The second year of this residency partnership between the Irish Architecture Foundation and the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI), the competition was once again very strong, reflecting both the diverse range of architectural practice and engagement across the island of Ireland and the appetite among architects for this kind of time, space and support. 

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

In his application, Loay was very clear and compelling about how the residency in Paris could support his developing practice in architecture. Through the lens of spatial justice, Loay’s research investigates how neoliberal agendas — driven by international capitalist organisations — fuel injustices in Ireland and globally through the privatisation and control of common goods, including homes, land, and public spaces. While in Paris, his study will explore the link between Ireland’s housing crisis and these privatisation forces. Additionally, it will investigate the complicity of these same organisations in state-backed militarisation of spaces in countries accused of human rights violations. By engaging with Justice Spatiale | Spatial Justice and others during his residency in Paris, this project bridges Irish and global perspectives to raise awareness of interconnected struggles for spatial and socioeconomic justice worldwide.

Bio:

Loay Dieck is a Palestinian architect committed to climate justice and social equity. He holds an M.Sc. in Architecture, Urbanism, and Climate Action from University College Dublin. His Master’s research explored the intersections of the built environment, nature, politics, and economics, with a thesis examining resilience strategies for environmental justice in historical Palestinian cooperatives.

In practice, he has worked on community-driven projects, co-designing urban spaces with UN-Habitat in Palestine and A Playful City in Ireland. Based in Cork, currently, he is part of Arup Ireland, contributing to large-scale projects while dedicating his personal time to reconstruction initiatives in Gaza as a member of Architects for Gaza.

About the Centre Culturel Irlandais:

For over two decades, the Centre Culturel Irlandais’ annual residency programme has offered great opportunities to over 450 artists of all disciplines. Tapping into the resources of the CCI and the city of Paris has been described as “transformational” by many former residents. For the CCI, the residencies are an important means of supporting artists and showcasing Ireland’s dynamic contemporary culture on an international stage.

About IAF gapLab:

In 2024, we introduced our first strategic initiative, gapLab. gapLab is a new graduate architect programme which aligns with our core mission to grow the desire for architecture in Ireland. Through gapLab, we work to support graduate architects to bring architecture to audiences, building capacity among architects in public engagement practice. Through gapLab, we also aim to give space to graduate architects, to sustain their vital imaginations, to foster their capacity to innovate and to take risks in their creative practice. A recipient of the IAF-CCI Paris residency becomes a member of gapLab for two years from the date of the award and enjoys other support and mentoring opportunities from the IAF. Loay is the second member of the 2025 cohort of gapLab, the first being architect/artist Ben Weir.

Portrait of Loay Dieck by Myles Shelly.