Designing for the archive

Re-Turning Exhibition, with Oliver Hopkinson

Void Art Center, Derry, 25th April 2026 - 30th May 2026

View a PDF of the exhibition booklet here

‘Designing the archive’, as part of the Void Art Centre’s ‘Re-Turning’ illustrates two proposals, for galleries and archives on Bishop’s St in Derry, imagined as new homes for the Voids current archives. The work is being shown as part of Void’s ‘Re-turning’ exhibition, and was developed in Queen’s University Belfast, by myself and Oliver Hopkinson, as our final design projects in the Architecture BSc.

The following is the introduction from the accompanying ‘Designing the Archive’ exhibition booklet;

“This booklet is intended to give you an overview of the story of this work. It is produced by two Queen’s University Belfast Architecture BSc students, Oliver Hopkinson and Oileán Galligan.

The accompanying exhibition shows pieces produced by the two over the course of an academic semester in Spring 2025. The pieces were produced as part of two separate proposals for archives in Derry/Londonderry with the intention to imagine a new home for the materials stored in Void’s archive.”

The following is text from Void’s exhibition booklet;

“Alongside Archival Recollections, sits Designing for the Archive which focuses on two speculative proposals for galleries and archives on a site in Derry city, produced by Oileán Galligan and Oliver Hopkinson at Queen’s University Belfast. Produced over an academic semester at the start of 2025, the two projects aimed to imagine relocating Void’s archive in a more suitable and celebratory setting. Both projects are sited on Bishop’s Street, currently a car park that borders the city walls to the west.

Both projects focus on site response, building a flexible space for work to be shown. Working through sketch, CAD software and the occasional model, the proposal is a glu-laminate timber, in-situ concrete and Corten steel structure cantilevering above the wall of Derry. Taking some inspiration from the structure currently in the Void archive, timber structure deviates from more traditional gallery configurations to offer a different exhibition space.

In addition to these speculative designs, sit documents and publications from the archival holdings at Void, representing a lineage/heritage of collaborative cultural planning and design in Derry’s art centres that stretches back to the Orchard Gallery. This selection was supported by Ashab Arif Ahmad, with the team at Void Art Centre providing feedback.

A small booklet, Designing for the Archive, has also been produced alongside the work exhibited to explain each project and how they came to be. This booklet can be found in Gallery Two, in our Closing Circles reference section.”

Collaborators

The students, teachers and external parties that influenced this work, in no particular order;

Oliver Hopkinson, Mitch Conlon, Ashab Arif Ahmed, Void Art Centre team, Queen’s University Belfast Architecture