The Reason of Towns, an exhibition with Valerie Mulvin, is touring to Architecture Fringe, a Scottish festival of design, architecture and built environment, on 6-22 June, supported by Culture Ireland.

This international stop on The Reason of Towns tour offers an opportunity for new learning and knowledge exchange. It will be a locus of discussion about shared or distinct urban traditions, anticipating new potentials of reciprocal exchange through architecture between Scotland and Ireland. Responding directly to the theme of Architecture Fringe in 2025, Reciprocity, The Reason of Towns reveals the reciprocity between people and the places they build, and how thereafter places build them. Addressing issues of climate, heritage, housing, vacancy, and the transformative potential of professional and community practice, the exhibition reminds that all such things are connected and are best considered together.

The Reason of Towns is an engaging and ambitious exhibition by the IAF of the work of one of Ireland’s most renowned architects, Valerie Mulvin of McCullough Mulvin Architects. The exhibition is designed by AP+E with communication design by Art Department. The exhibition has toured to six counties and venues in Ireland and won an Architectural Association of Ireland Award in April, a first for the IAF.

Open daily from 11am-5pm, the exhibition features models, drawings, texts, and a series of slides, notes, personal memorabilia, building fragments, and three specially commissioned films. “The Space Is the Thing” is a spatial-portrait of Clones, Youghal, Dungarvan and Templemore, describing their ‘ordinary-spectacular’ town forms. “Of Pride and Place” documents ten optimistic stories of action and change by architects working in towns across Ireland. Finally, the third film is an interview with Valerie Mulvin by broadcaster Vincent Woods, reflecting on her work and the subject of the exhibition.

Programme of Events:

Scotland + Ireland, 7 June, 11am-1pm at The Briggait

IAF Director Emmett Scanlon will be in conversation with President of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), Karen Anderson, exploring stories of reciprocity across and between Scotland and Ireland. Chaired by Andy Summers, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Architecture Fringe.

What is architecture’s reciprocal relationship with society? In thinking about our collective public life, what presence do architects have, and what roles do they play within the consciousness of the general public? By sharing stories inspired by their professional and lived experience, Karen and Emmett will range across topics touching upon expanded practices in architecture, community engagement, public construction and national building cultures.

The Reason of Towns – Exhibition Tour, 7 June, 1-2pm at The Briggait

Immediately after the Scotland + Ireland conversation, Valerie Mulvin and Emmett Scanlon will give a guided tour of the exhibition.

Booking: Both events are free to book through the links above.

The Reason of Towns, an exhibition with Valerie Mulvin, is funded by the Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The exhibition tour in Ireland is additionally funded by the Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaíon. The Talks of the Town programme, conducted as part of the Ireland tour, was funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Government of Ireland, with additional funding by Creative Ireland/Tipperary County Council. The tour to Glasgow is funded by Culture Ireland.

Exhibition Team:

Architect: Valerie Mulvin, McCullough Mulvin Architects

Curator: Emmett Scanlon, Irish Architecture Foundation

Producer: Felix Hunter Green, Irish Architecture Foundation

Exhibition Design: Laurence Lord and Jeffrey Bolhuis, AP+E

Visual Identity and Design: Eamonn Hall, ART DEPT

Exhibition Build and Installation: Sara Murphy and Frank Prendergast, Space Forms

Film – “The Space Is the Thing” produced by Martin Danneels and Geoff Power, Red Pepper Productions

Film – “Of Pride and Place” produced by Shane Hogan, Areaman

Film – Interview with Valerie Mulvin and Vincent Woods produced by Shane Hogan, Areaman

Photo: The Reason of Towns in John’s Hall, Birr, Co. Offaly. Photo by Ste Murray.