This expresses the process of architectural design itself, where an idea is always restless and will continue to evolve until the architect must fix it into form. I’d say that it is more to do with a kind of locational idea, like an anchoring idea that fixes the thought of the place. The ambiguity of a shell — it could be either an unfinished or a ruined building — communicates what the building is now and also suggests what it could be in the future. Interview with John Tuomey of O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects
Project: Killiney House,
‘The Sleeping Giant’
Location: Killiney, County Dublin, Ireland
Architect: O’Donnell +Tuomey
Architects
Date: 2007
What has changed after you have visited site for the first time? Actually, I don’t think our first thought is material. O’Donnell +Tuomey Architects are based in Dublin, Ireland. When you come from site you have some kind of hunch formed in your head of the character of the project that you will propose. We would often be saying, ‘This should be a garden or this should be an outpost or this should be a house dug into the site.’ We would have some first thought independent of the technology or independent of the scale even. They have been involved with urban design, educational and cultural buildings, houses and housing projects in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands.
