RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Western - Over £100,000

The building accommodates the rite of Confession for up to 500 people and 60 priests. The site contains the old chapel, a basilica, Stations of the Cross, a cemetry, parish buildings, hostels and a museum. The idea of the building is to reform the landscape. The chapel is sited in a grassy hollow between the processional square and a garden on higher ground, surrounded by a grass bank with hawthorne bushes; the grass is continued over the flat roof and on the upper level of the building to a clear glass lantern.

The interior is dark with small windows to the confessionals, and brilliant at the sanctuary. Internally the radial plan gathers the congregation and allows ease of movement to the side parts of the church. Externally the new chapel is represented by symbols in the landscape - the black cross, the entrance and the lantern. The structure is load bearing masonry walls, steel structure, oak colonnade and pre-cast concrete roof under 250mm of soil. The lantern is oak clad and all internal joinery and furniture is oak. The floor and courtyard walls are white limestone.