Talk at the Table - Lá sa gclaí

Lá sa gclaí -a Bayanihan Project led by Aine Dunne, Brian Ó Curnáin, Davidhenry Oghenetejiri Uyovbisere, Daniel Fehily & Eduard Valenzuela
About this Event

Bayanihan returns to Architecture at the Edge with an evening centred on the idea of the wall, not simply as a boundary, but as one of architecture’s most fundamental social elements.

Over two weeks at the European Architecture Students Assembly (EASA), twenty participants came together to construct a rammed earth wall while exploring contemporary ways of making, sharing skills, stories and experiences along the way. The project began with an interest in the role of the wall within the Irish landscape. Across Ireland, walls divide fields, measure land and mark ownership, but they can also become places of encounter: somewhere to shelter, rest, meet a neighbour, tell stories or gather. As the wall grew, it was continually inhabited. At different heights it became a bench, a table, a screen and, ultimately, an outdoor classroom.

The construction was accompanied by a series of collective activities, including a communal meal, storytelling, performances and a film screening. In this way, the wall became more than a structure; it became a piece of civic infrastructure shaped by the people who used it.

The permanent wall remains in Waterford. At Architecture at the Edge, its temporary timber formwork and supporting structures will be reassembled at Printworks Gallery, creating a new architectural stage and an echo of the original project. Rather than simply exhibiting documentation, the installation will be activated throughout the evening through shared food, film, music and conversation, compressing two weeks of collective occupation into a single night.

Alongside the installation, a public discussion will explore the cultural, political and spatial role of walls today- from the Irish field boundary to contested borders, and from shared civic infrastructure to architectures of exclusion. The evening asks how architecture might move beyond the production of objects to create the conditions for collective life, gathering and exchange.

Panellists Include:

Mary Laheen was one of five creative directors of the Ireland pavilion exhibition, at the 18th Venice Architettura Biennale 2023, titled In Search of Hy-Brasil.

& Celine Topsakal- Designer, Resolve Collective

Bios *

Brian Ó Curnáin is a Galway native and architectural graduate from UCD. He spent time at TU Delft and has worked in a number of architectural practices in Dublin. He

is co-curator of Bayanihan, a community-focused workshop project that was awarded the Thornton Education Trust Prize in 2025. He is a recipient of the John Meagher Bursary, has been nominated for the Bruce Short Prize, and has exhibited work in the As an gCeo exhibition. He invigilated at the Venice Biennale in 2023 and won the UCD Architecture writing prize in 2026.

Eduard Valenzuela is an M.Arch student at Central Saint Martins in London. He completed his undergraduate studies at UCD before working at design-led practice Nooma Studio. His work focuses on community-led design, public realm, and temporary spatial activations, aiming to bring marginalised voices into the Irish architectural landscape.

He co-leads the Bayanihan project as part of the Architecture At The Edge Festival. The project was awarded the Thornton Education Trust Award. In 2024, he was a scholar at the British School at Rome and recently took part in the School of Filo residency in Northern Italy.