mollie Anna King begins the process of revealing the fragments, before sanding and polishing the slabs.
Image: installation of Fragment Mediation by Conall Downs and Andreas Kindler von Knobloch, at the Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin.
An Ultimology Drafting Room
*A reading room/ drafting room / workspace/ studio/ lab/ research and learning space looking at the subject of architecture that is at risk
In this exhibition we are using the space of the Irish Architectural Archive, and the surface of the sculptural table, Fragment Mediation, as a temporary drafting room. This means a space to explore the theme of the end-of-life of buildings. On the table are seven ‘rings’ each containing research images related to a specific category related to this theme.
Concrete
Architecture and the Environment
Ultimology
Making Dust
Catholic Churches
Housing
Office Blocks
We welcome educators to reserve this room and use this material, collected from the research of Ellen Rowley and the collections of the Irish Architectural Archive, to host group sessions.
Title Line
Information
Fragments gleaned from the demolition site of the Church of the Annunciation laid out on site at Cow House studios in Wexford, where they were stored before production at VISUAL Carlow.