Fionnuala Heidenreich is an artist and architect. Born in Sydney, Australia, she trained in London and has lived and worked in the UK, Italy and the USA over a course of 18 years. Drawing from her experiences whilst travelling in different parts of the world, she focuses on understanding and making work about the interconnection between nature, natural resources, cultural practices and economies. Using drawing, painting and ceramics as her main mediums, she tells the stories from the point of view of an individual’s experience that is essentially a nodal point that is inseparable from a recognisable collective experience. Understanding how forms of architecture are representative of not only technological and production capabilities of a specific time in history, but of the cultural values and socio-politics of a certain society; it’s accessibility to certain materials and the local or global market value of them, Fionnuala likes to retrace the layers of how a design has come to be built; what it stands for, whose and what purpose it is serving, what its production process means and how different people are socially impacted by it.
Fionnuala also currently runs a design studio - studio fio. Working on commissions for design concepts for urban and architectural proposals, and the procurement of the realisation of these spaces, whether it be a private residence, a public community food garden, a cafe or a set of place specific ceramic pieces. Her approach is to play upon & enhance the connection that the interior space has with its external environmental factors, and social and historical context. And to also play upon how the qualities of a designed space can make us feel when we are within them. She has a deep ongoing interest in how to strengthen connections and build resourcefulness within community, especially in the face of the effects of our current climate