Bóthar Buí – 31 May

A consideration of the house Robin Walker built for his family and friends on the remote Beara Peninsula of Cork, from 1970–72. Called “Bótharbuí” (meaning ‘yellow road’ in Irish), the site comprises a settlement of three ancient and three new structures, on a steep wooded slope of several acres, facing across the salt-water Kemare River to the Reeks of Kerry. In the 1970s and 1980s Bótharbuí was a country salon, where the worlds of Dublin politics rubbed shoulders with the artistic community in an informal yet grand manner. The function and conception of the house, in Simon Walker’s words reflects the wide ranging interests of the Walkers as “patrons of Irish design and active protagonists in the fabrication of a modern Irish cultural identity”.

A short film on Bothar Bui by Heathcote & Barr featuring the late ILS President Seamus Heaney reading the poems he wrote about Bothar Bui and about Robin Walker, his friend, the architect.
Created for the Venice Biennale Architecture 2008

Speakers:
Patrick Lynch
Born outside London in 1969, the son of an Irish builder. Director of Lynch architects, winners of The Young Architects of the Year Award 2005. Patrick studied at Liverpool University and Cambridge University and holds a Master of Philosophy degree in the History and Philosophy of Architecture. He has taught at The Architectural Association, UCD, DIT, and London Metropolitan University. In 2008 he exhibited in the Irish pavilion at The Venice Biennale, and he will be exhibiting the work of Lynch architects in the official selection of the Venice Biennale, summer 2012.

Simon Walker
Simon Walker – an architect in Dublin where he is the recipient of several awards and commendations. His work, and his writing about architecture, has been published extensively in Ireland and abroad. He also works as a furniture designer and has been involved in the curation of several exhibitions of architecture and design, including Designers Block in London, 2003. He exhibited along with Patrick Lynch at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2008. He currently teaches at the University of Limerick, at DIT and ENSAN Nantes.

David Heathcote
David Heathcote – a freelance cultural historian. He has written, published, exhibited and broadcast work on Modern Architecture and Guide Books. He is currently working on an international history of motorways and a project to develop a new concept of cultural environment stewardship via a new charity established to develop the idea in Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. With his collaborator Sue Barr he has made books and films about architecture, infrastructure and landscape, including Bótharbuí, a film for the Irish pavilion at the 2008 Venice Biennale. They are currently working on a film for this year’s Venice Biennale on public space in London. David works part time as a lecturer/tutor for Middlesex University, The RCA and the V&A.