ARCHIVE:

Luke Benson

“Back-to-school time”, September offers us a fresh start; a new energy, grown from the summer’s sun, that will bring us through the winter. As the darker evenings settle in, we are spoiled for choice with many great cultural offerings across the country.

Ar dtús, I will take this opportunity to discuss an event I am organising with my fellow committee members. The Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) Awards Exhibition Launch will take place on Thursday, 10th September at 7.00pm, at Flux Studios on Chatham Row, Dublin 2. This is our annual presentation of the Award Winners. All submitted entries will be on display. This is a ticketed event and capacity is limited, however the exhibition will be open to the public at 6.00pm on Friday, 11th and 10am on Saturday, 12th of September. It is always a privilege to see the submitted work from the members hung together in one room each year. It offers a great insight into the broad work of the AAI members, their great contribution to the built environment, the profession and architectural discourse.

Next, let me bring your attention to the New Life Old Buildings events taking place in Limerick City on the 9th and 16th of September, organised by the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF). This series of events includes Open-Table Discussions, Site Visits, Workshops and Panel Discussions across both days. The event aims to build a culture of care that values existing buildings as vital spaces for thriving and sustainable communities.

Another event hosted by the IAF is, The Scale of Distance with Donn Holohan and Elspeth Lee of Superposition. This is the second conversation in the series speaking with architects of the Irish diaspora about design, distance and what it means to feel at home in the world today. It’s an online event and takes place at 1.00pm on the 23rd of September, so a nice thing to tune into on your lunch hour!

Culture Night takes place on 18th of September this year. It’s a night offering free access to exhibitions, poetry readings, concerts, walking tours and many more events across the country. A Tour Through the Ages is a bus tour through the Glen of Aherlow in County Tipperary which caught my eye! But I will be keeping it local and going to Phibsborough 1926: A Suburb In Full Swing hosted by Mater Misericordiae University Hospital & Phizzfest.

Dublin Fringe includes a broad selection of events such as theatre, music, comedy and visual art. Pretty Vacant is a high-octane musical satire that skewers the forces behind gentrification and the willingness of the people in power to play along. Set to a jukebox of Euro-pop bangers, this show is not one to miss! There are eight shows between the 15th and 20th of September in Tailor’s Hall, Dublin 8.

Carrick-On-Shannon’s The Dock is exhibiting, Afterimage: Photography in the Digital Age, which is a photography show exploring the ever-changing medium of photography through history and in the digital age, and how that reflects a change in old certainties, and confronts us with the shifting values of our digital present. This exhibition opens on the 12th of September and finishes 14th November.

We are very lucky to have such a rich variety of events programmed around the country this month (my selection only scratches the surface!). Many events are free and accessible. Do look into these programmes, see what is near you and how you can support them. Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the programmes of Architecture At The Edge Festival in Galway, and Dublin Design Week, both of which are sure to inspire their patrons.