John Tuomey; Sheila O’Donnell
By comparing and combining two projects of completely different scale, location and use, in a kind of ‘Siamese twin’ form, O’Donnell and Tuomey forcibly demonstrate the wonderful capacity of architecture to transcend scale, to encapsulate values spanning through time and distance, and to feel absolutely appropriate to their use, and to their diverse cultural and geographical context.
The cross-fertilisation of cultures in architectural language is also expressed in this exhibit. As practicing architects, we are free to draw from the rich legacy of the architecture of the world, both ancient and contemporary. The task is how to adapt and fine-tune these influences, to merge and weave them into the local language, to refresh and renew the familiar by absorbing the energy and inspiration of the unfamiliar.
These architects have developed a unique skill in this ability to make work which is both local and universal. A small picturesque project in the west of Ireland sits comfortably in the big landscape of Connemara. A big City of Opera in Shanghai forms a new landscape at a bend in the Huangpu River. Both have an innate sense of craft, a richness of form and material and above all else, a sense of belonging.
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