RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Western (over €3,000,000)

A careful balance between faithful restoration and considered, creative intervention has produced a building of signal quality which retains and respects the best of the old, complementing and enriching it with the new.

Architects Comment
Sligo Courthouse is a major public building in the town, part of Sligo’s heritage of Victorian public architecture. From Teeling St., it has a powerful Gothic-Revival character; the surveyed plan revealed that the building was an assembly of several dates including an eighteenth century gaol and ranges of rooms defining several dank courtyards. The brief was for full conservation of its existing character (with special care taken in the repair of courtroom furniture and external stonework and the retention of all existing fabric, surfaces and materials) and the renewal of services and internal communication; new functions were to be housed within its walls. The work undertaken respected the strong character of the Victorian entrance hall and courtrooms; careful interventive surgery allowed for careful opening-up of sections of the building to one another for a lift, staircases and corridors. To the rere, there was a new Family Court suite made like a box within existing external walls and marked by a double height timber panelled wall seen through older windows; the external courtyards were rediscovered and repaved. The careful repair of the existing building and the exposure of its patina gave valid figure ground for modern intervention.

Client Comment
The project to refurbish Sligo Courthouse was a critical part of the Courts Service strategy for the upgrading of Irish court facilities to suit 21st century functional requirements. While the project involved a substantial degree of change, it was important that the essential character of the building was maintained. The brief included full refurbishment of the existing structure, the relocation of many functions and the provision of two additional courtrooms – one a Family Court – within a very tight site that allowed for little physical expansion of space. The architects managed to develop a very clear strategy for the project based on careful assessment of the fabric allowing the discreet location of all services and new functions within the building envelope without any destruction of its character. The new work, for instance the Family Court, is convincingly of our own time yet fully within the Courts tradition. The Courts Service is very pleased with the way that Sligo Courthouse has been renewed and found the process of working with the architects an enjoyable and rewarding meeting of minds.