Our long-running international talks series New Now Next made a welcome return in 2020 with a series of truly inspirational live, virtual talks by a fascinating line-up of world-renowned architects.

Dynamic New York-based design studio called SO-IL kicked off the series on Thursday, 29 October. Founders Florian Indenburg and Jing Liu were joined online by moderator James Taylor-Foster, Curator of Architecture and Design at ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, in Stockholm. SO-IL creates structures that establish new cultures, institutions and relationships around the world. The internationally recognised architecture and design firm are known for developing an iconic structure for the Frieze Art Fair in New York in 2012, the shrink-wrapped gallery façade of Storefront for Art and Architecture in 2015 and for designing the Home Futures exhibition at the Design Museum in London in 2019.

Our second speaker on Thursday 19 November was Japanese architect Akihisa Hirata, considered to be one of the most influential Japanese architects today and widely recognised for his multi-story “Tree-ness” house in Tokyo. Hirata’s practice creates essential architecture by harnessing the laws of nature that govern the organic activities of plants, animals and meteorological phenomena. Akihisa was joined by moderator Pedro Gadanho, architect, writer and curator, and former Director of the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon. 

The current series concluded on 11 February 2021 with a lecture by Toni L. Griffin, planning expert and founder of Just City Lab at Harvard School of Design. The Just City Lab is an applied research platform that investigates the ways design can have a positive impact on addressing the conditions of injustice in cities. Griffin’s practice designs transformative social and spatial urban revitalisation frameworks, rooted in addressing historic and current disparities involving race, class and generation. Toni was joined by moderator Michelle Joan Wilkinson, Museum Curator (Architecture and Design), National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

New Now Next is made possible through sponsorship from Arup, and all events are free. The IAF is principally funded by the Arts Council, and further funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the OPW, which enables us to deliver projects like New Now Next.

Previous New Now Next speakers include: Sir David Adjaye (UK/GH), Sou Fujimoto (JP), Dorte Mandrup (DK), Winy Maas (NL), Peter Bishop (UK), Amale Androas and DSan Wood of Work AC (USA), Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects (IE), Karolina Keyzer (SE), Jeanne Gang (US), Tatiana Bilbao (Mexico), COBE (DK), Urban Agency (IE), Oliver Wainwright (UK), Clancy Moore (IE), TAKA (IE), Steve Larkin (IE), Hall McKnight (NI), Ole Scheeren (DE) Kunle Adeyemi (NG), Andy Groarke (UK), Minsuk Cho (KR), Samuli Woolsten (FI), Laurence Lord (IE), Lucy Jones (IE). All events were delivered in Dublin and one event with Irish architects was delivered in London at the Design Museum (2013-2015).

You can view recordings of some of these previous talks by clicking here