Q&A with Northern Ireland’s Visionary Architect: Glenn Myles on Architectural Progress

I grew up in Ireland, the North, during the 70s and 80s and, while I was somewhat insulated from the direct horrors of the Troubles, I am a product of those times. I am an architect by profession and have spent the last twenty years designing schools.

I view architectural space as an active object in a learning environment. For me, the in-between spaces are as important, if not more so, than whatever formal learning settings we might create. I spent my own high school years in a relatively new but soulless building; one which required a one-way system to ease congestion as we moved between classes. The minimisation of those in-between spaces neglected the places where our lives beyond the bounds of the building were formed.

I like to think we create architecture from ideas rather than things. I love that I am a part of a team that can, with each new project, transform the spaces within which we teach our children. It is a responsibility that I both relish and respect.

(almost)EPIC is just an idea at this point. It will be the name on the cheque I write when I place the first order for The (almost) Impossible Causeway Puzzle.

Design is not a self serving exercise, it is a pursuit that is about others and understanding that what is developed on the drawing board may have a profound effect on those who experience your work.

I was once asked to describe my design process for a group of peers and quietly set about preparing a presentation which traced the lineage of my ‘process’ back to my college days.

“People + Place are what’s important to me”, I said; and promptly clicked through a series of images outlining a project which explored ‘journey’. I set the text and images on a black background and spent some time touching up an aerial photo to highlight the unique setting. It looked good and I was happy with it. I responded well to my brief.

While it is true that People + Place are important to me and, I believe, evident in my projects, I have come to the realisation, through a series of recent conversations that ‘process’ is actually something very different. It is a messy series of activities I stumble through as a deadline looms. Incoherent to the uninitiated.

I relish the challenge of resolving complex adjacencies, but often struggle with some of the subtle aspects of proportion, I will happily spend hours discussing the merits of various architectural operations to represent a goal but in the end, I somehow cross the line with a design.

I was, and continue to be, inspired by one particular visit to the Giant’s Causeway. It was New Year’s Day, 1994. Belfast had long been maligned by the British media but I had college friends visiting from England and we had enjoyed a raucous night out in Belfast the previous evening, spending time in the popular student haunts of Lavery’s and The Crescent.

The following morning the English newspapers carried the headline ‘Belfast is Burning’ and my friends could not believe the city being described in the article was the same city in which they had just had the best night craic. It was then I decided upon my architectural thesis project - a museum of media and advertising that sought to explore the less-than-honourable characteristics of the industry of the Hidden Persuaders.

Meanwhile, back at the stones, a storm was brewing as we walked down from the headland. The dark clouds hung low just above the cliff edge and the waves thundered against the rocks. It was magical and threatening at the same time. The personification of Northern Ireland. The sights and sounds of that day have stayed with me for many years. Fond memories indeed.

The (almost) Impossible Causeway Puzzle is a unique and challenging 32-piece jigsaw puzzle inspired by the Giant's Causeway. This iconic natural landform, on the north Antrim coast of Northern Ireland, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site attracting over one million visitors a year. I developed the puzzle to appeal to this tourist market and those seeking a souvenir as unique as the basalt causeway itself.

The puzzle itself employs the hexagonal geometry of the causeway stones in a simple configuration that belies the challenge and complexity of the solution. That solution lies in correctly arranging the 32 randomly shaped pieces, referencing the 32 counties of Ireland, to form a map of Ireland.

The hexagonal box is held in the closed position with magnetic clasps but becomes an integral component of the puzzle itself as the box folds out to reveal an outline of Ireland printed on the inside faces as the solution template. The external graphics are simple and, with a single colour print, again employ the hexagonal motif to create a stylised map of the internationally recognisable outline of Ireland.

Having developed a basic prototype as a birthday gift for my father I continued to mull over the design and through conversations with a fellow designer began to refine the design. In researching potential manufacturing partners I happened across the London Design Awards and, on nothing more than a whim, decided to enter.

When I draw a line as an architect, that line carries depth and weight. I know the material the line represents, I understand how it will interact with other materials around it and how they come together to form a building, I know how that line will protect the inhabitants from inclement weather or how it will elevate their experience of an architectural space and importantly, I understand the cost implications that line carries.

With this design though, my lines are simply lines. I have no experience of product design or the manufacturing processes involved so I talked to people who do and asked a lot of questions.