\u201cI needed to get out to see different ways of thinking and of being as an architect before I could imagine different things for myself,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell\u2019s practice operates \u201con the fringes of architecture\u201d; many of her projects are about research and drawing rather than building. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in Berlin and seeing the freedom people have to be themselves, to try out new things, gave me the courage to try it myself,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
O\u2019Donnell set up Berlin-based Plattenbaustudio<\/a>, an architecture and drawing firm, with her Irish husband Jonathan Janssens in 2018.<\/p>\n The Tipperary native met Janssens on their first day studying architecture at UCD. Despite \u201camazing years\u201d at the university, the surrounding south Dublin suburbs did not exactly provide an inspirational built environment.<\/p>\n \u201cMy thesis site was in Berlin … just seeing the vibrancy of a big, proper cosmopolitan city felt really exciting,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n [\u00a0Why are so many Irish moving to the \u2018new Berlin on the Med\u2019?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n She vowed to return. After graduating and working for a small Dublin firm, O\u2019Donnell moved to Berlin 11 years ago. \u201cWe dropped everything and went for it. We had no jobs. It was scary and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n The city felt so different to O\u2019Donnell. For example, she could go out at night and find herself \u201cpartying to techno in the basement of an old swimming pool\u201d. (The arrival of the couple\u2019s daughter in recent years has put such late night adventures on hold.)<\/p>\n Being so disconnected after the second World War and with the Berlin Wall meant people in the city \u201chad to band together\u201d and do things for themselves, she says. As a result, \u201cnow it\u2019s cool and interesting\u201d, and she loves how citizens value their parks and spaces they want to hold on to.<\/p>\n When she first arrived, O\u2019Donnell began working at an international firm on high-level projects with big budgets. But after three \u201ctough and exhausting\u201d years, she felt she was missing something in her work. She and Jannsen quit their jobs and started their own firm from their kitchen table.<\/p>\n Plattenbaustudio focuses on research and drawing, and they work on projects both in Germany and Ireland. They also take part in exhibitions (including the RHA annual exhibition in Dublin), installations and lectures (including at the Irish Museum of Modern Art). <\/p>\n
![\"Urban](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IRWUMWMFBRBXZJR5SBLNEMDRB4.jpg\")
Urban Mirror, a sculpture on Cornmarket Street in Cork by Plattenbaustudio. Photograph: Clare Keogh <\/p>\n