25.11.2025, 18:00 P.M.

Built to Brew: the Architecture and Urban History of the Irish Brewery by Livia Hurley, architectural practitioner, author and educator.

Abstract: This talk by Livia Hurley charts the rise of porter and how its production influenced the world of the brewery and its immediate context in Ireland; from small towns and villages to the backlands of Cork and the Liberties of Dublin. It explores the collaborative roles of the brewer, the architect and the engineer, and how their ambitions for innovation and modernity produced some of the most dynamic spaces in the country in the nineteenth century.

Livia Hurley is a graduate of the School of Architecture at TU Dublin and has a PhD in architectural and urban history from University College Dublin. Her practice encompasses research, writing, conservation and teaching, and she has lectured and published widely on architecture in Ireland. She is a Design-Fellow at the School of Architecture, UCD; Chair of the Irish Georgian Society Conservation Awards Jury; and a Trustee of Lambay Island, county Dublin.

Image: Guinness Brewery Dublin Lithograph, circa 1890.