Head of design at the school of creative arts at DIT Grangegorman, Barry Sheehan is also a designer and architect, with projects ranging from a St Patrick's Day installation, to designing bicycles for Google, to blogging about James Joyce and the city at jj21k.com
"Designers, including myself, are great at saying that design is important to the economy but ID2015 gives us the chance to prove that. It’s also important to our social, economic and cultural lives, and the St Patrick’s Day Festival project, which I’m working on with my students, combines and celebrates all three."
"This year’s theme is Celebrate Now and when we were asked to design an installation, I wondered what would do that? What specifically prevents us from reflecting on the past, or wondering about the future? A mirror."
"Reflecting only the here and now, a mirror gives us a snapshot in time. We’re creating angled mirrors, with coloured translucent Perspex, so the views change, with unexpected vistas, suffused with light. The whole thing is 4.5m tall, and what’s also been great about the project is getting the students working as a team."
"DIT doesn’t exist in a vacuum and it’s great to have the students working with partners from industry: Garland Consultancy who are the Engineers and RFL Steels who supply the materials. We’re also getting great experience working with the OPW, SPF2015, ID2015 and of course DIT itself. Any architect will tell you that getting an idea is easy – but turning it into reality is a long and complex process!"
"I also work to ensure the technical compliance of buildings, and yes, it’s important that everything you make works, but ultimately this project is about joy. When Charles Eames was asked whether he designed for beauty or function he replied: “Whoever said that pleasure wasn’t functional?”
Reflect Yourself will be in the gardens outside the Coach House at Dublin Castle during the St Patrick's Day Festival
