RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Western Over €3m

A strong contemporary civic building which works to establish urban context in small rural town. The variety of uses within the building are organised around a generous reception/ foyer area, a space between 2 floating planes, with a variety of different entrances to the building, with the design organised along the pattern of the houses which previously occupied the site. In a complex building on a sloping site, the architects have managed access in a seamless way.

The use of stone, glass and zinc further enhance the civic nature of the building, with the overall project seen as a high quality intervention in a modest urban setting, making a significant contribution to its community.

Architect's Comment
The Tubbercurry Civic Offices and Library project was built to provide public services and for the people of south Sligo and a civic focus for the town of Tubbercurry; it contains Local Authority offices and a Library, as well as courtroom space for the monthly District Court. The site is urban - located on a side street near the townsquare; it was formerly occupied by house, two of which were retained in the project. The houses were small, lightly imprinted on the ground, but they had long gardens running in plots back from the street - luxuriant, overgrown, generous finders of space. The project was an opportunity to explore modern concepts of urbanity in a small Irish town: the front façade is directly on the street and the plan opens back into a series of narrow fingers echoing the original house plots, inviting access deep into the scheme.

Activities are placed around the central hall: the library is at one side of the envelope separated by a glazed screen; offices are at the other; the back of the central hall contains the local Council Chamber visible from the street. The rectangular plan be accessed at several places; there is a ramp at the side which runs from the car park and is threaded through a narrow throat of space into the lobby; further routes are set between grids of structure and screens from the street to the car park at the rear - where their line is visually extended in the paving. A built landscape between two floating planes, the building is covered by an undulating zinc roof like the horizon line on the local landscape interrupted by roof-lights - large segments cut and folded up, smaller circular lights over the library. the ground floor-with dark limestone paving imprinted with thousands of fossil shapes - is stepped like a piece of open ground, folding down in a ramp and continuing at a lower level to the back door; two floors of office accommodation are incorporated within the envelope at one side. The main entrance space is fixed by light columns like slender trees supporting the roof plane.

Clients' Comment
The newly opened one stop shop in Tubbercurry is proving to be a very popular facility with the people of South Sligo. The venture is the first of its kind by Sligo County Council, and represents a major investment by the Local Authority in this part of the country.

The aim of the initiative is to deliver from one premises a co-ordinated range of Local Authority services. In addition to housing an area office for Sligo County Council, the building also hosts a Motor Taxation Office, Tubbercurry Branch Library, The Courts Service, the North Western Health Board, FÁS and the Citizens Information Service. The facility also hosts a council chamber and meeting rooms for use by the local community.

In the site itself in Humbert Street was very dilapidated and presented a very poor image of the town as one approached from the Northern end. This has been dramatically altered with the provision of a new building which is a blend of history and innovation; the façades of the existing buildings on the street having been retained and incorporated in the development.

The Council are confident this project will act as a catalyst in encouraging further development along this street and indeed is already breathing new life into the area with user numbers in the short period since opening for business being well ahead of expectations.