Project:
Client:
Gross Floor area:
Structural Engineer:
Environmental Engineer:
Gallery Consultant:
Quantity Surveyor:
Theatre Consultant:
Acoustician:
Photography:

First prize / RIAI Competition
VISUAL, Carlow County Council
4,600 sqm
Arup, Ireland
Arup, Ireland
Bruce McAllister
Nolan Ryan Tweeds
Theatre Project Consultants
Acoustic Dimensions
Helene Binet & Terry Pawson Architects

The new gallery for contemporary art, together with its 350-seat “George Bernard Shaw Theatre”, is located in the centre of Carlow within the grounds of St Patrick's College and opposite the Cathedral.

The architectural language of the building has been developed as an intersecting assembly of translucent glass volumes that transforms throughout the day as light passes through the building skin.

Internally, the main 'white box' gallery spaces are linked by a landscape of exposed in-situ concrete. Wall surfaces have been cast against a textured board and the deeply coffered concrete ceilings, create a tension between the stark simplicity of the gallery spaces and the linking landscape with its robust industrial quality.