A R C H I T E C T U R A L A S S O C I A T I O N O F I R E L A N D ARCHIVE :: A A I . A W A R D S . 95.96

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Assessors Recipients

A S S E S S O R S Weil Arets . Gerry Cahill . Michelle Fagan . Prof Cathal O'Neill . Ciarán Benson

R E C I P I E N T S  J O I N T . M E D A L
	THE ARK, A CULTURAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN Temple Bar, Dublin Group 91 Architects / Shane O'Toole and Michael Kelly The Ark occupies the site os a 1725 Presbyterian Meeting House, used throughout this century as a printing works and warehouse. The 1843 Ordinance Survey map shows a long hall, with stairs at both ends, giving onto a galleried room behind. The new plan deliberately invokes the 'memory' of that building in its form and dimensions. A new concrete 'facade' addresses the brick wall: behind it is a concrete box, into which is inserted the oak drum of the theatre. The footprint of the original building is reinstated, as is, figuratively, the attic space, now a north-light studio workshop concealed behind the front parapet. The Ark's new facade, on Meeting House Square, is faced in brick and stone and has attached metal elements, but its non-structural nature is revealed by suspending it, so that it hovers just above the paving of the square. A drop of 1.2 metres between the level of the street and the square behind offered additional potential: large doors can be opened up to create a natural raised stage for outdoor performances to the square, in which The Ark's theatre becomes a stage to the square's auditorium.
BLACK CHURCH PRINT STUDIOS Temple Bar, Dublin McCullough Mulvin Architects On the site of the single-storey sculptors' annexe to Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, a new building has been constructed for Black Church Print Studios. The Building will provide three floors of printing facilities - screenprint, etching and lithography, with a print gallery at street level. The facade of the building - gridded like a compositor's frame of type-faces - has a blank panel behind which are the small-scale processes and a larger area of windows to give the maximum light to each printing floor. The top storey is set back to provide a roof terrace.
A W A R D S
	NATIONAL MUSEUM AT COLLINS BARRACKS Dublin Gilroy McMahon Architects/ Office of Public Works In early 1994, the National Museum secured Collins Barracks, Ireland's largest and Europe's oldest military barracks. The design strategy transforms a defensive building complex into an accessible public facility. All the public assembly functions of the museum - the audio-visual room, the children's education rooms, the community meeting room, the bookshop and the cafe - are located at ground level to open onto what is intended to be a 'living sqaure'. Office of Public Works
	JOHN ROCHA DESIGN STUDIO Temple Lane, Dublin Group 91 Architects/ Derek Tynan Architects This project is the fit-out of a two-storey commercial building - part of the Printworks development - as design studio and offices for the fashion designer John Rocha. The brief was to accomodate design functions, periodic display of collections and central administration offices; actual production and retailing taking place elsewhere. Two floors are interlinked by double-height spaces over the pattern room and reception, allowing the various activities to be visually connected. The principal objective was to provide open, bright and calm spaces which successfully accomodate the client's requirements.
	DUNDALK FREIGHT DEPOT - CHECK-IN OFFICE David Hughes, Iarnród Éireann Architects The overall design philosophy was to add interest to a forgotten building type from industrial facilities, and to show how the robust environment necessary can be tempered with humour and a touch of style. The check-in office is the main control point for vehicles entering and leaving the container depot. Two checkers handle the traffic. In addition, three administrative staff and a manager work in the building. The building also provides a canteen for the staff who work within the building and for any drivers who may be in the depot.
	CIVIC OFFICES AT WOOD QUAY Dublin Scott Tallon Walker Architects During construction of the existing tower blocks, the buildings along the quays and Winetavern Street were demolished, opening up a view of the cathedral from the river. The design solution of the new civic offices respects the views of Christchurch Cathedral from the river, while continuing the architecture of the riverfront, with a building block starting in line with the facades os SS Michael & john's Church, and cranking to respect the line of the friary building to the west of O'Donovan Rossa Bridge. The cranking of this building created a portico as the main entrance to the Civic Offices, and a similar portico was made to the corner of Winetavern Street to further enhance the view to the cathedral. The design links the historic area directly to the spine of the Temple Bar development and creates a new outdoor public space in an area of the site where building could not take place because of a requirement to protect the unexcavated part of this important Viking site. A gradual rise in scale from the river to the original tower blocks helps to diminish their dominance of river views. Similar granite cladding further integrates the new buildings with the existing.
S P E C I A L . M E N T I O N S
FAMILY APARTMENT IN THE LIBERTIES Dublin MV Cullinan Architect This flat for a young family is located in an inner-city apartment building, built in 1994 on a busy thoroughfare in the Liberties area of Dublin. The apartment is on three levels entered from a common stairwell at second floor. The sleeping area accomodation was located at entry level, allowing the living areas above to connect directly to a roof terrace, which was added to take advantage of the southern exposure and magnificent views across city rooftops to the Dublin mountains.
A FOOTBRIDGE AT KELLS Co. Kilkenny Desmond FitzGerald Architects The footbridge is designed as part of a new footpath linking small village of Kells, a mill and priory, on two sides of the river. The bridge's form developed from the natural flow of movement from the mill-race island across to the priory.
MUSEUM AT MELLIFONT ABBEY Co. Louth McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects Located beside Mellifont Abbey in County Louth, the project houses a small museum, canteen/office for the guides, and public toilets. The location is beside Mellifont Abbey in County Louth. There are three building elements - an existing derelict terrace house which has been renovated as a single museum space, a new cedar timber box containing the guides' facilities, built over an existing structure (now stone-faced) containing the public toilets. Little of the original buildings of Meelifont remain, but there are large amounts of worked stone and these form the subject of the museum. A diaginal, folded sheet steel display divides the space and determines the route by which visitors pass from ticket/reception desk around the exhibition, out into the courtyard and from there to the abbey.
FOUR HOUSES Tulach Ard, Rahoon, Galway MV Cullinan, National Building Agency These four houses are part of a pilot scheme located at the entrance to lands owned by Galway Corporation. The client intends to open up these lands for a variety of public housing; the scheme illustrated is intended to set the tone for future developments. There are three two-bedroom houses and one single-bedroom house, laid out in a short crescent, facing south onto an existing pair of trees. Each house is organized around an entrance courtyard which opens onto the new access road. This, combined with the stone-faced gable, allows for greater privacy on what will prove to be a heavily trafficked route.
HOUSE IN NORTH COUNTY DUBLIN O'Donnell & Tuomey Architects The architectural intention is to integrate the small family house with its pastoral surroundings by breaking up the volume into parts, grouped around a yard, to relate to the traditions of existing farm buildings in the area. Local authority planning restrictions stipulated a dormer bungalow as a mandatory requirement. The timber-framed, zinc-roofed two-storey wing contains two bedrooms, bathrooms and utility rooms. The lime-washed, blockwork, barn-like living area contains a timber-frame study with a sleeping platform overhead. There are no corridors in the house. Each part can be closed off or the whole house opened up.
HOUSE TO LET O'Muire Smyth Architects The building is in a conservation area and, when purchased, consisted of the external walls and roof, together with the remnants of the first-floor beams. Our brief was to provide a house with three bedrooms, suitable for letting, on a tight budget. The ground floor plan is ordered by a stepped curved wall. The first floor is also ordered by the curved wall, returning as a reverse curve at first-floor level, leading to the bedrooms, overlooking the double height space and screen to the rear courtyard.
GARDEN IN CORK de paor b arch This is a scheme for a garden to a terraced Victorian house in Cork city. The client lives to the top of the house and wished to take advantage of the extraordinary section. Replacing an existing shed, a large piece of garden furniture spans from the existing house to the garden, providing a covered area to store fuel and grow plants. A planted wired screen rises to the upper level. The structure also carries water and electricity to the garden, while its upper plant boxes hold a herb garden.
PRIVATE RESIDENCE Roebuck, Dublin Derek Tynan Architects This project is a renovation and extension of a Victorian library as a private residence. The existing building, attached to a large, villa-type dwelling, was originally the library of Seán McBride, but recent development has left the library in a state of near dereliction. The project is created around the two separate identities - the refurbishment, as a conservation project, of the original library space, and the addition of a similarly scaled two-storey addition to accomodate bedrooms and further studio/living space. The kitchen is accomodated in the glazed link joining the library to the original house. A slot of space between the library and the addition forms the front entrance hall, from which both the restored library and the stairs and studio are revealed.
SOLICITORS OFFICES Francis Street, Dublin Derek Tynan Architects This project is the renovation and extension of a three-storey building as offices for a solicitor's practice. The basic organisation is the use of ground level for public-related functions, with general office and individual solicitors' offices on upper floors. The principal design intention was to use the spatial intention of the long and narrow site to interlink the various areas and to maintain the sun-lit aspect. A two-storey, rooflit slot cut through the existing building, and the new addition becomes the principal organising element of the lower floors and allows light to penetrate onto the two-storey party wall.

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