Max Livesey
Supervisor
Abstract
Famine Architecture
Infrastructure and Crisis in Ireland 1845-1849
As a result of the Great Famine inIreland (1845-1849), a million people died and at least one million more emigrated to Britain, Canada, and America. While the ostensible cause of theFamine was the failure of the potato crop in multiple successive years between 1845-9, material conditions that preceded the events of the Famine exacerbated the crisis. The project will be structured by ananalys is of three forms of infrastructure which exacerbated the effects of theFamine: cottier tenancy (a common type of labour at the time); Union workhouses(institutional buildings designed by George Wilkinson); and public infrastructure which was produced by forced labour during the Famine (for example, roads and quays). These architectural types can be read symbolically, as representing the vast economic inequalities of Ireland in the mid-19th Century; they can be read symptomatically, as indexing wider economic and political crises; they can also be read instrumentally, as directly worsening the conditions of the destitute poor. The research will ask how architecture and infrastructure from this period can be interpreted symbolically, symptomatically, and materially, against the crisis of the Famine. In addition to historical analysis, sculptural practice will be used as a method of modelling, re-staging, and interrogating the architectural strategies that emerge from the historical research. Particular attention will be paid to materials used in architecture from the period – for example, limestone, bog timber, and clay. The research aims to contribute to the study of Irish architectural history methodologically, through the use of practice-based art research; it will also make a historiographic contribution to the study of the Famine, by arguing that the architecture and infrastructure of the period offers a window into understanding how issues of class and capital relate to the Famine.
Bio
Max Livesey is an artist and a writer who works across installation, sculpture, video, sound, and fiction. His projects always develop from research into specific places, buildings, and/or social histories. Livesey has a BA in the History of Art from UniversityCollege London, a Graduate Diploma in Art and Design (Fine Art) from the RoyalCollege of Art, and an MRes (Fine Art by Practice), also from the Royal College of Art. His work has been exhibited in various group shows in the UK including at Way Out East Gallery (London, 2024), Oriel Canfas Gallery (Cardiff, 2025),and Three Rooms Gallery (Walthamstow, 2026). He has also written texts forDrawing Matter, BLEET!, and The Victorian.
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Prof Dr Ines Weizman
Professor of History and Theory of Architecture
Head of PhD Programme
School of Architecture
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
ines.weizman@rca.ac.uk
School of Architecture, Royal College of Art
Postgraduate Research (PGR) Programme