Róisín Heneghan

In 1999 heneghan.peng architects was established by Róisín Heneghan and Shih-Fu Peng in New York, and relocated to Dublin in 2001 subsequent to winning the international architectural competition for the Kildare Civic Offices in Ireland. In 2003 they won the international architectural competition to design the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. The open international competition attracted 1557 designs from 83 countries, generally considered to be the largest global architectural competition in history.

Question. After reviewing all the projects, what do you think about the projects in terms of quality?
Answer. It varies. There are many different themes the people have touched on, and certain kinds of themes tend to be repeated. I think in general the students are quite good at putting forward their ideas graphically, but maybe rely too much on words, because some of them required a bit of reading to understand what the project was about. If the projects could communicate quickly through graphics, it would be easier to understand them. But I am generally impressed.

Q. What process has the jury followed to make the selection?
A. We spent the first morning just individually going around and each person highlighted around 30 boards. In the afternoon that left us with something like 70. Then later on we talked about each one and then again went around and voted for 30 or something. Out of that, a certain number were clearly quite strong.

Q. How do the projects deal with the themes described in the program (natural and artificial light, light and urban living context), and what other themes have you seen?
A. The projects that were more interesting were the ones that explored the interaction between architecture and light, which seems very obvious. There were a number that relied on technology rather than on exploring the interaction that architectural space creates with light. The winner is very subtle, there is an in-depth study of how light and architecture interact with one another. I would like to see more on the urban level, but I think it is probably difficult: how can light be utilised in dense urban environments? This probably wasn't explored in as interesting a way as could have been, and there tend to be more technological solutions, more engineering, there didn't seem to be as much an architectural investigation of that. Then, of course, there were some that looked at light and shadow... The jury members noticed that there were projects from northern European or colder climates, which are about introducing light, and the warmer climates, which are more about creating shadow.

Q. Concerning the relationship between architecture and light, what role does light play in these projects? Light to highlight textures, light as therapy?
A. There were some actually that were looking at light as therapy, but there were others that started to investigate how the introduction of light starts to change the space. They were really very basic architectural studies, but at the same time quite sophisticated. I think the ones that were most successful were the ones that dealt with architecture, light with architectural form and light in interaction with urban form. They were more successful than those dealing with light and technology, because they have to wonder about what their architectural aspiration is.

Q. Have the projects contemplated the qualitative aspects of light? That is, as an element whose variables can be controlled?
A. The prize winner did. The prize winner looked at controlling light through different types of glass, by shadow, by minimising openings, by changing the scale of the room, and that is what is so interesting, very simple architectural moves, but with a combination. In a way it's almost like a light 101, it goes back to basics. I thought it was very sophisticated.