Waterford Festival of Architecture – Behind Closed Doors 17th October 2015

The Waterford Festival of Architecture took place in association with ID2015, Waterford City and County Council and the Department of Architecture WIT on 17th October. A group of thirty plus got a sneak preview of John’s College before its completion later this month.

The festival promotes design excellence, construction and educational sectors,  dialogue and awareness in the local community, and endeavours to increase appreciation of, and demand for, exemplary architecture, interior and landscape design.

The theme of this year’s festival was ‘Origins’ and the WFA hoped to ‘dig deep’ into Waterford’s local archaeology and historic buildings as well as showcasing new and developing projects to help create appreciation and understanding for both how was started and where we are going.

This year the festival launched a new event named ‘Behind Closed Doors’. The aim of this yearly event was to celebrate Waterford’s rich and varied architecture by creating opportunities to visit properties, not normally open to the public.  There was a range of styles and locations including recently completed examples of contemporary design as well as historic buildings and ancient sites.

Respond was asked if Johns College would participate in this years’ event. St.John’s College, located on John’s Hill, Waterford, is a landmark facility,  which will open shortly supplying accommodation and care of older people in Waterford. With over 100 years of use as a theological college, John’s College has huge historical importance to Waterford people and was a worthy addition to the festival’s  ‘Origins’ theme.

The tour was co-ordinated by Aoife Grogan and Rose Ryall from Waterford City and County Council. Thank you to Tom Power General Manager (Respond Support) for the opening introduction, David Kelly who gave everyone a historical overview and Richard Vaughan Project Architect with Respond for speaking about the challenges encountered during the restoration of this historical building.

More details the events which took place as part of WFA can be see at http://wfa.ie/

Posted:  22nd October 2015