University

University asks what a university means for the placemaking of the city around it. The photographs were taken at the University of Galway, known until recently as NUI Galway. A change of name is itself a way of placing an institution, binding its identity more closely to the city it stands in.

Rather than the campus of prospectuses and open days, the series looks at the university after hours: a canteen seen from the stairwell above, a fire door onto an empty corridor, an office lit only by its blinds, recycling stacked in a service yard. With its people gone, the university appears as built space, part of the fabric of Galway, its meaning produced as much by these overlooked rooms as by its name.