Benutzer:Lars Joachim/Artikelentwurf
Ruairí O’Brien
Vita
O’Brien was born and raised in Dublin (Ireland), where he attended Blackrock College. He went on to study architecture at the University of Greenwich and the University of Westminster in London, at the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh and Columbia University in New York. He initially worked as a project architect in London, New York, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Dresden and Berlin.
He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the Saxon Chamber of Architects. Until 2013, he was a member of the Professional Lighting Designer’s Association (PLDA) and has been Vice-President of the Federation of International Lighting Designers (FILD) since 2014.
O’Brien founded the architecture firm ‘robarchitects’ in 1995, subsequently adding the complementary ‘robvisions’ studio, which serves as an outlet for O’Brien’s artistic and cultural projects. The architecture firm was renamed to its current title of ‘Ruairí O’Brien. Architektur. Licht. Raumkunst.’ (Architecture. Light. Spatial Art.) in 2009. In 2010, O’Brien founded light planning practice ‘archevolucio Ltd.’ (since 2015 ‘Ruairí O'Brien. Lichtdesign.’ [Lighting Design]) and the ‘Mobile School of Lighting Design’ in 2014. O’Brien is an occasional contributor to the OECD Observer as a cartoonist and author.
O’Brien has been living and working in Germany since 1991. He and his family live in a low-energy house of his own design in the Dresden district of Kaditz.
Other roles
O’Brien has held the position of Associate Professor of Architecture & Visual Design at the German University in Cairo since 2017.
As a Visiting Professor, O’Brien established the Architectural Lighting Design international Master’s degree programme at Wismar University of Applied Sciences, Technology, Business and Design between 2001 and 2005. - From 2011 to 2013, Ruairí O’Brien was President of the international Erich Kästner Gesellschaft association and is Chairman of the Association of Friends of the Erich Kästner Museum in Dresden. O’Brien created the concept for the short-lived Betonzeitschiene prefabricated high-rise museum, which was removed from its location in 2007, three years after opening. He was also an active member of the working group entrusted with developing a cultural vision for the city of Dresden and a founding member of the Children and Architecture Working Group in the Bauakademie of Northern Europe (2001–2005).
While his entry for the 2009 Zgorzelec / Görlitz European Centre for Education and Culture – Meetingpoint Music Messiaen competition won first prize, it was excluded “… for technical reasons due to a failure to fulfil the competition requirements…”. O’Brien took Meetingpoint Music Messiaen e.V. to court to sue for compensation for his design work commissioned after the competition. In 2013, Görlitz District Court found in favour of O’Brien.
From 2013 until 2017, O’Brien was a Member of the Board of the Saxon Chamber of Architects and Chairman of the PR Committee of the Saxon Chamber of Architects.
Selected works
Architecture / Light planning / Urban planning
- Light masterplan for Bahnhofstraße Lichtenrade, Berlin (2018)
- Design guide for Bahnhofstraße Lichtenrade, Berlin (2017)
- Haus Bramsch in Dresden-Friedrichstadt (2014)
- Light planning for Bäckerstraße in Torgau, Saxony (2012)
- Design and light planning for historic Obermarkt Square in Freiberg, Saxony (2011)
- Hologram façade for Jena’s Stadtspeicher (City Storage House), Markt 16, Jena/Thuringia (2008)
- Haus Evolucio - Universal modular architect-designed house concept (2007).
Museums / Memorials / Exhibitions
- Memorial wall ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ - Kurt Vonnegut in Dresden Exhibition Centre / Saxony (2012)
- ‘Museum Laboratory’ - Interactive laboratory and experimental space giving visitors an insight into the history of the museums for the ‘450 Years of Dresden’s State Art Collections’ anniversary celebrations, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2010)
- Light and information sculpture ‘89’ (2009) for Lichtfest Leipzig (Leipzig Light Festival) 2009, celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig/Saxony
- ‘Himmelweit’ - (A World Apart) Exhibition for the 20th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution in the Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße memorial in Dresden (2009)
- ‘Travelling micromuseum Exhibition’ – Travelling exhibition for the Erich Kästner Museum Dresden, which has visited Tokyo/Japan (2005), Salzburg/Austria (2006), London/UK (2007/2008), Omsk/ Russia (2013) and Washington, DC/USA (2014) to date
- ‘Gartenpost - Fürst Pückler in England - England in Bad Muskau’ (Letters from the Garden – Prince Pückler in England – England in Bad Muskau) Special exhibition in the New Palace of Fürst-Pückler-Park in Bad Muskau/Saxony (2005)
- Zeithain Memorial Grove, Stalag IV H, Zeithain/Saxony (2003)
- Betonzeitschiene (Concrete Timeline) micromuseum for prefabricated high-rise buildings, urban history and identity in Dresden/Saxony (2002–2005)
- ‘Der Virtuelle Mensch’ (The Virtual Human) for the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden (project for EXPO 2000)
- Erich Kästner Museum – ‘mobile interactive micromuseum’, Villa Augustin at Albertplatz, Dresden/Saxony (1999)
- ‘Poetika’ light master plan at Luminale (2010/2012) in Frankfurt am Main/Hesse
- ‘Arcades Project’ light poetry performance as an homage to Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project for Bardinale Flows with composer and musician Günter Heinz and video and media artist Konstantinos Antonios Goutos at the Blaue Fabrik Cultural Centre in Dresden (2009)
- ‘8 windows 9 doors’ - Light sculpture for the 20th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution in the Bautzner Straße Memorial in Dresden (2009).
- ‘microlightsculpture 09 - Feuer’(Fire) – Light sculpture as an homage to poet Elke Erb for Bardinale Flows in Dresden (2008)
- ‘Himmelsfenster’ (Window to the Heavens) – Light poetry sculpture for Lucas Cranach in Kronach/Bavaria (2008)
- ‘Tag + Nacht’ (Day + Night) – Light poetry performance as an homage to Samuel Beckett for Bardinale mit Light and Word as a performance in the public space in Dresden (2006)
- ‘Städte am Meer’ (Cities by the Sea) – Light poetry performance for the Bardinale at Staatsschauspiel/Kleines Haus Dresden with Ronald Lippok (sound) and Thomas Kunst (Text), Dresden (2005)
- ‘eating the light’ - Light sculpture to revitalise the Lingner Palace in Dresden (2005)
- ‘Light and Word’ light poetry festival (since 2004)
- ‘Eis + Finsternis’ (Ice + Darkness) – Light poetry performance as an homage to Christoph Ransmayr for Bardinale mit Light and Word in Dresden’s Scheune Cultural Centre (2004)
- ‘Unsichtbare Städte’ (Invisible Cities) – Light poetry performance as an homage to Italo Calvino for Bardinale on Augustusbrücke Bridge and in the Scheune Cultural Centre, Dresden
- ‘microlightsculpture 02’ – Light sculpture as an homage to Danish poet Inger Christensen, Dresden (2002)
- ‘microlightsculpture 01’ – Light sculpture for Schwerin’s Summer of Culture festival, Schwerin/Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (2002)
- The GiftGarden – A growing, interactive social work of art (since 2002) commenting on environmental policy
- ‘Baustelle Deutschland’ (Germany, a Building Site) – Part of the permanent exhibition in the Forum of Contemporary History Leipzig (2000)
- ‘Interaktiv Raum 3+4’ (Interactive Space 3+4) – Architecture-Theatre-Dance-Project at Projekttheater Dresden (1998)
Exhibitions
- 2016 - ‘Zwei Handschriften, verwickelt’ (Two entangled manuscripts) – Winterschau 2016, joint exhibition by Ruairí O'Brien & Niels-Christian Fritsche, Haus der Architekten, Dresden
- 2015 - Licht / Light – Works on paper, objects, light art, Galerie Oben, Chemnitz
- 2015 - Licht und Dunkelheit (Light and Darkness) – Works on paper, objects, light art for Bardinale ‘Afrika’, Literaturhaus Dresden
- 2015 - Dualität (Duality) – Light art, presented as part of the exhibition ‘28 Tage Dunkel’ (28 Days of Darkness) for Architektursommer Sachsen, Tapetenwerk Leipzig
- 2007 - microTESTATMENT – Exhibition of interdisciplinary works featuring drawings, paintings, architecture and light art, Blaue Fabrik, Dresden,
- 1999 - Paintings – Spatial Workshop, Painting, Kulturrathaus Dresden,
- 1997 - Die Süße des Fremden (The Sweet Taste of the Exotic), painting, Kunsthalle Dresden and Literaturwerkstatt Berlin,
- 1987 - Pen and ink drawings, Royal Academy of Arts, Summer Exhibition, London
Awards
- 2009 - architektourpreis 2009 (recognition) for the Hologram Façade of the Stadtspeicher (City Storage House) in Jena,
- 2002 - Museum Award of hbs kulturfonds of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung (Lower Saxon Savings Bank Foundation ) for Erich Kästner Museum
Literature
- R. O’Brien (2018): Sprechen wir über gute Straßenbeleuchtung! (Let’s talk about good street lighting!) In: F. Bodenhaupt, F. Lindemuth (Ed.). Technisches Handbuch Straßen- und Außenbeleuchtung, Berlin, EW Medien und Kongresse GmbH.
- R. O’Brien (2016): High Quality Lighting Designs with SSL- Practical examples and the new role of lighting designers, Conference publication LED Lighting Technologies – Smart Technologies for Lighting Innovations, 94–105, Dornbirn, Luger Research e.U. Institute for Innovation and Technology.
- I. Convery, G. Corsane & P. Davis (Eds.): Displaced Heritage. Responses to Disaster, Trauma, and Loss. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-84383-963-7.
- R. O’Brien (2009): „Holistische“ Botschaft - Die Hologrammfassade des Stadtspeichers Jena (‘Holistic’ Message - The Hologram Facade of Jena’s City Storage House), In: Neues Museum, 08/4-Feb2009, Museumsbund Österreich (Ed.).
- R. Edmondson, H. Rau (Hrsg.): Environmental Argument and Cultural Difference: Locations, Fractures and Deliberations. Peter Lang, Bern 2008, ISBN 978-3-03911-062-9.
- A. Mead: Seeing the Light. Memory matters. Ruairí O’Brien’s museums. In: The Architect’s Journal. London, 17 July 2003.
- I. Mazzoni (2002): Kleine Welten (Miniature Worlds), In: Deutsche Bauzeitung, 11/2002, Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt.
- A. Mead: Dresden’s outdoor museum fusion. In: The Architect’s Journal. London, 30 July 2004.
- R. O’Brien: micromuseums. Dresden 2003, ISBN 3-00-012918-9.
- G. Walden: Das ist das Positive. Kästner-Museum in Dresden. (There’s the positive. Kästner Museum in Dresden) In: Baumeister. 6/00, 14.
