HOWZAT

The exploration of pure architectural experience, unencumbered by practical restraints, left FKL feeling “very naked,” says Kelly. “You have to display the essence of your architecture without response to function or site.”

FKL developed the walls of their slot of space into precisely calibrated cantilevered wedges, creating a threshold that manipulates perspective and spatial perception. The geometry and proportions are rigorously controlled. The result is deeply satisfying, both distinctly architectural and highly sculptural.

The exhibitors divide between those who were willing to experiment — to risk the vulnerability of being exposed on unfamiliar ground — and those who were not, who played safe with space. Hassett’s is a beautiful intellectual exercise. You can glimpse a strange reality here and think about what it means, but you cannot experience it — it is in the wrong exhibition. Heneghan Peng’s ill-judged offering squandered an invitation to experiment for an exercise in self-promotion.

One of the intriguing discoveries these five meditations on the nature of architectural space throws up is the intimate connection between time and the experience of space. The projects with a quicker tempo tend to appear slick and superficial, while the more glacial works provide genuinely moving encounters. It is all about having presence.

Sculptors have a lot to teach architects in this regard. Few are better placed to do so than Michael Warren, who has long worked with architects and whose pieces have enhanced the settings of such iconic buildings as Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Illinois and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kentuck Knob in Pennsylvania.

“The boundaries between architecture and sculpture are somewhat muffled,” Warren says of Dispositions, his new exhibition at Kilkenny’s Butler gallery. “Outdoor work stands on an equal footing with the spectator but in this exhibition space I had to find some site-responsive way to explain the work.” He uses applied colour and photography for the first time and shows his first painting.

Pursuing what he calls “the act of attention, the quietness of looking”, Warren is as interested in time as he is in space. Each Disposition was mocked up in his Wexford studio before being transported to Kilkenny. In Disposition 1 he admits autobiographical elements and displays an array of his famous steles — which he locates “with the precision of a samurai” — according to a survey he made of their random “found” configuration in his studio.

The contemplative Disposition 2 employs a wholly architectural device — an open-back screen wall — to “create a sense of mystery and reshuffle the space in an eastern manner, so that it reads from right to left”. His white, mandala-like painting stills the room.

There is a weighty, oppressive quality to Disposition 3, which is laid out according to the timeless proportions of the golden section, while the spiralling crescendo of Disposition 4 completes the cycle.

The RHA intends to repeat the exercise in two or three years’ time. In the meantime, if architects wish to step up their apprenticeship in space, time and architecture, they should visit Kilkenny to see a master at work.

Practising Architecture: Five Architectural Experiments is at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin until March 28

www.royalhibernianacademy.com;

Michael Warren: Dispositions is at the Butler gallery, Kilkenny Castle until April 11

www.michaelwarren.ie