Delivery

Ambitious structures only count if they get built. I carry designs through to construction, so the ideas survive contact with the contractor.

Stages: Concept design through to construction
Experience: Architecture, timber, existing buildings, and large industrial and life-sciences facilities
Where: Dublin, London, and projects across Ireland and Europe
Tools: RFEM, Eurocode design, scripted analysis and independent checks

Buildable from the start

I have worked at every stage of a project, from early concepts to construction. That shapes how I design. While the form is still open, I am already thinking about how the structure will be fabricated, delivered, erected and connected. A bold idea is much easier to keep when those questions are answered early.

Detail where it counts

On The Den, a demountable timber theatre, the detailed design came down to the buckling of a low-rise dome and to Eurocode 5 checks on every bolted timber connection. I wrote the connection spreadsheets so that each joint could be checked alongside the analysis of the whole structure.

Timber members joined with bolted steel plates at a column head, with rigging above — A column head on The Den: bolted timber connections and steel plates.

Rope ends, thimbles, shackles and turnbuckles meeting at a tension node — A rigging node: ropes, thimbles, shackles and turnbuckles.

Large projects, tight programmes

I have also led structural teams on large industrial and life-sciences facilities across Ireland and Europe, where programme, coordination and repeatable details matter as much as the engineering. At gallery scale the lesson is the same: on Lah Contemporary, construction sequencing, shrinkage restraint and the concrete mix were part of getting the exposed concrete right.

Checked before it is issued

I build my own tools: scripted models that drive the analysis software, automated checks, and independent second calculations of the governing results. They make the work quicker and the results easier to verify. I also use AI-assisted workflows in daily practice to take on the repetitive work, and anything they produce is checked independently before it is issued. The blind-check duel and its solver tests show the principle.

If you have a project heading towards site, email ronan@stellareng.ie

Selected work The Den