In the context of Limerick’s future, is it possible to consider precise yet speculative construction as opposed to architectural form as a point of entry towards the project of the city?

Is it possible that the construction that results is not only a physical object but is what survives the idea of the city?

Focusing on the precise yet speculative nature of Georgian construction, a number of enquiries will be raised:

• the continuity of the macro construction of the city founds (vaulted ground floor, raised streets, culverted sewers, shared construction technologies) in the context of a speculative, piecemeal procurement of city
• the capacity of this construction to deal with siting, local environmental conditions, availability of materials
• the resilience of this Georgian ‘city within the city’ to this day and what it offers in thinking strategically about Limerick’s future city
• what lies beneath, what is hidden from view.

Peter Carroll is SAUL Course Director, Director in A2 Architects, Treasurer of DoCoMoMo Ireland and Elected Member of RIAI Council.

Kazys Varnelis is a historian and theorist of architecture, specialising in network culture. He is Director of the Network Architecture Lab at Columbia University’s GraduateSchool of Architecture.  Kazys is a member of the founding advisory board at SAUL where he currently teaches history and theory of architecture.