A la Royal Academy of Arts de Londres, l’exposition en cours Sensing Spaces invite à ressentir les espaces, et permet aux spectateurs de venir s’approprier et interagir avec les œuvres d’Eduardo Souto de Moura, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Kengo Kuma, Li Xiaodong, Diébédo Francis Kéré et l’agence irlandaise Grafton Architects.
Grafton Architects added the four new buildings to the main campus of the University of Limerick, which straddles the River Shannon in the west of Ireland. Alongside the existing sports pavilion, world music academy and health sciences facility, the structures frame a new student plaza on the north side of the campus.
The architects selected different materials for the two types of building. “The language of the medical school is that of an educational institution while the student residences appear like three large houses,” they explain.
For the four-storey medical school, they added a facade of cool grey limestone that references the local architectural vernacular. An angled colonnade directs visitors into the building, where a full-height atrium leads through to laboratories and lecture rooms.
“[The atrium is] designed as a social space with enough room to stop and chat or lean on a balustrade/shelf and view the activity of the entrance and other spaces above and below,” say the architects.
The three student housing buildings zigzag along the northern perimeter of the plaza. Each block has a brickwork exterior with recessed windows and concrete sills.
Inside, floors are laid out with living rooms and kitchens overlooking the public square in front, while bedrooms face back to the quieter northern border of the campus. There are also sheltered meeting places carved out of the base of each block, leading through to the laundry room and bicycle store beyond.
As well as these buildings, the architects also added a new concrete bus shelter to the campus, with steps and ramps that negotiate the sloping ground.
Photography is by Denis Gilbert, apart from where stated otherwise.
Here’s a project description from Grafton Architects:
Medical School, Student Residences and Bus Shelter at the University of Limerick
The University of Limerick, in the South West of Ireland occupies a large territory, formerly a Demesne, and is situated on both sides of the lower reaches of the river Shannon, the longest and largest river in Ireland. Part of its most recent expansion to the north of this great river, accessible by pedestrian bridge from the existing campus, provides for the construction of a new medical school building and accommodation buildings for students attending the facility. These new buildings are also intended to address a large public open space which will ultimately become the focal point for this expansion of the campus to the North.
The aspiration is to combine faculty buildings and residences in a manner which encourages overlap and contributes to the life of the public spaces at the University. Aspects of the formal character are derived from an interpretation of the campus master plan which requires an organic approach to the making of public spaces on the north side of the river Shannon. Here the ground is sloping and remnants of the agrarian landscape pattern are still evident in the form of old field patterns and hedgerows.
This new suite of buildings combines with three existing, neighbouring institutions, the Sports Pavillion, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and the Health Sciences Building, in order to make a new public space. The new buildings consist of a medical school, three blocks of student housing and a canopy/pergola forming a bus and bicycle shelter.
The Medical School, the last in a series of set pieces, acts as an anchor around which the other buildings now loosely rotate. The language of the medical school is that of an educational institution while the student residences appear like three large houses. The concrete bus shelter, together with the residences combine with the medical school to form a loose edge to the public space. The bus shelter canopy, steps and ramps negotiate the level change to the sports pavilion beyond.
Photograph by Alice Clancy
The central space slopes gently to the west. Three oak trees, stone seats and steps occupy a central level platform subtly providing a focal point before the space moves out, fracturing at the edges to connect to the residences, car parking and other faculty buildings. The surfaces of the public space move from hard to soft, south sloping grassed spaces, designed with and without furniture to provide for leisure and lingering. The buildings stand guard facing the public space, distinguished by their material.
Photograph by Alice Clancy
Limestone is used to represent the ‘formal’ central medical school, making reference to the limestone territory of County Clare in which this side of the campus is located. The stone wall is folded, profiled and layered in response to orientation, sun , wind, rain and public activity. A colonnade to the south and west corner acts as a gathering and entrance space. In contrast the north and east walls are more mute.
Photograph by Alice Clancy
In response to the deep plan, the roof-form is modulated to light multiple spaces, including the central circulation space, the clinical skills labs, the corridors, and a small roof terrace.
An open central stair connecting all of the primary spaces, threads through all levels of the interior, designed as a social space with enough room to stop and chat or lean on a balustrade/shelf and view the activity of the entrance and other spaces above and below.
Brick follows through to the residences from the existing accommodation buildings behind. Here the material is given depth and the facades deeply carved providing a form of threshold between the domestic interior and the public space that they overlook. All living spaces address the public space to the south east with the more private study bedrooms facing north east or north west.
The undercroft of the residences is carved away providing archways allowing pedestrian movement from the carpark and bus park to the north as well as forming sheltered social spaces for students. Large gateways open into the entrance courts of the housing blocks where stairs, lift, bicycles bins and common laundry facilities are.
Size: Medical School 4300m2, Student Housing 3,600m2, Pergola 180m2, Piazza 1.2ha, Date: Completed December 2012 Location: University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Project Managers: Kerin Contract Management Structural and Civil Engineers: PUNCH Consulting Engineers Mechanical and Electrical: Don O’Malley & Partners Quantity Surveyors: Nolan Ryan Tweed Health & Safety: Willis Consulting Fire Safety and Access: G. Sexton & Partners
Irish studio Grafton Architects have acknowledged the influence of celebrated Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha on their work by constructing limestone models of his buildings and theirs at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
“When we received the invitation to exhibit, we had just won an architectural competition for a new university in Peru,” explained director Yvonne Farrell. “We acknowledged our influences from South America and on this basis we took the opportunity of celebrating the inspirational quality of the work of Mendes da Rocha.”
Three of the large stone models show details from de Rocha’s Sao Pedro Church in São Paulo and his urban design project for Montevideo Bay in Uruguay, while two others show Grafton’s proposals for the University of Lima and for a School of Economics in Toulouse, France.
The stone structures are surrounded by images of Mendes da Rocha’s Serra Dourada football stadium in Brazil, as well as photography depicting landscapes from Machu Picchu and from the Irish island of Skellig Michael.
Grafton Architects were awarded the Silver Lion for most promising practice at the biennale.
Irish practice Grafton Architects used the invitation of the biennale to open up a new conversation with an architect whose work they had long admired: Pritzker Prize winner Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Grafton Architects recently won a competition fo r a university in Lima, Peru, and looked to Mendes da Rocha’s work for cues on how to build for the particular climatic conditions of this place.
After a dialogue with the Brazilian, Grafton made models of selected works focusing on his Serra Dourada Stadium project: an homage that becomes a piece of design research for the idea of the university as an arena of learning, working with Mendes da Rocha’s idea of architecture as new geography.
This exhibition demonstrates how openness to influence is a starting point, and a prerequisite for good architecture. In this sense, this room exemplifies the theme of this year’s biennale.
World Architecture Festival 2012: in our second movie celebrating this year’s World Architecture Festival in Singapore from 3-5 October, WAF programme director Paul Finch explains why the super-jury headed by architect Robert Stern selected the Universita Luigi Bocconi by Grafton Architects as World Building of the Year 2008 in the festival’s inaugural year.
Now in its fifth year, the World Architecture Festivalhas attracted over 8000 attendees to date. 2012 is a landmark year for the Festival, heralding our relocation to the Asian gateway and design hub, Singapore. WAF’s move brings with it unparalleled opportunities for east to meet west and for you to obtain inspiration, develop your global network and plan new exciting projects.
In 2011 over 400 architects from across the globe were shortlisted and battled for a WAF award. The festival saw over 30 international practices become winners of a revered WAF yellow W trophy.
To be at the centre of all WAF has to offer, and that includes global PR, doors opening, new connections and a celebration of your fervour for the power of life changing architecture, you need to enter the projects that you want to shout to the world about. You have less than six weeks to enter, so start yours today.
The World Architecture Festival Awards offers you multiple opportunities to showcase your best work and most exciting ideas to the world, including the most influential names in the design and development community. All you have to do is decide which projects will be representing your practice at the world’s largest, live architectural awards programme and festival.
With 35 awards and prizes covering 100+ different building types, World Architecture Festival is your opportunity to promote your latest completed building, interior, landscape or masterplan globally.
How to enter the WAF Awards:
Entering the World Architecture Festival awards is easy. All entries must be submitted through our website www.worldarchitecturefestival.com
Just follow these simple steps:
»Open your WAF account or if you have entered WAF previously just log onto your existing account – log in here. »Choose the section and category that you want to enter – remember you can enter a project into more than one category. »Tell us what project you are entering »Pay for your entry »Create your online entry by adding images for the project, your details, a description and any professional credits – all entries must be completed by 30th June 2012.
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