We are pleased to announce that (dw) dean black has been awarded the inaugural Irish Architecture Foundation/Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency in Paris for 2024. 

With significant interest in the new residency since its announcement in November and with many strong applications reflecting the contemporary range and array of modes of architecture practice, competition was fierce. Three architects were shortlisted for final consideration.

The shortlisted candidates were (dw) dean black, Ben Weir, and Jill McNair. 

Dean receives a month-long stay in the wonderful CCI in Paris. The residency is jointly funded by the Irish Architecture Foundation and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, supported by a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

During their time at CCI, Dean will be working on their design-research project ‘Architectures of Abundance’, which juxtaposes ‘agri-tech-tures’ of ‘the abattoir’ and ‘the Irish acre’. The project aims to dismantle capitalist-colonial narratives of ‘scarcity’ in contemporary food systems by revitalising indigenous cartographic-architectural studies of ‘abundance’ to raise possibilities of resource redistribution. French philosophical and Irish embodied knowledge are central to this work, and, as such, Dean will be largely engaging with the writings of French philosopher Georges Bataille and archival material from the world’s first public slaughterhouse, La Villette, during their residency.

Thank you to everyone who applied for the residency 2024, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more opportunities for architects coming in 2024.

Biography:

(dw) dean black (he/they) is a queer Tyrone born, Belfast based architectural writer-designer. Their work explores the intersection of agricultural landscapes with architecture, ecology, queer studies, and posthumanism. 

Their recent projects include ‘Clatchen’ (National Museums NI x Portview), ‘Essilage: On the Etiquette of Cutting Grass’ (Outburst Queer Arts), ‘Bent Over Straight Lines’ (Sam’s Eden x MAC Belfast), and ‘Glamour and Gloom’ (Ulster Architectural Heritage). 

A finalist of the latest Future Island-Island open design competition, Dean will participate in a group residency on Rathlin Island later this year. They have also recently been accepted to commence their doctoral studies this September at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where they hope to pursue their project ‘BrolierLands: The Hen, the Henwife, and the Architectural Hex’.

Photo: Portrait of (dw) dean black by Cathal Tunney.