Irish architect Tom de Paor was our guest at the third lecture of the “On collaborations” series. The video recording of the lecture is now available online.

Tom de Paor

Born in London in 1967, Tom de Paor grew up in the west of Ireland and graduated from University College Dublin in 1991. In that year he won the competition for a visitor centre at Ballincollig, Co. Cork and commenced architectural practice. His work includes public buildings and spaces, landscape, private houses, gardens and furniture. Under the title Gall, a collaborative practice with Peter Maybury, he works on exhibitions, sculpture, film and print.

Tom lives and works in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. He has been a lecturer at University College Dublin and he has been a regular visiting critic and lectured at schools of architecture nationally and internationally. He has won national and international awards. In 2003 he was voted Young Architect of the Year in the UK and elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.

Lecture series “On collaborations”

Collaboration is a necessity and we need to work well together. But what happens when different interests meet?  When does collaboration become productive, when does it become complicated or when does it even fail?  Where is the line between consensus and compromise? What does “good collaboration” mean – not only in the context of one’s own practice, but also in relation to collaboration with others and what impact does this collaboration have on the architecture that is created? 
In this semester, three architects, Sophie Delhay, Fosbury Architecture and Tom dePaor, talked about their methods and experiences of collaboration – from the planned to the unplanned, the good and the bad, or challenging. The lectures don’t only discuss success stories, but also frictions, detours and the question of what collaboration really means.