Ninety Nine Tesserae

Emmett was invited to launch the new collection of essays by Shane O’ Toole, Ninety Nine Tessarae from Architecture. Shane is Ireland’s most celebrated architecture critic. You can watch the full video below and read some of the dedication below the video.

Extract:

“In his praise for the sister book to this one, 101 Hosannahs for Architecture, Hugh Campbell considered words to describe Shane O’Toole. He wrote: ‘He is variously: critic, historian, advocate, reader, confessor, champion, campaigner, visionary’. I would like to add one more, helpfully omitted on that list: architect. You see, Shane O’Toole is one of Ireland’s greatest architects. Architecture is not only found in buildings and an architect can reasonably tend to architecture in many ways. That is perhaps, a debate for another day, but let us agree here that architects like to be part of the action when things get built. And O’Toole has been part of the action when much of Ireland has been built. Of course, he designed and built things too: a stage to welcome the Pope and a theatre where children perform and learn. But I think that over the decades Shane O’ Toole has been busy building foundations upon which I and others who desired to write about architecture have been inspired to stand. And in as much as the ninety-nine tesserae stand side-by-side and together and on this cover, there is also space between them, gaps, cracks, which I think reflect the space he has both made and created for others to step into by giving writing about architecture a good name, here and abroad.”