Project by Omar Ismail and Xiao Rui An
The project reimagines the space of the decommissioned United States embassy in Dublin as a place for communal printing practice. This proposed transformation commemorates the long history and tradition of Irish writing while also bringing this heritage into dialogue with the diplomatic documentation and typically covert activities that took place in the Embassy. Via a series of selective design interventions the existing historic condition of the building as a diplomatic structure is overlapped with forms and artifacts evocative of 19th and 20th century printing houses. Offices and shared working spaces are planned alongside a printing workshop, bookstore, library, and exhibition space. The building brings together those who create printed matter with those who consume it, all while immersed in rich Irish literature and print.
