REGISTER - TOM DE PAOR

Register - Architecture & Landscape

In this episode Andrew Clancy interviews the architect and educator Tom de Paor. Tom graduated from UCD in 1991, and established his practice that same year. Since this time he has cut a singular path, establishing a clear position through work which seeks to communicate spatially and in detail regardless of programme or location. In the work process narrative, reference, and material are frequently interwoven and infected by sensitivity to context, the material experience of construction and light. Underpinned by a conviction in the creative design process the built projects illustrate a concern with perception, construction and tradition. Projects such as the N3 pavilion for the 1999 Venice Biennale capture this attitude in its most essential and pure form, but it is found no less in other works which range from infrastructure, to public and domestic spaces. This diversity of scope and type of work is captured by the practices current workload which includes completing a remarkable cinema in Galway (Picture Palas), an ongoing project to transform and a farmyard landscape near Greystones (Wyngates), and the design of glassware and other objects. Our conversation covers a lot of ground, from the value of the crit, to the nature of design process, and the perplexing mystery of Siza's expansion joints. Tom teaches in the Harvard Graduate School of Design. www.depaor.com/ --- Credits: Register is brought to you by the Department of Architecture & Landscape at Kingston University. fada.kingston.ac.uk/al/ Head of Department: Eleanor Suess Register Editor: Timothy Smith Interviewer: Andrew Clancy Audio: Justin Howard