We are delighted to have sent two speakers to the “Past and future – the joy of beauty” conference in Oslo, in May 2026. Alex Peacock’s talk was entitled “Passing the torch of architectural beauty”. This talk offers a personal reflection on the life, work, and enduring influence of Professor James Stevens Curl.

The youtube link is here

We are delighted to have sent two speakers to the “Past and future – the joy of beauty” conference in Oslo, in May 2026. John Smylie’s talk was entitled “Unpublished Curl – the emails” Between researching and writing his numerous books, articles and reviews, Professor Curl would initiate and maintain a number of spirited e-mail conversations with allies and like-minded thinkers. If he got his hands on your e-mail address, you never knew when you might be lassoed into the fray. You then got a taste of the less formal, but no less impassioned JSC!

Find the youtube link here

Place Lab Director John Smylie describes the life and works of the great writer and historian, Professor James Stevens Curl, who died on the 5th November 2025, in The Critic magazine, which can be read here.

PLACE LAB is sponsoring OUTSIDE-IN & INSIDE-OUT, an exhibition by INTBAU Ireland of imaginative new building designs – created by two very talented, young students of architecture, both with connections to Belfast. Where: 2RA (2 Royal Avenue), Belfast City Council’s go-to cultural hub. When: Easter Monday 21st April 2025 through to 16th May 2025. The link to the exhibition on the INTBAU list of international events for April 2025 can be found here.

On December 10th 2024 Director John Smylie interviewed New York architect and educator Tiffany Abernathy as part of the “The Architecture of Place” series organised by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (America) and the King’s Foundation (UK). Look out for the release of the recording of the podcast here.

“In Conversation with John Smylie.” was broadcast on Tuesday December 3rd 2024. John was interviewed by Dr. Patricia Canelas, Course Director and Lecturer for the Masters in Sustainable Urban Development at the University of Oxford. This event was organised by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (America) and the King’s Foundation (UK). Look out for the release of the recording of the podcast here.

PLACE LAB Director John Smylie describes Belfast’s neglected key heritage building, the Assembly Rooms, as the city’s version of Dublin’s Leinster House. You can watch the BBC Northern Ireland interview here and the RTE News piece here.

Director John Smylie’s personal view on Irish Modernist architecture entitled “Six of the ‘Best'”, which was presented at the 3-day international TAG-24 conference hosted in New York and London in March 2024, can be found here

Director John Smylie’s review of the internationally acclaimed book “Making Dystopia” by James Stevens Curl can be found here, along with reviews by distinguished writers such as Anthony Daniels, Witold Rybcznski and the late Sir Roger Scruton.

Director John Smylie coins new architectural terms “visio-structurally positive” and “visio-structurally negative” in his 2006 paper “New Interventions in Conservation Areas; Preserving character through visio-structural reinforcement.” Presented at the international conference and published in the book “The Venice Charter Revisited: Modernism, Conservation and Tradition in the 21st Century” (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). You can read the piece here in Chapter 51.

There has been a renewed interest online in Place Lab Director John Smylie’s essay on the 1971 Brutalist-style “Pym” extension to the Ulster Museum, Belfast. You can find it here.