Tom Ó Caollaí (b. 1982) is an artist-historian who uses artistic practices to write and rethink architectural and landscape histories. This research-led ‘topographic practice’ generates site-specific outputs ranging from writing, printed matter and photography, to film, installation and performance. It studies the features of a place and goes beyond: asking how research methods, practices, and outcomes can also be site-specific.

Ó Caollaí trained in landscape architecture at the University of Sheffield and architectural history at the Bartlett, where he is currently completing an AHRC-funded PhD in architectural design studying the architectures and landscapes of the Irish borderlands, under the supervision of Professors Jane Rendell and Barbara Penner. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Salone del Mobile Milano, Istanbul Design Biennial, Lismore Castle Arts, and Architecture at the Edge. Previously he worked for The Architecture Foundation (London, UK), Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York, USA), and Space Caviar (Genoa, Italy).

His writing has been featured in publications such as Places Journal, The Architectural Review, Building Material, MacGuffin, and Domus; and is held in the collections of the National Art Library and the School of Architecture Library at Princeton University. He is a lecturer at Cork Centre for Architectural Education and the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Tom finds it difficult to write in the third person.