Every two years Murray Ó Laoire Architects convenes staff members from all of our offices to engage in two days of presentations and debates. This years Colloquium was held in Cork on November 17th and 18th, 2005. The theme was ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Heavenly Cities’. The ambition was to reflect the practices increasing engagement with urban and urban edge projects of significant scale. With over 200 staff attending, 21 countries were represented at this year’s event.

The numerous invited guests to this unique event included journalists, writers, academics, planners and local government officials. A number of guest speakers including architect and writer Vincent Ducatez, the poet and broadcaster Theo Dorgan and Mary McCarthy Director of Programmes Development for 'Cork European Capital of Culture 2005' started off the proceedings. This event included video presentations, three exhibitions an innovation competition and various lectures.

The presentations and lectures, held over two days, were grouped under the themes:
   - Understanding Cities
   - Defining Cities
   - Re-Imagining Cities
   - Living and Working Cities
   - Making the City
 

Many presentations were creative and original, sometimes challenging, and it all made for a very stimulating two days of information sharing, ideas and a barrage of images.
The spectrum of information presented ranged from the effects of tax incentive schemes, the case for building height, and the idea of The Edge City and the suburbanisation of Ireland, to density and the perceived identity that a city may have.
One member of staff, in The Silent City, outlined the challenges of being deaf in the city.

The potential of specific locations e.g. Barna in Co. Galway and King’s Island in Limerick were investigated and treated in detail for their future planning possibilities. Reflecting the range of nationalities present, some cities, such as Copenhagen, Moscow and Wellington were presented and explored in their historical urban context by staff with detailed local knowledge.

Highly creative and original presentations mapped out Cybercities, Dream Cities, Floating Cities, new urban models and the varied possibilities for future living. Other topics varied from the role of the Luas in urban regenation or the effect of the recent smoking ban on the urban environment, to the effect of landscape or water on a city or of the potential of different transport modes.
While the tones and content ranged from interesting to hilarious, it was certainly stimulating and never dull.

The event also hosted an MOLA innovation exhibition and competition The 3rd in the past six years. This aspect of the Colloquium encourages, recognises and celebrates innovation on MOLA projects. This competition reflected the range of innovations across a number of our projects from special detailing or use of materials to landscape planning or the use of specialist pre-fabrication.

Click here for the programme for Colloquium 2005, ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Heavenly Cities’
 

While this page presents only a small flavour of the Colloquium, It is hoped that shortly we will link much more of the presented information from our website and capture some of the creativity and energy of this very unique event.