Ranelagh Multidenominational School

The brief was to provide an eight classroom school to the Department of Education and Science standard schedule on a very restricted site.

The site is at a key location on the route from the city centre across the Grand Canal towards Ranelagh village. The neighbouring Georgian Square and terraces form an intact and significant urban design composition.

The building was designed in response to an analysis of the context and in consultation with residents and conservation groups. The plan of the school includes all of the ground of the site and is made up of internal and external spaces which interlock to make one block of interdependent components. The section cuts into the slope of the site to fix the building between street and garden. The landscaped playground can be understood as part of the setting for the listed Georgian terraces.

The exterior brickwork shell is hollowed out to form playgrounds, classrooms and assembly hall. Rhythmic volumes are linked inside to outside under a long cantilevered canopy in response to their contrasting functional requirements and their place in the sequence of the construction programme.