RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Western (over €300,000)

Architects Comment
The project is an extension to an existing facility and the brief divides into two main functions; one a canteen facility at ground floor level and the second additional I.T. office accommodation at first floor level.

Our architectural response was to treat the extension as an object building defined from the main factory structure by a tapered atrium. This allowed the aesthetic aspirations of the company to be infused in the new building while using the existing as a backdrop or datum from which to spring.

The architectural composition of the new building responds to the different characteristics of the brief and the different quality of light required in each.

The introverted nature of the I.T. facility is reflected in the solid massing of the first floor with light being admitted through controlled openings and from a defused screen onto the atrium.

The canteen facility in contrast is extrovert and fully glazed to embrace the mature landscape externally and to provide the employees with a liberating respite from the production floor.

Both volumes are offset to reinforce their contrasting functions. Low sculptural boundary walls complete the composition and extend to further embrace the landscape.

The atrium is the controller of light and the centre of the design extending out to articulate the entrance.

Client Comment
Tyco Healthcare are a conglomerate multi-national company. Our Galway facility manufactures medical devices for respiratory care.

Internal staff surveys highlighted the need to upgrade our staff dining facilities. We appointed the design team and presented them with a brief, which essentially outlined the need to extend our existing canteen facility at ground floor level and secondly to provide some additional space at first floor level.

‘Our Canteen’, as it is now referred to by our staff, has had a tremendous impact on staff/management relations and had generated a refreshing and uplifting environment which has surpassed all of our expectations.

The quality of natural light and relationship with the external landscape are particularly striking.