'Care and consideration: on the work of Gerry Cahill Architects'

TYPE invites you to join us in celebrating our new book, Care and consideration: on the work of Gerry Cahill Architects. Attendance is free but booking is essential: please register here.

Gerry Cahill is an Irish architect whose built work is primarily in housing, and primarily in Dublin. Most of Cahill’s homes were delivered with local authorities, voluntary organisations, or approved housing bodies, and his buildings, teaching, and writings represent an ongoing investigation of what home means, and how we can live in cities.

With his team at Gerry Cahill Architects (GCA), and key collaborators such as Bernard Thompson of the National Association of Building Cooperatives and Sr Stanislaus Kennedy of the Focus Housing Association, Cahill provided thousands of high-quality homes, many of which were for vulnerable groups, had low budgets, and were on sites considered ‘undevelopable’. GCA also designed highly insulated, cheap-to-heat buildings and worked with existing structures long before either of those practices were commonplace. Cahill’s projects – even those from thirty, forty years ago – remain relevant to contemporary Ireland, with its deepening housing crisis, widespread dereliction, and rapidly changing physical identity. Through his teaching at UCD, Gerry Cahill influenced the work and lives of hundreds of architects practising in Ireland and elsewhere.

The work of GCA has, until now, been under-published. Through a combination of invited essays and GCA’s archival photographs, texts, and drawings, Care and consideration examines key GCA projects through a contemporary lens, recording their genesis, quality, and influence, and asking what lessons they can offer for today.

Eds. Eimear Arthur and Michael K. Hayes

With contributions from:

Gerry Cahill

Eddie Conroy

Antóin Doyle

Emily Jones

Merlo Kelly

Frank McDonald

Dr Ellen Rowley

Maggie Stephenson.

Design by Peter Maybury.

The book is available for sale on the night, and at type.ie, the RIAI Bookshop, and The Library Project.

Care and consideration: on the work of Gerry Cahill Architects is supported by The Arts Council.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square East, Dublin 2, Ireland