SUPPOSE A STONE 2025
Kunstverein Aughrim
4–6pm, Thursday 20 November 2025
Join us for a special event celebrating the culmination of Suppose a Stone. This multi-year project was an all-ages accessibility study of the town of Aughrim, County Wicklow, developed in collaboration with local community groups. For this event as part of Irish Design Week we will present and launch a newly published zine titled Building A Draw(Bridge). Designed by Eamonn Hall of ART DEPT, the zine documents an architectural prototyping workshop through photography and interviews by Finn Richards, with contributions from architect Jenny O'Leary of Howff and curator Kate Strain of Kunstverein Aughrim. The original workshop took place in 2024 and enabled us to approach a single case-study issue of inaccessibility with creativity and playfulness through architecture, design and collaboration on our own doorstep.
Together we will reflect on the multi-year project and pass on the knowledge we gathered throughout different stages of its realisation - from data on what it's like to live in and visit Aughrim, to how we engage with the town through diverse senses, to the outcomes of a walkability study, through to innovative approaches to making stepped shopfronts more accessible.
A short presentation will introduce and contextualise the project, followed by informal discussions, a public Q&A and light refreshments. The event will take place at Kunstverein Aughrim, where specially commissioned adaptable infrastructure as part of Granite Leap by Forerunner will be used to display the zine, and where a new exhibition Until You Become Weightless by Ruth E Lyons will be on view. All are welcome.
Contributors Biographies
Eamonn Hall is a graphic designer and creative director with over 10 years industry experience. He has worked in design studios, ad agencies and more recently as creative director of ART DEPT. The studio’s clients include the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF), the National Gallery of Ireland, the Architectural Association of Ireland (AAI) and the Irish Film Institute (IFI). Additionally, he is the founder and creative director of the Phibsboro Press, an independent publishing imprint currently finalising production of its first architecture book America at Home by writer Cormac Murray.
Finn Richards is a documentary photographer and filmmaker and is the founder of Stills & Motion. His work has been selected for inclusion in awards and competitions: recently his short documentary film, The Gnomes, was included in the 2020 lineups for both the Fastnet and the Still Voices Film Festivals, and his portrait of British poet Lemn Sissay was shortlisted in the AOP Awards 2020.
Howff is a Dublin and Wicklow based architecture and design studio. The practice spans multiple typologies including residential, cultural, educational and temporary installations. The studio has a strong design focus, and seeks to produce architecture that positively transforms the experiences of its users and the wider community. Howff’s projects are characterised by a sensitive approach to materials and intuitive understanding of construction and detail. Howff value collaboration, with a process that is both precise and exploratory, underpinned by research and technical expertise.
Further Information
Suppose a Stone* began as a collaboration between Aughrim Tidy Towns CLG, Aughrim Active Retirement Group, Kunstverein Aughrim and architect Jenny O’Leary of Howff. Together we undertook an all-ages, interspecies accessibility audit of the town of Aughrim, supported by Hometown Architect, as part of the Irish Architecture Foundation’s nationwide Reimagine placemaking programme.
To date we have launched a survey and activity map, conducted a Walkability Study with Age Friendly Ireland, and realised a Sensory Walk with choreographer Aoife McAtamney. In August 2023 Reimagine hosted a clinic where an update of our project was presented, alongside the Lisdoonvarna project team with Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, Common Knowledge, and ACT Studio. A recording of that clinic may be viewed here. And in 2024 we presented a Drawbridge Workshop as part of Culture Night.
For more information please email office@kunstverein.ie
*The title for Suppose a Stone project was suggested by one of our committee members, upon seeing Brian Dillon’s beautiful publication ‘Suppose A Sentence’ on our research desk, the book itself is titled after a 1934 text by Gertrude Stein.
