We are delighted to announce that the Student Hub, University College Cork is the winner for the Adaptation and Re-use category in the 2021 RIAI Awards.

The awards are given annually to acknowledge achievement in architecture and celebrate the quality of work carried out by RIAI members and the contribution registered architects make to the built environment. Marking the 32nd year of the awards, the RIAI announced 17 Award Winners across all categories.

The adaptation and reuse of our existing buildings – a sustainable response by architects to Climate Change – was particularly strong this year and the top award went to the transformation of the former anatomy school at University College Cork into a Student Hub by O’Donnell + Tuomey.

The Student Hub is a sensitive and crafted intervention at the heart of University College Cork. Through a process of careful conservation, adaptation and reuse, the architects have transformed the existing building and reconfigured its setting within a landscape of quadrangles, courtyards and squares. The UCC Student Hub is conceived with great freedom, respecting the simple form and craft of the existing building, it integrates effortlessly within the campus while affirming its own unique identity. The project speaks to one of architecture’s most pressing challenges, the conservation of our limited resources through greater and more intelligent forms of adaptation and re-use of our often under-utilised historic buildings.

RIAI Jury Citation

Category:
• Awards