Running Saturday 12 April to Saturday 24 May in Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, as part of a national tour across Ireland, The Reason of Towns is an engaging and provocative exhibition by the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF) of the work of one of Ireland’s most renowned architects, Valerie Mulvin. 

Curated, commissioned and produced by the IAF, this touring exhibition features models, drawings, texts, and a series of slides, notes, personal memorabilia, building fragments and more. Together these reflect just a fraction of three decades of work on the subject of towns by Mulvin and her practice McCullough Mulvin Architects, gathered and published in Mulvin’s book, Approximate Formality, which was a starting point for the exhibition.

In addition, The Reason of Towns exhibition presents three specially commissioned films. “The Space Is the Thing” is a spatial-portrait of Clones, Youghal, Dungarvan and Templemore, describing their ‘ordinary-spectacular’ 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.

On national tour since August 2024, The Reason of Towns has been on display and engaging communities in Birr, Co Offaly; Belmullet, Co Mayo; Trim, Co Meath; Dublin city; and Thurles, Co Tipperary. Skibbereen will be its final stop in the Republic of Ireland. In each location, the exhibition is hosted in partnership with local arts organisations and venues and acts as a public occasion to tell and retell true stories, lost traditions and possible futures for Irish towns and the people who live in them, fostering civic pride and promoting local action.

Emmett Scanlon, Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation, said:

“Valerie Mulvin is a remarkable and tenacious architect. She has immersed herself in the subject and object of the Irish town as part of national and global urban traditions for decades. The team and I at the IAF are so proud to have made this exhibition in her company, and to be taking her work as an architect and all that it reveals right into the heart of town communities. The IAF is determined to support policy makers and local communities to work together to build more sustainable, inclusive and beautiful futures in towns across Ireland. 

“From our work in towns we know there is a strong appetite to address issues of dereliction, vacancy, and repair, and for what is often sincere local pride of place to be made real, to be translated into high quality buildings and public spaces for all. Exhibitions of architecture are unique in that they can be beautiful, revealing and engaging for audiences, yet they can also act as agents of change. They provide a constructive space for dialogue and imagination and sow the seeds of change. I urge everyone in Skibbereen to visit this exhibition and enjoy the work of one of Ireland’s most respected architects.”

Valerie Mulvin, Director of McCullough Mulvin Architects and whose work is the subject of the exhibition, said:

“It’s a great honour to be working with the Irish Architecture Foundation to share my excitement and curiosity about the extraordinary character of our towns. In The Reason of Towns I want to celebrate their geometry, their materiality and their potential and to talk about the particular and the universal, to rediscover these great spaces, underpinned by the material qualities of their stones and walls and yards. In my book Approximate Formality, the starting point of this exhibition, I proposed a way of seeing Irish towns as part of European urban culture. 

“Woven through the exhibition is evidence – in thirty years of projects and buildings – of our ambition as architects to inspire, re-invent and communicate the value of formal and built grain and fabric in our towns. With The Reason of Towns, I hope we can start a conversation about the value of the local, about using and reusing everything that already exists, and what it really means to share space in towns, among those unique environments and communities.”

The Reason of Towns will be at Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre from Saturday 12 April to Saturday 24 May 2025.

The self-guided exhibition is free to attend on a drop-in basis. It will be of interest to local residents and business people, school groups, members of heritage and environmental committees, town teams, planners, and local authorities. 

Funders

The Reason of Towns exhibition is funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The exhibition tour is additionally funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon. The Talks of the Town programme in 2024 was funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Government of Ireland. Talks of the Town in Thurles was supported by Creative Ireland through Tipperary County Council.

Exhibition Team

Exhibition Design by AP+E, Laurence Lord, Jeffrey Bolhuis

Visual Identity and Design by ART DEPT, Eamonn Hall

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

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

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

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

Photos:

1. The Reason of Towns in The Source, Thurles. Photo by Ste Murray.

2. “The Space Is the Thing” film, The Reason of Towns in The Swift, Trim. Photo by Ste Murray.

3. Valerie Mulvin at The Reason of Towns at This Is Where We Are Now, Charlemont Walk, Dublin. Photo by Ste Murray.

4. The Reason of Towns in The Source, Thurles. Photo by IAF.