Converging Territories Exhibition Opens

Three architects from the WISH-team have spent over six months in Ireland in 2010 looking at what they came to term Shadowlands - empty spaces, half finished building sites and neighbourhoods. This exhibition is a photographic record of what they found in the greater Dublin area, in particular the edges and hinterland of Dublin.

Converging Territories is pilot-project for architects’ mobility in Europe. In the framework of a residence, the applicants were invited to develop proposals linked to a specific territorial or spatial situation located in one of the three cities involved: Dublin, Paris and Prague.

The current economic crisis bequeathed to Dublin a legacy of half finished projects, undeveloped lands in inappropriate locations and ghost estates, complete but unoccupied. With the support of the European Forum for Architectural Policies, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and critic Petar Zaklanovic, three architects from the WISH-team have spent over six months in Ireland in 2010 looking at what they came to term Shadowlands - empty spaces, half finished building sites and neighbourhoods. This exhibition is a photographic record of what they found in the greater Dublin area, in particular the edges and hinterland of Dublin.


Accompanying the photographs are reflections by the three architects on these Shadowlands – questions as to what could or should be done with them now, proposals that seek alternative options for dealing with this legacy, and a call for a resetting of the paradigm of development in a way that is more holistic, integrated, flexible, local, intuitive and above all sustainable.

Wish Architects is an association of three young architects based in Paris, collaborating on urban design, architecture and photography. They began their architectural studies in Nantes and Belgium and have studied and worked in Barcelona, Brussels and Tampere.

- M. Debien won Europan 9 on Le Havre harbour site and works as a freelance architect and urbanist.

- M. Jansens works as a freelance architect.

- S. Morel works as an architecture photographer.

The exhibition runs is currently taking place in the Irish Architectural Archive Gallery, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin 2. The Irish Architectural Archive Exhibition Gallery is open to the public from 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesdays to Fridays.

Access is free. All are welcome.

(GK)