Client An Gaeláras
Location Derry, UK
Architect O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects
Value £2.8m
Maximising educational and cultural access in Derry
About the project
The new Cultural Arts and Language Centre is designed for visitors, public and community use. The Centre includes a 150-person flexible performance space, craft shop, café, teaching and office accommodation areas. The building is a space for creativity, exploration, learning and enterprise.
Environmental aspects include GGBS cement and a natural ventilation system combined with passive measures such as high thermal mass and insulation. These resulted in low energy consumption, reduced CO2 emissions and low annual heating bills.
The client's aim was to create a vibrant and innovative building, which would be easily recognisable from the Derry City Walls and reflective of the vibrancy and creativeness of the Irish language Culture. Originally working from inadequate premises, the clients aspiration of the new building at no 37 Great James Street was to increase both the scale and range of activities in a purpose-built cultural centre maximising the efficiency through a professional, sustainable approach.
The new building has provided broader cultural and educational access to the public. The building has enhanced collective space by locating the focus and experience within the building rather than expressed through exterior representation.
IN2 was responsible for the complete Environmental, Mechanical and Electrical Services design, including specialist technical wiring and lighting installations to the flexible performance space. The building is thought of as an open house with windows overlooking street and courtyard with ease-of-access and circulation for visitors and staff.
Although the site is tightly contained by blind boundaries on three sides, the design seeks to open up the interior of the plot to daylight to maximise the potential for visual interaction with the street and to exploit available views to the city walls. The emphasis is on natural light, natural materials, natural ventilation, with internal courtyards and roof gardens giving identity and character to the new building.
