From the design of Renaissance fortifications to the phenomenon of urbicide, the arts of warfare and architecture have had a long and fraught relationship.

Taking place over three days and presenting more than forty speakers (including keynotes Stephen Graham, Derek Gregory, and Owen Hatherley) as well as an exhibition, Ordnance: War + Architecture & Space is an international conference at University College Cork, from 16th to 18th September.

It seeks to investigate the often hidden imperatives between militarism and the design, construction and representation of architecture as it occupies space across a series of scales and settings from the bathroom to the battlefield.

For more information and to register visit www.ordnanceconference.com.

Ordnance: War + Architecture & Space is an interdisciplinary conference organised by the CCAE: School of architecture, Cork (CIT/UCC) and the School of the Human Environment (UCC).

IRELAND’S EXHIBITION OPEN IN VENICE

The Irish exhibition at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice was launched last Friday evening, at an official event hosted by Ireland’s ambassador to Italy, Patrick Hennessey, in what was an eagerly anticipated and long overdue celebration of the practice of de Blacam and Meagher Architects.

‘Of de Blacam and Meagher’ is being presented in the oratory of the Irish saint St. Gall (San Gallo) near Piazza San Marco and addresses the built and unbuilt portfolio of de Blacam and Meagher Architects over the past 33 years. The exhibition concept takes the form of a book unbound, containing volumes of drawing and photographic reproductions from the archives, contemporary photography and readings of the work with commentaries.

The launch was attended by over 220 guests including Minister for Culture Mary Hanafin who opened the exhibition and spoke in admiration of the achievement of the curators, commissioners and exhibitors, “for making Ireland stand so proud at this international showcase.” Nathalie Weadick, Director of the IAF, who were the commissioners of the exhibition spoke to the gathered audience of the importance of architecture in today’s culture and society.

OFFICIAL AWARDS OF THE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE

Saturday 28th August saw the announcement of the official awards of the Architecture Biennale 2010, the Golden Lions.

The Golden Lion for the Best National Participation was awarded to the Kingdom of Bahrain. In their inaugural exhibition at the Biennale, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture & Information and curated by Noura Al-Sayeh and Fuad Al Ansari, is entitled ‘Reclaim’ and was praised for being a forceful and lucid analysis of the nation’s relationship with its rapidly changing coastline.

Japanese architect Junya Ishigami’s ephemeral installation in the Arsenale received the Golden Lion for the Best Project of the Exhibition ‘People Meet in Architecture’. Shortly after the awards were announced however, a cat managed to enter the exhibition space and destroy Ishigami’s installation! A Silver Lion for the Most Promising Young Participant in the Exhibition ‘People Meet in Architecture’ architects OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen in collaboration with photographer Bas Princen.

This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale takes place in the Arsenale, Giardini and at various locations around the city of Venice until 21 November.

www.labiennale.org

www.irelandatvenice.ie

CUBE, Centre for the Built Environment has announced its annual open submission competition. Artists, architects and designers are invited to submit work that responds to the theme of the urban built environment.

This year’s selectors are Peter Kelly (Editor of Blueprint Magazine, Office for Subversive Architecture and Manchester Modernist Society.

The most outstanding project will be awarded £1000 and the applicant will be offered a residency as part of CUBELab 2011- two runners up will be awarded £250 each. The shortlisted entries will form part of an exhibition at CUBE later this year.

Please post submissions with dimensions and a brief statement of how you feel your practice relates to the urban built environment to ‘CUBEOPEN 2010′, CUBE, 113-115 Portland Street, Manchester, M1 6DW or email submissions to: CUBEOpen@gmail.com.

The CUBEOpen exhibition will take place from 18th November 2010 to 22nd January 2011.

For further details about the competition and to download an application form click here.

Open City, the organisation formerly known as Open House, presents another fantastic programme for this year’s OPEN HOUSE LONDON weekend which takes place on 18th and 19th September.

The event, now in its 17th year is the capital’s greatest architectural showcase and there are over 700 buildings, neighbourhood walks, architects’ talks, cycle tours and more all over London to choose from - from major landmarks such as BT Tower, to small private homes and everything in between.

The Open House initiative is a simple but powerful concept: hundreds of great buildings of all types and periods open up their doors to all, completely for FREE. It is a truly city-wide celebration of the buildings, places and neighbourhoods where we live, work and play, and is your opportunity to get out and get under the skin of London’s amazing architecture.

For the first time BT Tower with unrivalled views across London from its famous revolving 34th floor, will be
open to members of the public during Open House London Weekend. With this year’s theme ‘Our buildings, our neighbourhoods, our city’ Open House London tells the story of amazing architecture in every London neighbourhood. Londoners will find out more about issues that are relevant to their local area - from the design of homes to the impact of climate change, and the role of architects and contemporary design in revitalising places.

The Open House London 2010 programme guide can be bought from: www.open-city.org.uk/shop

Further information about Open House London 2010 at: www.openhouselondon.org.uk

As part of Heritage Week, The Irish Landmark Trust’s self-catering holiday homes in the Republic of Ireland will be open to the public on Sunday 29th August from 10am - 4pm.

Heritage Day takes place once a year to allow members of the public and the surrounding community to explore the heritage gems that are our properties. Many of these wonderful self catering holiday homes are prominent historic landmarks in their local town and Open Day provides the perfect opportunity for local people to learn about hidden wonders in their area.

As a registered charity, The Irish Landmark Trust relies on the support of guests to holiday in these restored historical hideaways. In turn you guests help to secure the future of Ireland’s built heritage as these buildings would otherwise have been lost without the intervention of The Irish Landmark Trust.

This free event is an opportunity to experience life at a lighthouse, castle or gatelodge!

Locations open to visitors:

NEW Batty Langley Lodge, Castletown Estate, Co Kildare

Wicklow Head Lighthouse, Dunbur Head, Co Wicklow

No. 25 Eustace St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

The Merrion Mews & Stables, No. 63 Fitzwilliam Lane, Dublin 2

Clomantagh Castle, Freshford, Co Kilkenny

Termon House, Dungloe, Co Donegal

Salterbridge Gatelodge, Cappoquin, Co Waterford

Galley Head Lightkeepers Houses, Clonakility, Co Cork

Annaghmore Schoolhouse, Colloney, Co Sligo

Castletown House, Round House & Gate House, Celbridge, Co Kildare

* Go to www.irishlandmark.com for further information

* The Merrion Mews & Stables and No. 25 Eustace St. will also be open to the public as part of OPEN HOUSE DUBLIN 2010 over the weekend of 9th-10th October. www.architecturefoundation.ie/openhouse

Architecture Republic is opening its AAI award-winning project The Plastic House as an exhibition space from 27th to 29th August 2010.

At the AAI awards assessment the project raised the question of whether the Plastic House is an art installation or a house. The architects have decided to reinforce this controversy and turn the house as a temporary exhibition space, raising the eternal discussion on the boundaries between Art and Architecture.

Invited and selected artists will exhibit one piece of their work over in a space of their choice within the house. Participating artists include John Graham, Paul Murnaghan, Aoife Desmond, Gregory Dunn, David Folan, Roseanne Lynch, Sharon McCarthy and René Ettirgam.

The exhibition entitled ‘Right Place, Right Space?’ will be open to the public on Friday 27th (from 7-9pm) and on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th August from 12pm-6pm in the Plastic House, 26 Spencer Street North, East Wall, Dublin 3.

For more information see www.facebook.com/architecturerepublic or contact office@architecture-republic.com.

* Architectural tours of The Plastic House will be among the highlights of OPEN HOUSE DUBLIN 2010, which takes place from 7th-10th October. Keep checking www.architecturefoundation.ie/openhouse for details of tour dates and times.

of de Blacam and Meagher is Ireland’s exhibition at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition to be held this autumn in Venice. The exhibition will address de Blacam and Meagher Architects’ built and unbuilt portfolio of the last 33 years and seeks to communicate the cultural landscape of Ireland through their seminal work.

This year the 12th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia runs from 29 August - 21 November (previews 26, 27, 28 August) and is widely regarded as the most important event on the international architecture calendar, attracting more than 130,000 visitors from around the globe over 12 weeks.

A Culture Ireland initiative in partnership with the Arts Council of Ireland, the exhibition is commissioned by the Irish Architecture Foundation under the directorship of Nathalie Weadick.

The exhibition concept takes the form of a book unbound, containing volumes of drawing and photographic reproductions from the archives, contemporary photography and readings of the work with commentaries. The commentaries come from a cross-generational collective, who share an encounter with the architecture of de Blacam and Meagher. Their commentaries offer a contemporary and critical view of the practice and its positioning in the wider context of Irish architecture.

Nine thousand volumes are presented as paper stacks on oak joinery in the eighteenth century oratory of the Irish monk St.Gall near Piazza San Marco. The installation within the oratory acts as both archive and reading room. The public are invited to read the work and take it away as a folio. Over time the stacks are depleted by the actions of the public, until finally we are left only with the furnishings. The archive will, in essence
be consumed.

of de Blacam and Meagher is curated by Tom dePaor, Peter Maybury, Alice Casey and Cian Deegan. The exhibition has two speeds; one is the immediate visual impact created by imposing paper stacks, scaled to physically and theatrically occupy the space; the second a deep and enveloping engagement of an archive, encouraging the act of reading and observation, research and questioning.

of de Blacam and Meagher is being presented in the oratory of Chiesa di San Gallo, Campo San Gallo, San Marco 1103, Venezia.

29 AUGUST - 21 NOVEMBER 2010
TUESDAY - SUNDAY: 10.00-18.00

www.irelandatvenice.ie

The National Campaign for the Arts have organised a National Day of Action for Arts and Culture on Friday 17 September 2010, when arts workers in constituencies around the country will be meeting with their local TDs. Amidst a nationwide media campaign, arts workers be discussing with their local representatives to the fundamental importance of the arts to Ireland’s economic recovery. You can get involved, by join the arts workers group where you are registered to vote and by taking part in the meetings and events on the day.

Watch the advert below to see why you should get involved:

UNBUILDING is an experimental visual arts project composed of 11 new commissions, an architectural intervention, screenings, international guests, local discussion and off-site events. The exhibition is essentially a rotating exhibition event, based mainly in a specially designed space - a significant timber structure designed by architects Gráinne Shaffrey and Tomás O Connor, inserted into Mermaid Arts Centre’s gallery space in Bray.

The programme is organised to host individual exhibitions of new work by participating artists including Bea McMahon, Pauline Cummins, Tamsin Snow, Felicity Clear, Cliona Harmey and Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh - over an eight week period. James Merrigan’s off-site installation ‘Fonts for Television’, runs from 24 September to 17 October at Block E, Civic Plaza (at the back of the Mermaid Arts Centre).

A programme of Double Bills that pitch artists with art writers who have been inspirational to the Unbuilding group will take place on Sunday 17th October and includes Francis McKee with Heather Peak and Ivan Morrison and Jesse Jones with Brian Dillon. It will be an occasion also to see, the Irish premier of Jesse Jones’s film The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany, 2009, recently screened at the Istanbul Biennial.

Unbuilding has been developed from a Wicklow County Council initiative. Unbuilding has received an Arts Council Visual Art Project Award, 2010, and is supported by ArtLinks, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray.

For more information on the exhibition programme and on participating artists, architects and curators go to: www.unbuildingproject.com