Keith kicked off 2025 with a lecture on the work of his studio at the School of Architecture and Planning, Anglia Ruskin University.
Having been an external examiner in recent years to the School in Chelmsford, Essex, Keith was delighted to have been asked to return to speak on his work and share his thoughts and theories with the students and academic staff.
The School’s architectural staff in attendance included head of School Dr Maria Vogiatzaki who introduced Keith, along with Alistair Barr, Dr Ana Cocho-Bermejo, Dr Giacomo Damiani and Howard Gilby.
Entitled “Architecture of the Specific”, Keith explored the fundamental principles that have guided his work during his career.
He spoke on some of the firms’ key projects including Athlone Civic Centre, Ireland, the Unicorn Theatre, the National Opera house Wexford, Ireland, the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, Lloydminster Cultural and Science Centre, Canada, the upgrades that he is planning to the Spence Quarter at the University of Sussex, and the recently completed DeValera Library and Súil Art Gallery in Ennis, Ireland.
He expounded upon the key motivations saying that…
“Our architecture centres on the interplay of space, light, form and material coupled with careful consideration for scale, history and context. I have tried to make buildings that achieve an aesthetic balance between the contemporary, the visionary and that which exists and I am very concerned with the way in which people experience architecture and process through my buildings.”
Keith closed the lecture with reference to one of his overarching observations…
“In architecture there is a part that is logical, pragmatic, reasoned and there is a part that emerges from the sensual and the aesthetic. Without a fusion between these opposing principle, it seems unlikely that great architecture can ever be made.”
Delighted at the turnout with virtually the whole undergraduate school wedged into the design studio for the lecture, with students sat on the floor, perched on layout tables and sharing chairs, Keith was let to muse that perhaps the school might need access to a larger lecture theatre on such occasions.