The Alignment of a Manner of Architectural Practice and its Architecture:
Rural Houses in the North of Ireland by McGonigle McGrath Architects

A PhD by Practice by Kieran McGonigle.

The research is concerned with the identification of the latent and unique contribution to knowledge embedded in the architectural practice of McGonigle McGrath architects.

The intent of the research was to reflect on the nature of my architectural practice with a view to gaining an insight into how I work, how this is coincident with the direction of the outcome architecture, and how a deeper understanding of this would expand and influence my future practice. Explication of this latent knowledge is not only valuable to the individual practitioner, but also the wider architectural community.

The chosen field of study is a collection of rural houses in the north of Ireland by McGonigle McGrath architects, rural housing being a central theme in the practice, the underlying area of work being the sublimation and reinterpretation of a pre-existing habitation and landscape context into successful and relevant places to live.

The research comprises a series of five individual essays each investigating a separate strand of research, and a conclusion and identification of the contribution to knowledge.

The essays are summarised as follows;

Essay 1: The Splayed Reveal

This essay investigates the relationship between interior and exterior space through the articulation of the window reveal and frame, and considers how the splayed reveal offers an insight into a series of spatial techniques and devices which characterise the work of the practice, including observations on light, visual field, perception of thickness, composition of external appearance, diagonality, and ultimately gesture to particular landscapes.

Essay 2: Transparency and Order

This essay investigates transparency both as a technique in the making of spaces and as an outcome of the resulting buildings, through the abstract devices of layering, overlap, spatial depth and diagonality, and looks at how developments in the understanding of grain, and the employment of grids and geometry, have become controlling devices in the search for an order in the work.

Essay 3: Landscape as Line, Landscape as Picture

This essay considers two readings of landscape; landscape as line both extracted from mappings, and the agency this gives our work, and landscape as picture, an emotional and visual representation of place influenced by the north coast of Ireland and by the sublime landscape of a forest cemetery in Sweden, explicated through a single project in an immersive parkland setting.

Essay 4: Form and Ground: The Black Barn

This essay investigates the connections in our work between building profile and historic and found structures in the landscape of the north of Ireland, and looks at how a developing attitude to topography through an understanding of site has led to a relationship between form and ground which defines the work of the practice in rural locations.

Essay 5: Relationships

This essay provides a background to who I am and to my practice, McGonigle McGrath architects. It reflects on relationships with those within my practice, with my partner of almost 30 years, Aidan McGrath, and with my staff, and it also reflects on relationships with those external to my practice, our clients, and the constructors who build our projects. These are my patterns of public behaviour.

For more information or queries on the PhD, please contact studio@mcgoniglemcgrath.com.