STICK Conference 2020: Art of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland by Siobhan Osgood

Описание: From Palladio to Frank Gehry, the mark of the architect’s pencil is widely appreciated as the art of the architectural draughtsman. But what of the engineer? Or the engineer who designed architecture? William Hemingway Mills was a Yorkshire-born railway engineer who trained under William Henry Barlow before working in Scotland, Spain and Mexico. In 1876 he joined the Great Northern Railway of Ireland as its Engineer in Chief, and so began over thirty years of engineering draughtsmanship which would define the architectural identity of a railway company. Using polychromatic brickwork, stylised forms and choice materials, Mills employed a team of highly-trained draughtsmen to realise his architectural designs on the page. The result was a huge catalogue of beautifully created architectural drawings which demonstrate the precision of the pen and the quality of the buildings. These drawings have been catalogued, analysed and researched extensively for the first time. Their style, makers’ marks and instructions provide evidence of Irish architectural education linked to the French school of Durandian engineering, firmly placing Irish railway architecture at the forefront of industrial design. During this presentation, the drawings created by the draughtsmen of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland were appreciated as the work of industry, and as works of industrial art.

Siobhan Osgood is an Irish Research Council funded scholar, researching the architecture of the former Great Northern Railway (Ireland) for her PhD at Trinity College Dublin. Siobhan has presented at the Society of industrial Archaeology (USA) conference in Chicago in 2019 where she was awarded the studentship prize, and given guest lectures for Ulster Architectural Heritage, the Irish Railway Record Society, the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, Engineers Ireland, and other history societies. Publications include Architecture Ireland, the AIA Journal, Irish Railway Record Society Journal, as well as heritage videos with Irish Rail. Follow her at: Irish Railway Architecture: www.irishrailwayarchitecture.blogspot.ie @IrishRailArch