AN HOMAGE to Catalonia is being paid in Dublin's Liberty Hall today in a symposium called Design and Cities – Lessons from Barcelona.It honours the awarding of honorary membership of the RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland) to President Pasqual Maragall (former President of Catalonia and Mayor of Barcelona). There's an impressive line-up of architects, including David Mackay – who worked on the design of the port area of Barcelona and the Olympic Village (and the not universally loved building beside Dublin's City Hall). Also speaking will be RIAI president Paul Keogh, Dublin city architect Ali Grehan, city planner Dick Gleeson and urban planner Manuel Diez Garrido and a designer of sentences, writer Colm Tóibín .

It's a busy month for the RIAI whose members are heading to Carlow for its annual conference – bearing fond memories of the days in which these think-ins took place in Venice, Bordeaux and New York – from October 23rd-24th. Architects are used to riding economic waves, what with being in the building trade, and they are eternal optimists because they are on a mission to improve the world, hence the conference title Riding out the Storm – Survival, Renewal and Recovery. They've also lined up impressive speakers, including – hail again the reign of Spain – Rafael Moneo, along with Kenneth Frampton and Edward Jones, who was once voted a "dishy don" by Cosmopolitanmagazine. For more see riai.ie