Yvonne Farrell (1951) and Shelley McNamara (1952) met during their collegiate studies at the School of Architecture at Academy Higher Dublin (UCD). They studied nether rationalist architects who had newly arrived to claiming the preexisting thought and culture of the institution. Upon graduating in 1976, they were each offered the unique opportunity to teach at UCD, where they connected to brainwash until 2006, and were appointed as adjunct professors in 2015. "Teaching for us has always been a parallel reality," comments Farrell. "And information technology'south a way of trying to distill our experience and gift information technology to other generations coming forth then that they actually play a part in the growing of that culture. And then it's a 2 way thing, nosotros learn from students and hopefully students learn from us."

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara
Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell while students at UCD, 1974

In 1978, Farrell and McNamara, forth with three others, established Grafton Architects, named afterwards the street of their original office to prioritize the beingness of place, rather than individuals. Significant projects have included North Rex Street Housing (Dublin, Ireland 2000); Urban Plant of Republic of ireland, University Higher Dublin (Dublin, Ireland 2002); Solstice Arts Eye (Navan, Ireland 2007); Loreto Community Schoolhouse (Milford, Ireland 2006); Offices for the Department of Finance (Dublin, Ireland 2009); and Medical School, University of Composition (Limerick, Ireland 2012).

Reflecting on their childhoods, McNamara recalls, "My awakening to the experience of architecture was a visit as a child to an enormous 18th-century house on the beautiful main street of the metropolis of Composition where my aunt lived. Her husband had a beautiful mahogany lined chemist's shop shop on the ground floor, and she ran a little Montessori school in a room over the entrance hall. This aroused a sense of wonder as to what a house could be and I remember vividly the awareness of space and calorie-free, which was an absolute revelation to me."

Medical School, University of Limerick
Medical Schoolhouse, University of Limerick, photo courtesy of Dennis Gilbert
Institut Mines Télécom
Institut Mines Télécom, photograph courtesy of Alexandre Soria

Farrell shares, "One of my primeval memories is of lying on my back on a cushion on the floor underneath the babe grand piano we had at home. While my mother played the piano higher up me, I retrieve existence aware of the wonderful space filled with music under that walnut instrument. I grew upwardly in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Republic of ireland—a town of streets and squares, stone warehouses, crafted houses and a culvert that cut a wonderful line into the landscape. An oak forest at the edge of the town had a carpet of bluebells every spring. Nature felt very shut."

Of the v original partners, only Farrell and McNamara stayed. Their kickoff international commission away from their native Ireland transpired 25 years later, with Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan (Milan, Italy 2008), which was awarded Globe Building of the Twelvemonth at the 2008 inaugural World Architectural Festival in Barcelona. Other international projects have since followed, with tantamount acclamation from the architectural community. Academy Campus UTEC Lima (Lima, Peru 2015) was awarded the countdown RIBA International Prize 2016 by the Regal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Institut Mines Télécom (Paris, France 2019) and Université Toulouse i Capitole, School of Economics (Toulouse, French republic 2019) were recently completed.

Universita Luigi Bocconi
Universita Luigi Bocconi, photograph courtesy of Alexandre Soria

They are Fellows of The Royal Found of the Architects of Ireland and International Honorary Fellows of RIBA. They have previously held the Kenzo Tange chair at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (2010) and the Louis Kahn chair at Yale University (2011) and have taught at institutions including École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, and lectured internationally.

Grafton Architects was the recipient of the 2012 Biennale di Venezia Argent King of beasts Laurels for the exhibition, Architecture equally New Geography. Farrell and McNamara were appointed as 2018 co-curators for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, with the theme FREESPACE. They were awarded the RIAI James Gandon Medal for Lifetime Accomplishment in Compages by the RIAI in 2019 and the RIBA Imperial Golden Medal in 2020. Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara Biography

Selected Works

Declaration

Jury Commendation

Images for Download

2020 Announcement Videos