November and December saw the celebration of 100 years of practice by RKD Architects. Our main celebration took place on the evening of the 25th November at the Concert Hall in the Royal Dublin Society and was attended by many of our clients, our company staff, past and present, many members of the families which have been associated with RKD over the years and a lot of our industry friends.
The focus of the event was an exhibition of the work of RKD from 1913-2013 which showed the work in a chronological display and which also highlighted the well-known works of the practice on individual displays. Together, the exhibition illustrated the unique contribution RKD has made to the design & construction of buildings in Ireland in that period. The body of work is an interesting reflection of the changing social and economic needs & priorities of the country as it has developed over the past century.
The evening was a warm and happy affair which saw many people catching up with old faces.
Ronnie Foreman, our guest of honour and a former director of the James Joyce Cultural Centre in Dublin made an intriguing observation on the work of the company at the end of his speech to the guests at the RDS. He mentioned Leopold Bloom’s musing in Ulysses that a “Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing a pub”. Ronnie felt it would be a “Good puzzle would be cross Dublin without passing an RKD building”. And, you know, he has a point………..!
Much work, over many months was spent preparing the exhibition and the celebration and special thanks to make to the people who made a big contribution to putting them together:-
- To Holly Clark, for organising this evening and other events & to Mark Restan of Jack Restan Displays for his helpfulness & courtesy & his work in putting the exhibition together.
- To Jennifer Browne for her design of the exhibition. (www.jenniferbrowne.com)
- To Vincent Delany for his research into RKD.
- To Barra Heavey for his work on our brochure & other extraordinary feats of organisation & to Maura Butler who worked very closely with him.
- To Harry Browne for his video celebrating RKD.
After the RDS celebration, the exhibition moved to the RIAI Exhibition in Merrion Square and it was on display from late November through to Christmas. We held an opening party on Tuesday 26th November at which the RIAI President, Michelle Fagan opened the display with a generous speech. A number of fellow architects attended and their presence was much appreciated.
The RIAI and RKD also sponsored a number of lunchtime lectures during the period of the exhibition which featured eminent speakers including Dr Ellen Rowley from Trinity College, who spoke about RKD’s avant garde church architecture Brian Ward from Dublin Institute of Technology who spoke about the birth of Irish Town Planning between 1910-1920 and architect and lecturer at Limerick University, Peter Carroll who spoke about the unexpected urban design features of St Mary’s Girls Primary School on King’s Island in Limerick.
Thanks to all who joined us to celebrate our 100 years in practice. We’ll look forward to seeing everyone again in 2113 to look back on our second century!!
In the meantime you can download our RKD 100 brochure.
