RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Dublin, Over £1,000,000

This is already a landmark building, but more than by virtue of its location. The scale and rhythm of the building, of both facadessuits its context wellis an achievement brought about by the ingenious use of the site section. For the children who occupy it, it has a texture and pattern of materials, volumes and spaces, combined with small, magical details, which fix it in one's mind. For the architects who brought it through its tortuous birth and for those who promoted it, it must be a joy.

Architects Description
The site is at a key location on the route from the city centre accross the Grand Canal towards Ranelagh village. The neighbouring Georgian square and terraces form an intact and significant urban design competition.

The building is designed in response to an analysis of the context. It is broken up into two-storey blocks of paired classrooms, with the single-storey general-purpose room recessed between them. The roof terrace over the general purpose room is used for occasional outdoor group work and for supervised play.

Client's Comment
Three key factors make this building special for us. The sense in each classroom that there is activity beyondthat room gives a unity to the school that moves away rfom the isolation of classrooms of old. We wanted to integrate the atmosphere and the intangible quantities of our old school with a high-quality, purpose built school that contributes to the environment of Ranelagh.

In their design, the architects met our needss to an extraordinarily high degree, and yet the building retains a sense of the possibility of things yet to be explored - the shapes, the courtyards, the roof terrace, even the corridors. The pride of the staff and pupils in their new school augurs well for the future.