Engineering as a creative art.
Peter Rice’s engineering helped make some of the twentieth century’s most ambitious architecture possible. Arup’s record places him among the team behind the Centre Pompidou in Paris, designed with Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Its exposed structure and services freed the interior for flexible use.
That collaboration gives the Dundalk portraits another layer: engineering can involve imagination, material knowledge and visual daring as much as calculation. Omin’s founding-year tribute and MonkeyBird’s later interpretation approach the same figure through very different artistic languages.
The full story of Peter Rice IN PUBLISHED WORDS / June 1973Centre Beaubourg: introductory articleTed Happold and Peter Rice · The Arup JournalPublished engineering writing from the project’s own team, rather than a retrospective quotation.
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Historical context and editorial interpretation are distinguished above. Sources researched October 2026.
The story across the years.
Other artists’ interpretations of this subject in the festival collection.
2019Peter RiceOmin · On the streetsThe story behind the wall.
MonkeyBird’s intricate 2024 mural honours Peter Rice on Bachelors Walk. Rice is celebrated in the festival’s collection through the work of different artists; here, the French duo’s architectural imagination and elaborate stencil technique create a fresh interpretation.
Meet MonkeyBird.
View artist profile & all their workThe MonkeyBird duo's artwork graces walls worldwide, breathing new life into historical remnants and infusing public spaces with renewed beauty.
Drawing inspiration from art history, architecture, and nature, these French artists create symbol-rich works that resonate with collective memory, reflecting humanity's journey through time. Their meticulous stencil technique, executed by hand, yields murals of monumental details and distinctive style.
Immersing viewers in a contemplative atmosphere, their work transports us to a suspended realm where architecture melds with vibrant nature and raw materials pulsate with vitality. Central to their compositions, monkeys and birds incarnate emblems of human duality, guiding us through mesmerizing landscapes.
These creatures encapsulate the dichotomy of instinctual impulse and thoughtful reflection, prompting profound introspection into our own nature.
