Pálás an Phobail - tasting a sense of place

AATE are working in collaboration with Swiss architect Blanka Major and Hinterland West with the aim to connect food, people and place. AATE are working in collaboration with architect, artist and curator Blanka Major and Hinterland with the aim to connect food, people and place. Architecture at the Edge is partnership with Hinterland will create a series of spaces of encounter for Culture Night Late, - curated by Blanka Major - connecting an outdoor installation on Druid Lane, a happening at the Mick Lally Theatre, and culminating in a culinary exploration at the Festival Printworks Gallery through the shared theme of belonging. At its heart is an edible installation that takes the form of a Pálás an Phobail—a People’s palace—where the everyday rituals of gathering, eating, listening, and exchanging ideas unfold through food, sound, and conversation. Guests move through a sequence of spaces shaped by stories and sensory encounters, each revealing a different relationship between food, landscape and memory—inviting them to taste a sense of place. From a canopy of flags stretching across the street and a performative public interior, to solitary moments and shared tables, the evening explores how places—and people—come to belong through the encounters they foster, the stories they carry, and the memories they create. The evening includes inputs by: Professor Anna Davies, Geography, Trinity College Dublin & Michael Higgins, Political Liaison & Systems Change Lead, Bohemians Co-operatives. ‘Pálás an Phobail - tasting a sense of place’, is part of the Culture Night Late programme, funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under the Night-Time Economy programme with support from Galway City Council Arts Office. #CultureNight #OícheChultúir #OneNightForAll For more details on Culture Night Late in Galway City, folow @Archattheedge Instagram page. BIOS Blanka Major is a Zurich-based architect with Hungarian roots whose work spans architecture, food, research, teaching, writing, and curation. She explores how everyday infrastructures shape collective life, using cooking as a spatial and social practice. She is part of ZAS*, a LINA Spotlight Fellow 2025, and was nominated for the Swiss Art Award in Architecture (2026). The Hinterland Team are a west of Ireland based initiative dedicated to community- rooted research, creativity, and action that nourishes just, inclusive and sustainable food futures. Together with Blanka will we curate an event which responds to the intersecting challenges of climate, agriculture, access, and belonging by cultivating holistic, place-based models of change.