The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has announced that its 2023 conference is to focus on collaboration and sustainability because of the challenges the built environment is facing.

Taking place on 11 and 12 October, the conference provides architects and those in the built environment industry with a platform to exchange ideas and expand on their knowledge of the wider built environment.

The RIAI said it has become apparent "that collaboration is key to addressing and solving ongoing environmental and architectural challenges, such as climate change, affordable housing and the need for liveable cities and town".

For the first time, the RIAI has dedicated a full conference day (12 October) to the topic of Retrofit at Scale. Speakers will be invited to present and discuss retrofit rather than new build solutions for homes, workplaces and essential infrastructure.

This year's RIAI Conference will be sponsored by OUTHAUS, who have been supporting the conference since 2016.

Charlotte Sheridan, RIAI President, said: "We are facing an array of challenges within our industry and the built environment professions can no longer work in a silo or hierarchical manner. We also need to make sure that projects can’t be driven by metrics that are not aligned to national interest and societal and economic need. We have therefore placed collaboration and sustainability at the heart of the Conference and have invited our built environment colleagues to debate these issues with us."

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The RIAI Conference will host a range of speakers, including international speakers from some of the top architectural firms in the world. Speakers at the 2023 Conference include:

Níall McLaughlin, Winner of the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize for the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge

Practising in London, Níall’s work is celebrated across Ireland, the UK and Europe for high-quality designs from education to culture and housing. Earlier this year, he won the prestigious RIAI Public Choice Award for the International Rugby Experience, which had a transformative effect on Limerick’s inner-city and has become a national and international destination.

Annalie Riches, Co-founder of Stirling Prize Winners, Mikhail Riches

Annalie will discuss the regeneration of Europe’s largest listed ‘building’ – the Park Hill estate in Sheffield, containing 1,000 refurbished homes. This project is taking a sustainable long-term view, rather than a quick fix through demolition and rebuilding. A resident described the project as follows: “What Mikhail Riches have done is nothing short of magnificent. They have approached the project like cultural archaeologists, scratching the surface to uncover the positive community spirit.” (Leanne Cloudsdale, Park Hill Resident, Letter to the AJ magazine, January 2023)

Pooja Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of the social enterprise Public Practice

With a background in architecture and planning, Pooja Agrawal co-founded the social enterprise Public Practice. They fill an important skills need in the UK Public sector, which suffered from a reduction of architectural and urban design expertise and places professional expertise where needs arise.

Tonje Værdal Frydenlund, Director of Operations at the Norwegian Architecture firm Snøhetta

Snøhetta has been at the forefront of designing renowned public and cultural projects for over thirty years, including the landmark Oslo Opera House as well driving sustainability. The practice delivers projects around the world, dealing with differing cultural and political environments and we look forward to hearing how Snøhetta is setting agenda in an increasingly complex globalised world.

Rachel Hoolohan, Orms, London

Orms is a leading London architecture practice with extensive experience working with existing buildings. Rachel co-leads the practice’s sustainability consultancy work and will discuss her research into material passports, which was initiated as part of a wider Grosvenor Estate Innovation Project into material reuse.