Architecture and Poetry

May 2023

The exhibition Architecture and Poetry is on display at Hay Castle from May 26th - 3rd September. The exhibition begins on the Castle exterior with a newly commissioned light poem from poet-sculptor Robert Montgomery and culminates in Pelé Cox’s verse inscription for Eric Parry’s Building 7 at Chelsea Barracks as well as the words of bilingual poet Gwyneth Lewis for the Wales Millennium Centre at Cardiff. Alongside this, the exhibition details three architectural designs by our practice which were inspired by poems, including the International Rugby Experience at Limerick which has its origins in the poem Beowulf. These architectural exhibits are complemented by a collection of concrete poetry from the 1960s to the present including The Mouse’s Tale by Lewis Carrol. To visit the Hay Castle website click here.

Níall will be giving a lecture at Hay Castle on the 30th May talking about the links between poems and some of our projects. Please click here to find out further details.

Yale School of Architecture

January 2015

Niall gave a lecture at The School of Architecture at Yale University on the 22^nd of January. It is part of his role as Sir Norman Foster Visiting Chair for 2015. The talk was titled Origins and Translations and it described the thinking behind projects including Bishop Edward King Chapel, Auckland Castle Museum and the Athlete’s Housing for the 2012 Olympics in London. The talk coincided with the publication of an extended interview with Nina Rappenport in the spring issue of the Yale architecture magazine Constructs.