Portrush: Architecture for the North Irish Coast

The North Irish coast resembles one of the unique landscapes that define the scenic character of the place. To understand place you need to engage with stories and histories behind it. The search for Portrush has to start from Ulster. This book offers a journey to explore histories, traditions, festivities and the architecture of the Irish town. Approaching Portrush as a field of experimental architectural studio, the studio at Queen’s University Belfast teamed up to rediscover the Irish coastal condition and have a rethink about the origins and ingredients of Irish architecture and landscape. This book records and discusses this ambitious project and its outcome. Divided into two parts, the book introduces a comprehensive contextual and historical investigation into the heritage, culture and architecture followed by a display of students’ theoretical encounters and designs.

Shifting Ground:Beyond National Architecture

The Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 charts a position for Irish architecture in a global culture where the modes of production of architecture are radically altered. Ireland is one of the most globalised countries in the world, yet it has developed a national culture of architecture derived from local place as a material construct. We now have to evolve our understanding in the light of the globalised nature of economic processes and architectural production which is largely dependent on internationally networked flows of products, data, and knowledge. We have just begun to represent this situation to ourselves and others. How should a global architecture be grounded culturally and philosophically? How does it position itself outside of shared national reference points?
heneghan peng architects were selected as participants because they are working across three continents on a range of competition-winning projects. Several of these are in sensitive and/or symbolic sites that include three UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Giants Causeway Visitor Centre in Northern Ireland, and the new Rhine Bridge near Lorelei.
Our dialogue led us to discussing the universal languages of projective geometry and number are been shared by architects and related professionals. In the work of heneghan peng, the specific embodiment of these geometries is carefully calibrated by the choice of materials and the detailed design of their physical performance on site. The stone facade of the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre takes precise measure of the properties of the volcanic basalt seams from which it is hewn. The extraction of the stone is the subject of the pavilion wall drawings which record the cutting of stones to create the façade of the causeway centre.
We also identified water as an element which is shared across the different sites. Venice is a perfect place to take measure of this element which suggests links to another site – the Nile Valley which was enriched by the annual flooding of the River Nile. An ancient Egyptian rod for measuring the water level of the Nile inspired the design of the Nilometre - a responsive oscillating bench that invites visitors to balance their respective weights. This action embodies the ways of thinking that are evolving to operate in the globalised world, where the autonomous architectural object is dissolving into an expanded field of conceptual rules and systems. The bench constitutes a shifting ground located in the unstable field of Venice. It is about measurement and calibration of the weight of the body in relation to other bodies; in relation to the site of the installation; and in relation to water. The exhibit is located in the Artiglierie section of the Arsenale. Its level is calibrated against the mark of the acqua alta in the adjacent brickwork of the building which embodies a liminal moment in the fluctuating level of the lagoon.
The weights of bodies, the level of water, changes over time, are constant aspects of design across cultures and collectively they constitute a common ground for architecture - a ground shared with other design professionals. The movement of the bench required complex engineering design and active collaboration between the architects, engineers and fabricators. It is a kind of prototype – a physical object produced from digital data that explores the mathematics at play – the see-saw motion invites the observer to become a participant, to give it a test drive. It shows how a simple principle can generate complex effects that are difficult to predict and invites visitors to experiment and play with them.

Church of St George and St Thomas

Abstract: A vibrant inner city parish needed space for meetings, language classes, children’s play and other support accommodation as well as a clearer link between the interior of the listed church and the space outside.

The project builds itself about the entrance to the church. The form is manipulated such that the intervention recedes from those entering the church, drawing them into the plan before becoming readable as an addition. The resultant poché between this entrance sequence and the fabric of the church is hollowed out to provide the required accommodation. These rooms are insulated and lined in cork to allow for their use separate to the main body of the church. With budget at a premium the construction methodology was developed from an analysis of traditional Irish boat building techniques, which allowed the use of the solid timber to act as the primary structure with no additional material support.

Constructed in solid walnut the intervention reads with the existing brick interior and yet is clearly identifiable as a contemporary addition.

Aims / Objectives Questions

1 To accommodate new space inside an existing protected structure.
2 To form a new threshold between interior and exterior.
3 To develop an affordable means of construction that would be durable and rapid to erect.
4 To make a contemporary addition in sympathy with the qualities of the existing protect structure, in line with best conservation practice and research.
5 Traditional forms of construction as a model for contemporary technologies.

Ballyfermot Leisure and Youth Centre - Building, 2009

Awards:
Award Best Leisure Building - 2009 RIAI Irish Architecture Awards
Special Mention 2009 AAI Awards for Excellence in Architecture

Reviews:
2010/11 RIAI Irish Architecture Review, Dublin Volume 1
2009 AAI New Irish Architecture Cork Volume 24
2009 Architecture Ireland, Dublin Volume 245
2009 A+D Magazine, Brussels Issue No.32
2009 A10 Magazine, Amsterdam Issue 26, March April 2009
2009 PLAN Magazine, Dublin March 2009
2009 PLAN Irish Architecture, Dublin Review 2009
2008 The Irish Times, Dublin November 27th
2008 The Architects Journal, London Volume 228, November 13th

Dunshaughlin Parochial Centre - Building, 2010

Awards:
Dunshaughlin Pastoral Centre: Nominated Irish Entry, 2010 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture : Mies van der Rohe Award
Dunshaughlin Pastoral Centre: Highly Commended, 2010 RIAI Irish Architecture Awards : Best Cultural Building Category
Dunshaughlin Pastoral Centre: Highly Commended, 2010 Opus Architecture and Construction Awards

Reviews:
2011 AAI New Irish Architecture Volume 26 Cork
2011 A+D Magazine Brussels, Issue No.36
2010 A10 Amsterdam 26th July 2010
2010 Architecture Ireland, Dublin Volume 251
2010 Plan Magazine, Dublin November December 2010
2010 The Architects Journal, London15 July 2010

Bord Gais Above Ground Installation:Flow

The objective was to design a treatment that would dematerialise an above ground gas installation on the Liffey quayside while still meeting the functional requirement to ventilate the pressure reducing chamber inside. To do this we wrapped the installation in a skin of glass that allows the air to enter below the skin and to escape behind the parapet. The installation building is covered in plastic sequins and the glass is treated with alternating bands of dichroic film. The flow of air causes the sequins to shimmer reflecting spots of coloured light back onto the glass. At night a similar effect is created by lighting concealed within the outer skin. This project won a commendation in the RIAI Awards 2010, and an AAI award in 2011. It was published in New Irish Architecture 26. The British architectural historian William JR Curtis described it as ‘a beautiful understated little kiosk.’

House at Bogwest

House at Bogwest to be included in a guide to contemporary Irish architecture since 1990 published by Gandon Editions and prepared by Sean Antoin O Muiri.