IMMA Announces Winning Design for the Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) and Matheson, are pleased to announce Studio Makkink & Bey as the winning practice for the creation of a new community space in the heart of the Museum, titled the Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon, revealed at a gathering at the Museum on Monday evening (27 March, 2023).

Studio Makkink & Bey was selected by a panel of judges, after an invited architectural competition, to create an innovative space at IMMA that combines exceptional architecture and design to provide a welcoming and inclusive space, that inspires creative engagement and fosters social connectivity for audiences of all ages. IMMA are thrilled to partner with Matheson to realise this new space.

Working with the Arts Committee at Matheson, as part of the firm’s Impactful Business Programme, IMMA invited Irish and international practices to engage in an architecture competition resulting in a showcase of the six proposals, which are currently on display until 2 April 2023. The six practices are: AB Projects & Atelier Rae; borien & Ben Mullen; Broken Fields; Diogo Passarinho Studio (D_P_S); RESOLVE Collective; and Studio Makkink & Bey.

Studio Makkink & Bey is led by designer-architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. The studio works in various domains of applied art and includes public space projects, product design, architecture, exhibition design and applied arts. The ambition of Studio Makkink & Bey is to see the role of the designer expanded to the most strategic function possible. To this end, their design team includes professionals from many different fields of knowledge; forming alliances with other designers, architects and experts.

Michael Jackson, Managing Partner, Matheson, commenting on the announcement of the winning practice and partnership with IMMA, said:
“On behalf of Matheson, I am delighted to congratulate Studio Makkink & Bey on this achievement and their innovative design for this new space, which is a fitting tribute to Tim’s passion for the arts and reflects the ethos of our Impactful Business Programme to make a meaningful sustainable impact within our community. The Matheson Creativity Hub underlines our commitment as a firm to place diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of our business and I am proud that this space will promote engagement with the arts for people of all ages and backgrounds – providing an accessible and inclusive space for all audiences which will inspire creativity and innovation.”

Annie Fletcher, IMMA Director, commenting on the announcement said:
“The calibre of work submitted genuinely made the job of choosing one overall winner an exceptionally difficult one! What impressed us most about the Makkink & Bey design was its potential to be truly transformational and to drive IMMA forward, opening exciting new conversations and collaborations. 

We are very much looking forward to working with the Makkink & Bey team over the coming months to bring their designs to life and to unveil a new space here at IMMA for schools and community groups, creative partners, and artists”.

Alongside the winning practice, two highly commended designs were selected by the panel: Diogo Passarinho Studio (D_P_S) and borien & Ben Mullen.

The panel of judges comprised of Annie Fletcher, Director, IMMA; Michael Jackson, Managing Partner, Matheson; Elizabeth Grace, Partner, Matheson; Gráinne Dever, Partner, Matheson; Brídín O’Donoghue, wife of Tim Scanlon; Nathalie Weadick, Outgoing Director, Irish Architecture Foundation; and Jacquie Moore, Deputy Art Advisor, The Office of Public Works (OPW).

IMMA will work with Studio Makkink & Bey to realise their design and these rooms will become the Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon. This project is part of a wider long-term project to reimagine IMMA’s non-gallery spaces, with the ambition to make these spaces inclusive and to create a central hub to be used by IMMA’s Engagement and Learning Team, community groups, creative partners, and artists, as well as a space for visitors to dwell and explore on their own.    

Matheson has made a significant contribution to the cultural landscape in Ireland and has worked with IMMA since 2015, supporting over 50 artists through new commissions and major international exhibitions. Both partnerships – New Art at IMMA (2015 – 2018) and Irish Art at IMMA (2018 – 2019) were championed by our shared friend and colleague Tim Scanlon (1965 -2020). As Former Chairman of Matheson and IMMA Board Member (2016 – 2020) Tim was an important influence on IMMA’s thinking. Tim encouraged progressive programming and change-making conversations that placed community engagement and inclusivity at the heart of the museum’s activities. To that end we are delighted to dedicate this new space in memory of Tim.

– ENDS –

Contact: For further information and images please contact
Monica Cullinane E: [email protected]
Patrice Molloy E: [email protected]

Heather Yates, Matheson LLP, E: [email protected]
David Kinch, MKC Communications, E: [email protected]

Additional Notes for Editors

Architecture Showcase Open: 24 Feb 2023 – 2 April 2023
Webpage: https://imma.ie/whats-on/matheson-creativity-hub/

About Matheson

• Matheson LLP (“Matheson“) is an Irish law firm.  Its primary focus is on serving the Irish legal needs of internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland.
• Matheson’s clients include the majority of the Fortune 100 companies and it advises 7 of the top 10 global technology brands, 7 of the world’s 10 largest asset managers, and over half of the world’s 50 largest banks.
• Matheson is headquartered in Dublin and also has offices in Cork, London, New York, San Francisco and Palo Alto.  Matheson employs 800 people across its six offices, including 121 partners and tax principals, and 540 legal, tax and digital services professionals.
• Matheson was named Law Firm of the Year – Republic of Ireland at The Lawyer European Awards 2022.
• In October 2022, Matheson was named Ireland’s Top Law Firm in the Sunday Independent Best Law Firms 2023 Survey.
• For the second year in a row, in February 2022 Matheson was named Ireland’s largest law firm by the Law Society of Ireland, following the annual publication of practicing solicitor numbers in Ireland.
• For the second year running, Matheson was named Diversity and Inclusion Law Firm of the Year at the Irish Law Awards 2022.
• Matheson was named Ireland Law Firm of the Year at the Chambers Europe Awards 2021.
• Matheson was named Ireland Firm of the Year and Career Development: National Firm of the Year at the 2022 European Women in Business Law Awards.
• In 2021, Matheson underlined its commitment to supporting diversity and inclusion by becoming a signatory to the Law Society of Ireland’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (GEDI) Charter.  Signatories to the GEDI Charter commit to treating all individuals and groups of individuals fairly and equally.
• Matheson’s female / male partner gender ratio has been ranked the third most gender-diverse in continental Europe by The Lawyer in its European 100 report for 2022, an in-depth report which reviews the continental European legal market, focusing on the 100 largest independent European law firms.  Matheson is also the highest ranked Irish law firm for gender diversity among its partners in The Lawyer’s 2022 European 100 report.
• In 2020, Matheson became the first organisation in Ireland to receive the Investors in Diversity Gold Standard Award from the Irish Centre for Diversity in recognition of the firm’s development and implementation of a series of people-focussed D&I initiatives.  In March 2022, Matheson succeeded in retaining the Gold Standard.  No other law firm in Ireland has been awarded it, and no other organisation in Ireland, of any type, has retained it.
• In 2021 Matheson became one of the first Irish law firms to establish a dedicated cross-sectoral and partner-led Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Advisory Group which assists companies in navigating and responding to the rapidly evolving ESG landscape.  Matheson clients have access to an online ESG resource hub of knowledge and insights.
• In 2020, Matheson became the first Irish-headquartered law firm to sign up to the Mindful Business Charter, a collaboration between financial services businesses and law firms in Ireland and the UK promoting healthy and effective ways of working.  In 2021, Matheson became a signatory to the Law Society of Ireland’s Professional Wellbeing Charter, which champions behaviours, skills and practices to promote and enable professional wellbeing in the workplace.

About Participating Practices

AB projects & Atelier Rae is an award-winning design studio based in Dublin, working across interior, furniture and architectural design for private & commercial clients. AB projects also delivers & manages the production and delivery of works, with a production facility also based in Dublin. https://abprojects.ie/

The supporting architect on this project submission is Atelier Rae, the architecture and design studio led by award-winning architect and artist Rae Moore. http://www.atelierrae.ie/

borien & Ben Mullen
borien is a design/build studio specializing in creative and thoughtful designs for furniture and interior spaces. borien works with retail and residential clients alike. All furniture pieces are designed and built by hand, in house.

A husband and wife team, Eoin and Robin, have been collaborating together after meeting at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. They began working in Film and Fashion in Toronto and in 2018, moved to Ireland where they have received two IDI awards for their furniture and interior designs. https://www.borienstudio.com/

borien collaborated with Irish architect Ben Mullen, whose practice Ben Mullen Architects was established in 2020 and in 2022 was awarded the inaugural RIAI CCI Eileen Gray Fellowship. He is a visiting critic at schools of architecture in Ireland and the UK and contributes regularly to international journals of architecture and design.

Broken Fields is a multi-disciplinary collective made up of individual practitioners Louise Harrington, Enya Moore, Aideen O’ Donovan and Kate O’ Shea. Broken Fields brings together experience, knowledge, and practice from the fields of socially engaged art, architecture, community work, activism, research, and writing.

The name Broken Fields refers to the breaking down of disciplines, siloes, and fields. In the breaking down of these constructed boundaries, Broken Fields brings together the strengths of diverse practices in processes, projects and spaces that are deeply place-based. @broken_fields

Diogo Passarinho Studio (D_P_S) is a research-based design studio, founded in 2015 by Diogo Passarinho, investigating how emotional contexts can be brought into shaping spatial memories. This means that more than just the physical scale of the project, D_P_S delves deep into what creating space entails. Art, Theory, and a community of Artists and Thinkers is the medium that the studio uses to explore and develop what they call “emotional landscapes”. They try to design spaces that live in our memories and most likely will outlive the short life expectancies of some projects.

The studio’s work has been showcased across the world, including at the Venice Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Baltic Triennial, Hayward Gallery, Palais De Tokyo, Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Oslo National Museum, Van Abbemuseum. https://diogopassarinho.com/

RESOLVE is an interdisciplinary design collective that combines architecture, engineering, technology and art to address social challenges. We have delivered numerous projects, workshops, publications, and talks in the UK and across Europe, all of which look toward realising just and equitable visions of change in our built environment.

Much of their work aims to provide platforms for the production of new knowledge and ideas, whilst collaborating and organising to help build resilience in our communities. This means designing with and for young people and under-represented groups in society. For Resolve ‘design’ includes both physical and systemic intervention, exploring ways of using a project’s site as a resource and working with different communities as stakeholders in the short and long-term management of projects.

Their portfolio includes works across the UK and Europe, including the redesign of Brixton Bridge, residencies with galleries including S1 Artspace Sheffield, V&A East, Welcome Collection, De Le Warr Pavilion, and a recent commission for a gallery design at MARKK Museum, Hamburg. resolvecollective.com

Studio Makkink & Bey is led by designer-architect Rianne Makkink and designer Jurgen Bey. The studio works in various domains of applied art and includes public space projects, product design, architecture, exhibition design and applied arts. Supported by a design team, they have been operating their design practice since 2002.

The ambition of Studio Makkink & Bey is to see the role of the designer expanded to the most strategic function possible. To this end, their design team includes professionals from many different fields of knowledge; forming alliances with other designers, architects and experts. Their past projects include work with the Theatre Kunstmin 2014, the Rotterdam 2015, and their self-initiated project, the WaterSchool. studiomakkinkbey.nl

About IMMA
Founded in 1991, IMMA is Ireland’s National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art located in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Its vibrant, bold, and diverse programme comprises exhibitions, commissions and event-based projects by leading Irish and international artists, as well as a rich engagement and learning programme which together provides audiences of all ages the opportunity to connect with contemporary art and unlock their creativity. IMMA is also the home of the National Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art of nearly 4,000 artworks by Irish and international artists. IMMA makes this national resource available through exhibitions at IMMA and other venues nationally and internationally, engagement and learning programmes and digital resources.