Paul O’Brien is an architect working at the intersection of space, place, and cultural identity. He studied architecture at University College Dublin, KTH Stockholm, and The Bartlett, and has gained experience at award-winning practices including David Kohn Architects, Turner Works, DSDHA, and Grafton Architects.
Research is central to his practice, with a particular focus on the relationship between art and architecture. His work examines how spatial design frames experience, reflects institutional values, and supports evolving curatorial models.
Paul undertakes projects spanning buildings, installations, furniture, and objects, drawing inspiration from vernacular construction and material innovation. He is the recipient of an Irish Arts Council Project Award (2025/26) for research into developing a contemporary language for stone building in Ireland.
January – December 2026
Practice: Architecture & Design / Drawing / Critical Writing
Research Focus
For his Dwell Here residency Paul O’Brien proposes to look at contemporary art spaces in Ireland. 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Inside the White Cube by Brian O’Doherty, seminal essays on the ideology of the gallery space first published in Artforum in 1976. Many Irish art spaces occupy former colonial buildings, barracks, hospitals, stately homes, constructed under British rule. Paul will investigate how these legacies are felt in 2026: what histories they carry, and how they are being transformed to hold new narratives of care, inclusion, and ecological responsibility. Paul aims to capture a moment in Irish art’s spatial history and offer a critical framework to consider the next fifty years.
More about Dwell Here Residency
Dwell Here offers participants a simple proposition: to commit to this time and place while thinking deeply about its urgencies. Together we are curious to learn what can be activated or challenged through the process of dwelling. IMMA encourages reflection across the following themes to consider geographical, historical, political and cultural concepts of Ireland as a starting point to expand and connect international contexts through similarities and differences:
Technologies of Peace – to consider commemorative landscapes and memories of peace (as a dream, movement, or value) while generating perspectives on sustainable coexistence.
The Irish Paradigm – Welcomes artistic research that creates intimacy and connections, while celebrating the perceived agility and freedoms of operating on the periphery. As a small island on the edge of Europe, Ireland often has a challenging relationship with ‘the centre’.
The Museum as a Site of Vibration – consider how the museum and site can create new vibrations and rhythms within the built legacy of empire. How can museums make visible cultural shifts, including erased, censored or marginalised histories, as well as sustainability, planetary care, sharing and hospitality.