Talk at the Table - Lá sa gclaí

Bayanihan returns to Architecture at the Edge with an evening centred on the idea of the wall, not simply as a boundary, but as one of architecture’s most fundamental social elements.

Over two weeks at the European Architecture Students Assembly (EASA), twenty participants came together to construct a rammed earth wall while exploring contemporary ways of making, sharing skills, stories and experiences along the way. The project began with an interest in the role of the wall within the Irish landscape. Across Ireland, walls divide fields, measure land and mark ownership, but they can also become places of encounter: somewhere to shelter, rest, meet a neighbour, tell stories or gather. As the wall grew, it was continually inhabited. At different heights it became a bench, a table, a screen and, ultimately, an outdoor classroom.

The construction was accompanied by a series of collective activities, including a communal meal, storytelling, performances and a film screening. In this way, the wall became more than a structure; it became a piece of civic infrastructure shaped by the people who used it.

The permanent wall remains in Waterford. At Architecture at the Edge, its temporary timber formwork and supporting structures will be reassembled at Printworks Gallery, creating a new architectural stage and an echo of the original project. Rather than simply exhibiting documentation, the installation will be activated throughout the evening through shared food, film, music and conversation, compressing two weeks of collective occupation into a single night.

Alongside the installation, a public discussion will explore the cultural, political and spatial role of walls today- from the Irish field boundary to contested borders, and from shared civic infrastructure to architectures of exclusion. The evening asks how architecture might move beyond the production of objects to create the conditions for collective life, gathering and exchange.

Panellists Include:

Architect Mary Laheen one of the five creative directors of the Ireland pavilion exhibition, at the 18th Venice Architettura Biennale 2023, titled In Search of Hy-Brasil.

Celine Topsakal- Designer, Resolve Collective

Cathedral - the experimental electronic music alias of Galway-born DJ and producer Cóilí Collins, better known as Shampain

FREE entry - All are welcome, but pre- booking is advised.

Supported by:  

Grafton Architects

Tec7

EASA Seanchaí

Artists Talk

with Áine Phillips and Miriam deBurca

The Chloran Síle Flag represents a Sheela-na-gig that has been held in the collection of the British Museum since the late 1800s, having been taken from a site in West Meath during British occupation.

Sheela na gigs are medieval stone carvings of female figures displaying their genitalia with exaggerated grotesque and humorous facial expressions. They are found predominantly in Ireland. Experts believe they were protective talismans connected to ancient folk ideas of birth, death and life giving power. Sheela na gigs are viewed by modern feminists as symbols of female empowerment, body autonomy, and resistance against patriarchal oppression. 

The Chloran Sile Flag also confronts colonial legacies, her display highlights the expropriation of objects and treasures from Ireland that are still held in British institutions. This flag, as a symbol of identity, authority and solidarity to communicate shared values, proposes the restitution and repatriation of this ancient carving, echoing the artistic call to be found on the reverse of the flag: Síle come home.

Miriam de Búrca creates highly intricate, research-driven drawings and film works that adopt a forensic approach to uncover hidden histories, confronting the legacies of patriarchy, institutional power, and colonialism. Through drawing and installation de Búrca toys with the vocabulary of colonial aesthetics, using strategies of mimicry and irony as political tools to critique the superiority of ‘high art’. Áine Phillips for over 30 years has explored and engaged with women's lived experience, female autobiography and histories, feminism, community and social justice. She sees her work as a form of social activism through art. The two artists came together to create this flag celebrating the Chloran Síle as an emblem of women’s power and presence, a pre-christian icon representing a time when women had matriarchal status and equality in our society. The taking of this Síle, without consent, stands in for the rape and pillage of all cultures that are subject to colonisation, past and present.

Bios

Miriam de Búrca studied Fine Art at Glasgow School of Art and the Ulster University, Belfast. She is represented by Cristea Roberts Gallery, London and has works in the collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; Arts Council of Ireland; the British Museum; National University of Ireland Galway and private collections. De Búrca lives and works in Galway.

Áine Phillips is a visual artist based in Galway. She makes performances, films and installations often working with communities and collaborators in Ireland and internationally since the late 80’s. Recent work includes a Decade of Centenaries project Reflections Banners commemorating Irish women’s history 1923 - 2023, commissioned by Galway City Arts Office, Libraries and Museum. 

AATE are working in collaboration with LINA Fellow Blanka Major with the aim to connect food, people and place.

Blanka Major is a Zurich-based architect with Hungarian roots, working independently and collaboratively across scales and formats. Her practice spans architecture, cooking, editing, curating, writing, teaching, and research. She holds degrees in Art History and Architecture, graduating from ETH Zurich in 2022 with the project food forms. She is part of ZAS* (Zürcher Arbeitsgruppe für Städtebau), working on alternative narrations of the existing and contributing civic engagement. At ETH Zurich, she teaches and researches at the Chair of Alexandre Theriot, where she co-edited «Peter Thomann – Hors Piste» (gta Verlag, 2025).

 Her practice is grounded in curiosity about the everyday: how we live together and how built environments shape social roles. She investigates the infrastructures and systems—housing, food, domestic routines—that structure daily life and influence rhythms of coexistence. Alongside architecture, she explores food as a spatial and social medium. Cooking and eating become tools of inquiry and formats for gathering, dissolving boundaries and creating temporary collectivities.

Through performative dinners and installations, Blanka uses the kitchen as a space of experimentation where sensorial and social experiences intersect. These works unfold both within and outside institutional contexts, addressing how we live together in material terms.
Her work with Kitchuan has been shown at Kunsthalle Bern («every instant is at once»), Kunsthaus Zürich’s Clubhaus (invited by Aris Guzman), and Foodculture Days in Vevey. She is currently collaborating with the Art x Science Office of the University of Zurich on «devouring» (Nov 2024) and «argilla» (Aug 2025).

Blanka’s work links body, architecture, and territory to develop spatial formats rooted in temporality, interdependence, and lived experience. Her practice evolves through research, fieldwork, experimentation and speculative design—transforming domestic acts into architectural thinking.

Part of the LINA Architecture programme.

A System for Ordinary Housing

SJK Architects in association with Gerry Cahill

Illustrated Talk / Keynote Lecture on a project that was highly commended for the RIAI Silver Medal for Housing 2026.

The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Ln, (off Quay Street)
17:00-18:30 hr, Thursday 24th September 2026
FREE entry – but prebooking is advised via link below.

“A System for Ordinary Housing” builds on Ireland’s social housing tradition— from the masterplan and house types of Marino in Dublin designed by Horace O’Rourke in the 1920’s; to the Bord na Móna villages designed by Frank Gibney in the 1950s.

Gerry Cahill’s and SJK Architects’ collaboration learns from and follows this experience of simple, high-quality social housing to form connected senses of place in 21st Century Ireland.

“Own-door houses placed close to the street, modest front garden spaces neatly enclosing bin and bike storage, vernacular gables and corner buildings all contribute towards a safe and truly welcoming living environment. Theses are places where the community is clearly thriving. The concept of proposing a system of principles and details for use across the country is particularly welcome - in housing - as an ambition for why design matters.” – Jury Citation, 2026 RIAI Silver Medal for Housing.

bio

SJK Architects (SJK.ie) is an architecture practise established 1954 and led since 2013 by Edel Tobin, Elaine Naughton, Dermot McCabe and their team of talented architects and technologists with offices in Galway and Westport working on projects country-wide. The quality of SJK’s work is consistently recognised for focus in solving client’s problems, delivering excellence on time, budget and quality, and by Irish Architecture Awards; Public Choice Awards and the RIAI’s Silver Medal for Housing.

Gerry Cahill is an Irish architect whose built work is primarily in housing. Most of Gerry’s homes were delivered with local authorities, voluntary organisations, or approved housing bodies. Through his teaching at UCD, Gerry Cahill influenced the work and lives of hundreds of architects practising in Ireland and elsewhere, including the team at SJK. The book “Care and Consideration: on the work of Gerry Cahill Architects” was published 2025

Project Credits;

Employer: National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) / Department of Housing / Cork County Council / Clare County Council / Waterford City and County Council / Galway City Council.

Client Design team information

Architect SJK Architects in association with Gerry Cahill

Dermot McCabe, Elaine Naughton, Edel Tobin, Gerry Cahill, Orla Murphy, Eoin Kavanagh, Blair Stanaway, Ruth Fox, Lisa Fox, Ollie O’Brien, Brian Corcoran.

Project Management National Development Finance Agency

Quantity Surveyor Currie and Brown

Structural Engineer Hayes Higgins Partnership

M+E Engineer Matt O'Mahony & Associates

Landscape Radharc

Planning Consultant HRA Planning

Fire Consultant Jensen Hughes

Assigned Certifier AECOM

Public Private Partnership Contractor Design and Build team information

Contractor JJ Rhatigan + OHL 

Architect Rhatigan Architects and Avanti Architects

Client TORC Housing Partnership

Project Management Equitix and Kajima Partnerships

Structural Engineer Punch Consulting Engineers

M+E Engineer Varming

Landscape Flannery Landscaping

Meet the Artists behind the new flags reimagining Galway’s Tribes for the AATE Festival 2026.

Galway City Council’s Museum Lates is part of Galway’s Night-Time Economy Programme. The initiative extends Museum opening hours on the last Thursday of every month from June to December 2026, with a free programme of immersive performances, talks, workshops and events taking place between 5pm and 9pm.

Funded through the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport’s After Hours at the Museum scheme, with support from Galway City Council, Museum Lates contributes to a thriving, diverse and accessible evening cultural offering in the heart of the city. The initiative also strengthens Galway’s tourism appeal by extending cultural activity into the evening, encouraging visitors to spend more time in the city centre and experience Galway’s heritage and creativity after dark.

Museum Lates offers a unique opportunity to explore the Museum’s collections and exhibitions outside regular opening hours while enjoying live music, engaging talks, creative workshops and community events in an exciting evening setting.

Meet the Artists behind a brand new public art flag display on Druid lane for the Architecture at the Edge Festival 2026. The artists vibrant designs entitled ‘14 Flags of Belonging will adorn the Galway skies from 17th to 27th September 2026.

These flags are a nod to the 14 Tribes of Galway,  created in response to the festivals theme fopr 2026 ‘Le Chéile – the Architectures of Belonging’. The 14 commissioned designers have worked to create a series of symbolic flags which represent various identities and communities in the city and speak to a place, a feeling, a tribe or community, a memory, and/or ideas and concepts around collective ideas of belonging, wellbeing, identity, imagination and purpose.

’14 Flags of Belonging’, is part of the Culture Night Late programme, funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under the Night-Time Economy programme with support from Galway City Council Arts Office.

Shane O'Driscoll is a Cork-based visual artist and art director. He is a full time artist that practices mainly in printmaking. Shane has artwork in the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Ireland, Crawford Gallery Cork, Trinity College Dublin, Glucksman Museum UCC, and UCD.

He is also Co director of Ardú Street Art Project, an initiative that has brought a number of large scale contemporary murals to Cork City. 

In 2024, he was an artist in residence for Team Ireland at the Paris Olympics, where he was commissioned to create an artwork to commemorate 100 years of Team Ireland. His art was an integral part of the Team Ireland campaign.

Book launch and panel conversation with Making Neighbourhoods contributors, Caroline Crowley, Rosie Lynch, Heather Griffin, and Thom Stewart.

Making Neighbourhood charts a story of creative placemaking and neighbourhood making in Ireland, structured through four chapters: care for the future, making as care, care for place, and tools for care. Concluding with a reflection from a Scottish perspective, the book focuses on the stories and experiences of Reimagining Elderhood, Nimble Spaces, Galway Community Cafe, Cork Community Land Trust, Test Site, Cork Women’s Traveller Network, Town Ecologies, Robert Emmett CPD and initiatives in Cloughjordan Ecovillage and Callan. The book aims to provide a concise, accessible guide to making neighbourhoods in Ireland, while signposting broader practices and ideas. Who is it for? It’s for anyone who wants to understand what creative placemaking means in Ireland, and how it can help tackle problems that sometimes seem difficult to solve. It’s for people interested in processes that resource communities, strengthen connections, and build resilience.

Published in 2026 by Workhouse Union Press and co-edited with SOA (Self-Organised Architecture) and Cloughjordan Co-Housing, with funding support from the Arts Council and Kilkenny Leader Partnership.

Event Organiser: Workhouse Union

 Bios of the individual/s participating in the event.

Dr. Caroline Crowley is an independent researcher with a background in natural and social sciences. Her work is dedicated to supporting care-centred systems that promote the well-being of families, communities, and nature.

Heather Griffin collaborates with Patrick Mulvihill through Living Rhythms, a participatory arts practice that has emerged through community-led work. Through creative placemaking, they collaborate with communities to speculate and envision an alternative, just, and regenerative future in response to the crisis of imagination.

 Rosie Lynch is Creative Director of Workhouse Union, a creative placemaking and community co-design organisation based in Callan, Co. Kilkenny. Rosie has extensive experience leading national and local engagement programmes with a strong emphasis on care, access, and place-based storytelling.  

Thom Stewart is a peer practitioner, co-designer, and conscientious objector to the concept of ‘mental health’. Thom advocates for ground-clearing the underlying assumptions about power, ownership, capability, and control that disables our entire society.

AATE Lecture  – Heart of the Matter – Witherford Watson Mann Architects

Exploring the physical and social conditions at Astley Castle and Appleby Blue with Stephen Witherford BA Dip Arch RIBA

Illustrated Talk / Lecture

O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance,
(University Of Galway)
18:30-19:30 hr, Friday 25th September 2026

FREE entry – but prebooking is advised as spaces are limited.

Through the repetition of chance, winning two Stirling Prizes, 12 years apart, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on the two winning projects and consider them together – the conditions that we encountered, the way we re-imagined these, and the physical and social outcomes that have evolved from this imagination.

It is not obvious how responding to the ruined remains of Astley Castle, at risk of being completely lost, might share any similarities with building the contemporary Appleby Blue almshouse, to provide the opportunity for older people to start again in life. How does making a short-term holiday rental house for 8, mostly financially well-off people, relate to making social housing for 65 people who are in some form of need, to reside for the rest of their lives? Not least, does building in Warwickshire’s rural countryside tell us something about how we might build in the heart of our cities? 

This talk pursues these questions with no preconceptions; exploring the deep and complex relationship between the physicality of buildings and the social experiences that unfold from these. It is never clear to us, until a building has been lived in for a period of time, what we have actually done. Only then does the reality begin to be revealed. 

In Partnership with : 

Arts in Action is back to University of Galway

The Architectural Association of Ireland

Once Upon A Sound

Hosted by Dónal Dineen 

Talk Discussion 

The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Ln, (off Quay Street)

20:00 - 21:30hr, Friday, September 25th 2026
Tickets €15 (Dancing till late included) 

Back Story Special >>>

Ticket holders for the above talk are invited to join us as we continue into the night with Dónal Dineen’s Backstory special! 

Acclaimed Irish DJ Dónal Dineen’s Backstory Dance has been a mainstay of the music scene for the past decade.

This event follows directly after the screening of Dónal Dineen’s Once upon a story. Tickets can be bought for the Backstory part of the evening only on the door if capacity allows, or book for Once upon a Story and get access to the full evening of events.

The unerring attention to detail on the quality of the music and the atmosphere generated on one heady night after another has become the stuff of legend.

For this special AATE Festival edition at The Mick Laly Theatre, Dónal will be playing an extended set which is like an alternative guide to the musical universe.

Tickets €10 on the door. . 

Dónal Dineen is an Irish DJ, radio presenter and film maker. A pioneering force for a generation of music fans, Donal is renowned for his deep passion for music as well as a curator of unique multi-disciplinary events.  Current projects include the music podcast Make Me An Island podcast and a documentary film Dance to Remember which premiered at the Kerry International Film Festival in 2025.

Dónal will be hosting a special live edition of his Once Upon A Sound video series at AATE where he'll be exploring music as a source of inspiration for creative minds working in other media.

Taking our cue from the Desert Island Discs programme first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1942, guests will be invited to choose a selection of audio recordings that they would take with them if they were to be cast away on a desert island as a jump-off point for a discussion about the role sound plays in their practice.

Dónals Guests include: Artist Joy Gerrard and others TBC 

AATE Flag Display x and a multi-speaker talk on Coastal Decision-Making

— The built, natural and cultural significance of the Irish Coastline

Grattan Beach, Grattan Road, Salthill

Saturday 26th September

12 noon (duration 1.5hrs)

All are welcome, no booking required.

This is an outdoor event, appropriate shoes and clothing recommended

Flag installation on the beach, with a multi-speaker talk and presentation on the built and natural coastline, coastal decision-making and town planning, climate change, endangered species, and the biodiversity on the edge of our city. A variety of species and habitats will be explored.

Project Credits;

Amelia Walker, Flag Team AATE / Galway Atlantaquaria / C-MAP Coastal Monitoring and Adaptation Planning / School of Geography, University of Galway

Speakers Include:

• Amelia Walker — Flag Team AATE, Graphic Designer / Sandlarks

• Axel Leahy — C-MAP Coastal Monitoring and Adaptation Planning, Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Galway

• Garry Kendellen — Galway Atlantaquaria

• Kevin Lynch — Beach & Dune Network, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish

Studies, Ryan Institute, University of Galway

• Léa Delhaise — Marine Biologist, Sea Science, Galway City Museum

• Amber Parker — Wool Rolls Research Project, University of Galway

• Ultan McManus — Sandlarks

Amelia Walker — Flag Team AATE, Graphic Designer / Sandlarks

Amelia’s AATE design utilises visual art as a conduit for spreading environmental awareness and sustainability; emphasising the importance of endangered species living in close proximity to our human-build world. Finding a White Skate (Rostroraja alba) mermaid’s purse in Furbo has shown that Galway Bay is currently a rare breeding site and nursery for the critically endangered species.

Axel Leahy — C-MAP Coastal Monitoring and Adaptation Planning, Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Galway

Axel’s research assesses opportunities and barriers for the participation of coastal communities within climate change adaptation (CCA) decision-making processes. His work investigates individual’s perceptions of coastal risks and climate change, and engagement at a local level. 

Garry Kendellen — Galway Atlantaquaria

Garry is head of marketing, content and public participation at Galway Atlantaquaria. He holds regular Explore Your Shore and other public events on Grttan Beach. His focus is on supporting and educating a connected community.

Ultan McManus — Sandlarks

Ultan is co-founder of Sandlarks, a Clean Coasts volunteer group based in Galway. Their focus is on community beach cleans, ci>zen science, and coastal conservation along the Wild Atlantic Way. 

Léa Delhaise — Marine Biologist, Sea Science, Galway City Museum.

Léa holds regular educational events on the beach. She curated An Tír Faoi Thoinn – The Land Beneath the Waves, supported by the Marine Institute — “It’s exciting to bring people into conversa>on with the ocean on their doorstep. These events give visitors a chance to discover the incredible species, stories and science hidden beneath Galway Bay, and to understand how closely connected we all are to marine life.”

Amber Parker — Wool Rolls Research Project, Coastal & Marine Processes & Policy, University of Galway.

Amber has been working on The Wool Rolls Research Project; a nature-based research initiative in Galway, that uses wool rolls to support sand dune restoration and coastal conservation. The focus of the project was to test natural, biodegradable materials alongside chestnut fencing to stabilise sand dunes and encourage native vegetation growth.

Building Material – Issue No.25

A launch and preview event introducing Building Material Issue No. 25, currently in development and co-edited by Helen McFadden and Steve Larkin.

Talk Discussion 

The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Ln, (off Quay Street)


15:00-16:30 hr, Saturday 26, September 2026


FREE entry – but prebooking is advised via Eventbrite.

This event marks the launch and preview of Building Material Journal, a special 25th issue co-edited by Helen McFadden and Steve Larkin, introducing its theme: “Architecture and Landscape: Parts-to-a-Whole.”

Currently in development, the issue will bring together emerging ideas, research and contributions exploring the relationships between architecture and landscape. The programme will offer a preview of the thinking and making behind the publication, alongside a panel discussion exploring how people working across architecture, landscape and related disciplines engage with individual parts, fragments and interventions, and how these contribute to larger spatial, material, cultural and environmental wholes.

The discussion will open the theme to a wider audience, creating a space for exchange between architects, researchers, educators, landscape practitioners, students and others interested in architecture and landscape. As this special 25th issue takes shape, the event offers an opportunity to engage with its developing ideas, glimpse the process behind its making, and contribute new perspectives to the conversation.

Supported by:  

All-Ireland Architectural Research Group
Architectural Association of Ireland
ICOMOS National Scientific Committee for Cultural Landscapes
Architecture At The Edge
Arts Council of Ireland (Project Award)

Making Assembly 

A film directed and produced by Michelle Delea, (Architect, poet, and filmmaker), documenting ‘Assembly’ Ireland’s national pavilion by Cotter & Naessens Architects at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2025.

Film screening plus Q&A 

Friday 26th September, 2026

16:30 – 18:00hr 

The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane

FREE entry - All are welcome, but prebooking is advised. 

“To assemble is to gather together as a group of people with a common interest. To assemble is to construct a whole from constituent parts. As both congregation and construction, assembly is at the heart of the architectural process; it is a multi-sensory installation, a soundscape to be inhabited, a space to be heard.”                     

— Cotter & Naessens Architects

Following its presentation at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2025, Assembly, Ireland’s national pavilion by Cotter & Naessens Architects, has embarked on a national tour across the country this summer.

Part installation, part resonant chamber, part civic proposition, Assembly is a multisensory environment that explores architecture as a space for gathering, listening, and collective reflection. Inspired by Ireland’s Citizens’ Assembly, established in 2016 to bring together demographically representative residents to deliberate urgent social and political issues ranging from marriage equality to biodiversity loss, the project reflects on new forms of participatory democracy and asks how architecture might support more open, inclusive, and non-hierarchical forms of public exchange. 

At a moment when civic discourse is increasingly fragmented and mediated through digital space, Assembly proposes the act of coming together, physically and collectively, as both a political and poetic gesture. The national tour extends this proposition beyond Venice, bringing the pavilion into dialogue with audiences across Ireland and inviting new communities to inhabit, activate, and contribute to the work. 

The Ireland tour presents the original installation alongside the premiere of a new 27-minute documentary “Making Assembly” directed and produced by Michelle Delea. Structured around the four stanzas of the poem ‘Assembly’, the film traces the design, fabrication, and installation of the pavilion through moving image and sound, documenting the collaborative processes and material labour that shaped the work. 

The tour continues at Architecture at the Edge at the Mick Lally Theatre, Galway, on September 26, 2026 with a screening of “Making Assembly”. Presented in dialogue with the festival’s theme, Le Chéile, a film screening of “Making Assembly” extends the festival’s exploration of citizens’ assemblies and asks how architecture might foster more open forms of communication, participation, and democratic engagement. The screening will be followed by an audience discussion with Louise Cotter (Architect) & Michelle Delea (Architect, poet, and filmmaker), moderated by AATE Festival Director Frank Monahan.