The best thing about my job is …
… the people I get to meet and work with.

The most important advice for my professional career was …
… to work with and learn from others. We have always found that the projects that resonate
most are those where there has been a close collaboration with others, artists, engineers, clients…we truly produce work that we would never have done alone. For the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church competition we worked closely with Ralph Appelbaum’s team in Berlin and with Artist Susan Philipsz in the first phase, this was a new collaboration for all of us and the ensuing exchange took us to unexpected places.

I have only recently discovered …
… my local library, this is more of a rediscovery, I love to read and tried the digital but I find there is no substitute for holding the physical book. Having started to run out of space, I am finding the library again gives me a chance to expand my reading.

I consider myself lucky …
… to have worked on some amazing projects. For example, at the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre, in Northern Ireland, there was a shared belief in the importance of improving the experience of the site for everyone. In a similar way, the team for the Palestinian Museum had an ambition to make a difference in the lives and
cultural experience of the Palestinian people. There are themes that reach across the work and it is much easier when the team believes in the significance and transformative potential of the project.

I can’t stand …
… rushing to the airport – it is so unnecessarily stressful.

I don’t give up hope that …
… I will learn to speak German properly.

When things don’t go so well …
… I go for a walk, often beside the sea which is one of the good things about Dublin.

Recently I was amazed by ...
… Martin Puryear’s ”Lookout“ at Storm King Art Center. I haven’t seen it in person yet – but Iwill be visiting the end of October. His sculptures blur the lines between art, architecture and craft so I am unsurprisingly drawn to his work.

What I find funny is …
… my puppy going under the table when she doesn’t want to do something – she still thinks
we won’t find her…

What I’m not good at is …
… speaking German, I think that one of the disadvantages of speaking English is that so many people speak it well that rudimentary attempts at German (or indeed my other linguistic adventures) often result in the other person switching to English to avoid the excruciating dialogue. Having said that I find the insights that a language provides are fascinating, for example German requires much more precision than English. Chinese and Irish, which is actually my first language, doesn’t have a word for ”yes“ or ”no“ so you must answer in the positive/negative of the verb in question: ”I am/I won’t“ etc.

I like to delude myself that …
… I will learn to speak German properly.

When I look out the window at my workplace, I see …
… the top of the clocktower at Dublin Castle, rooftops in Berlin.

Last but not least:
You are an expert in museum construction who is respected all over the world; the large Egyptian Museum in Cairo will be opening soon (wa-2007659). Now you have won the comparatively small Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church competition in Berlin (wa-2035532, Seite 27-33): the available space in the Old Tower that can be accessed vertically is very limited. What attracted you to this task nevertheless?
It is such a powerful site, the combination of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church with the Eiermann buildings creates an immediate memory of Berlin that manages to hold together the late nineteenth century development, the horror of the war and the promise of the post war times.

heneghan peng architects, Dublin/Berlin | © Joanne Murphy

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Róisín Heneghan

Róisín Heneghan was born in Ireland and studied Architecture at University College Dublin. After graduating she moved to New York City. In 1992 she graduated with a Masters in Architecture from Harvard University. While at Harvard she met Shih-Fu Peng and they founded heneghan peng architects (hparc) in New York 1999. In 2001 they moved to Dublin after winning an open international architectural competition for the design of Kildare Civic offices.
Today heneghan peng architects (Róisín Heneghan and Shih-Fu Peng), are based in Dublin and Berlin. Major projects include the Grand Museum of Egypt beside the Great Pyramids (wa-2007659), the Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Centre on the Causeway Coast World Heritage Site, National Gallery of Ireland historic wings refurbishment and Palestinian Museum at Bir Zeit which was awarded the Aga Khan Award in Architec-ture. Significant recent projects include the Visitors’ Centre at the Botanic Gardens Berlin (with Studio Qwertz) and Storm King Art Center, New York, as well as the renovation of the old barracks at the Königstein Fortress in Saxony.