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Irish Language Cultural Centre

The brief for Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin included performance and educational facilities, public and administrative services, for a contemporary Cultural Centre for Irish Language, Arts and Culture on a sensitive site in the historic centre of Derry.

The landlocked site is contained on three sides with one narrow end facing the street. The architectural strategy is to create a glass roofed courtyard at the centre of the scheme and to draw the public realm through an archway in the street frontage with the minimum sense of barrier between footpath and courtyard.

A continuous terrazzo floor connects the footpath to the building interior. The scheme starts from the central court, which is thought of as an outside room locked within the form. A board marked concrete trapezoidal courtyard is carved through the four floors of the building. Stairs, bridges and platforms cross and overlook the skylit volume, providing legible access to classrooms, offices, social and performance spaces.

Area:
2,000m2
Address:
37 Great James St, Londonderry BT48 7DF, UK
Client:
Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin
GPS:
54°59'59.0"N 7°19'29.3"W
Competition:
End Year:
Awards:
Exhibitions:
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters 2015 Awards: O’Donnell + Tuomey
    Dublin, 29 Oct  – 9 Nov 2015
  • The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2011 Exhibition - Chicago
    Chicago, USA
  • New Irish Architecture – Rebuilding the Republic
    Leuven, Belgium
  • The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2011 Exhibition - Vienna
    Vienna, Austria
  • The Lives of Spaces
    Venice, Italy

The street front is modelled as a three-dimensional composition in concrete and glass to give emphasis to the complexity and cultural content of the building. The building has been carefully designed to be sympathetically integrated with its urban conservation context and to be clearly legible as a significant cultural building within the architectural landmarks of the city.

Publications:

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