RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Accessibility and the principles of universal design were evidently well considered. A diligent philosophy not to differentiate and separate all users has been employed throughout in addressing issues of external approach, reception, way finding and the overall internal environment. Bright ‘white’ finishes of most surfaces create a calm environment but may impede differentiation. This minor comment, however, is not to take away from a building that is a fine example of what is truly meant by an accessible environment.

Architect's Comments:

The three facades of the existing City Hall provide independent access to a variety of civic functions: a concert hall accessed through the north façade facing the River Lee, a Lecture Hall accessed from the east, and the Council Chamber entered from the west. Our proposal was to ‘reveal’ the fourth, ‘back-stage’ elevation as the new administrative entrance to the civic complex. The project is structured around two dramatic spaces: a narrow Stair Hall, formed between the exposed ’fourth façade’ of the City Hall and the new building, and a top-lit Civic Hall. The Civic Hall, conceived as a public room for Cork City, and generated from an existing diagonal public route across the site, is of a scale commensurate with the existing Concert Hall and St. Finbarr’s Cathedral. The Stair Hall, separated from the public atrium at ground floor by an enfilade of glazed meeting rooms, contains the principle vertical circulation. This hall acts as the principle orientating space for staff. The solid, ‘masonry’ element is conceived of as a carved volume, eroded in response to the adjacent City Hall and city edge condition. It fulfils the function of a ‘service block’, containing the principal support for both the existing City Hall and the glass volume.

Client's Comments:

It had been apparent for many years that Cork City Council was urgently in need of a substantial and central new building, to consolidate its offices from a variety of disparate locations around the south of the City into the one City Hall ‘campus.’ The project began in earnest in 2003 when the City Manager instigated the procurement process by inviting expressions of interest for a Design Build and Finance contract for such a building, on a vacant site immediately next to the existing City Hall. Along with the developer and design team, the architect won the tender with an imaginative, impressive and well considered proposal which clearly indicated in outline both the design and specification intent and in some areas went beyond the brief to further improve the scheme.