West Cork Arts Centre Architectural Design Competition
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West Cork Arts Centre Architectural Design Competition
The RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland) is administering a competition on behalf of the competition promoters, West Cork Arts Centre (WCAC). This is an open, two stage competition for the architectural design of a high-quality, purpose-built facility that will enable the people of West Cork to have access to and to engage with local and global arts practice of excellence i.e. create the ideal environment for the interaction of people and art.
Established twenty-one years ago in Skibbereen, West Cork Arts Centre (WCAC) is funded by public money to provide a community-based arts facility and arts programme for the whole West Cork region. It supports a multi-disciplinary arts programme with a focus on modern and contemporary visual art and a range of education and community programmes.
It is active in commissioning new work, publishing, and arts education, generating programmes in partnership with other agencies and organisations and disseminating best practice.
With a significant and growing demand for their programmes and services, WCAC needs to expand into a purpose-built building that will open up an abundance of opportunities which will have a positive impact on the aesthetic, cultural, social, economic and educational fabric of the region.
This new building will revitalise and make vibrant the centre of Skibbereen as the art heart of West Cork and will draw people from all over Ireland and abroad to the region. It will enable West Cork Arts Centre to cater for increased numbers and services for the people of West Cork and be an arts facility that the community will be proud of.
The competition site is known as the Wolfe Bakery and located in the centre of the commercial district, overlooking Field’s car park and Main Street, this building is on a 470m approx site. It is not listed and is designated as derelict. The new building will be approx 1080m and the budget is estimated at €1,500 per m²
EligibilityThe competition is open to architects holding a qualification listed in the EU Qualifications Directive 2005/36/EC.
In the case of architects eligibility is defined as: Equivalent means a person holding a qualification equivalent to a qualification for the purposes of Article 46 of the European Union Directive 2005/36/EC (Qualifications Directive) to include persons whose qualifications were successfully assessed by the Panel established by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government in 1996 and persons from outside the EU/EEA area. Persons outside the EU/EEA area should include evidence confirmation of registration with a national registration body and/or a UIA recognised professional organisation.
It is the function of the Registrar to decide on eligibility and equivalence.
An entry may be submitted by an architectural practice. In this case the name and address should be given and the official entry form signed by a partner. In this context the practice is defined as; a partnership properly established for the purpose of an architectural competition or an association of architects for the purpose of entering a competition.Competition Jury
* Denis Deasy, County Architect, Cork County Council
* Emmett Scanlon, Architectural Advisor, Arts Council
* Mary McCarthy, Dublin Docklands Development Authority
* Maud Cotter, Artist
* Helen Collins, Solicitor, Former Chair of West Cork Arts Centre
* Patrick Creedon, Architect, Magee Creedon Kearns Architects
* Ann Davoren, Director, West Cork Arts CentrePrize Fund
Each short listed competitor invited to participate in Stage 2 of the competition will be paid an honorarium of €10,000 for a valid Stage 2 submission.
Competition Programme
Stage 1* Competition Registration Opens: 14 July 2008
* Withdrawal of Registration and refund of fee: 25 July 2008
* Stage 1 Questions Deadline: 1 August 2008
* Stage 1 Answers Circulated: 15 August 2008
* Stage 1 Registration Deadline: 29 August 2008
* Stage 1 Submission Deadline: 5 September 2008Stage 2
Stage Two Opens: October 2008
How to Register
The Registration Form is available in the Competition section of the RIAI website http://www.riai.ie
Download and complete the registration form including payment / payment details of €121.00 registration fee (inclusive of VAT at 21%). Registration forms are accepted via email, fax or post. Email: koneill@riai.ie Fax: 00353 1 6610948 or West Cork Arts Centre Architectural Design Competition, RIAI, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland.
A registered competitor may withdraw a registration on or before Friday 25 July 2008 and will be entitled to a refund of the registration fee. After that date no other refunds can be made in any circumstances whether a valid entry is submitted or not.
We accept Cash, MasterCard, Visa, Laser, Electronic Funds Transfer, Bankers Draft, Euro Cheque and Irish Cheques. Cheques/Drafts should be made payable to the RIAI.
Once we have received a completed registration form with payment, a username and password will be emailed to you. The username and password will allow you to download the competition brief from the RIAI website http://www.riai.ie
Enquiries contact
Karina O’Neill, Competitions Officer, RIAI, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Email: koneill@riai.ie Tel: +353 1 669 1480 Fax: +353 1 661 0948Once you have registered, you will receive a username and password via email enabling you to download the Competition Pack.
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Has anybody heard if this competition has been moved through to the second stage?
Last I heard the judges were shortlisting in Oct.
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We are eagerly awaiting the stage 2 results.
Alot of effort went into our scheme and we enjoyed & learned from the process. Around 216 others did the same thing with 4 going through to the second stage.
We made the trip to Skib and were glad we did. The old bakery site presented many challenges: Surrounding buildings of varying heights (but all fairly low), obvious overlooking issues (including into dwellings), Shadowing of adjoining yards, windows, terraces and conservatories, fire spread issues, buildng lines, site access, likely planning authority response, likely community response (esp. to height and bulk).
The brief called for a considerable area of enclosed space for this tight site. It also required useable and successful outdoor space(s) and a pedestrian route inviting enough to encourage through traffic and additional visitors.
A proposed building mass filling the site footprint would have to resolve how high levels of natural light are admitted (as appropriate to use) through new openings directly on rear & side property boundaries; How the scale of new boundary walls is mitigated for adjoining property; How light & ventilation are brought deep into the plan…
A tower form would have to deal with obvious perceptions of excessive height; How to cram those multiple large spaces along with their desired attendant services on each level: PERFORMANCE SPACE 80m2 approx / WORKSPACE
70m2 approx / DANCE STUDIO 80m2 approx (but bigger if possible) / CHANGING ROOM 25m2 approx / STUDIO SPACES Total 75m2 / ADMINISTRATION 80m2 approx…But one of the most critical issues we saw was how to accommodate two separate staircases to provide the required alternative means of escape, the associated protected hallway circulation and a passenger lift. All of the multi-purpose rooms requested are easily capable of holding more than 50 people (lectures, receptions, classes, meetings). Once you go above 50 (or the likelihood of 50), a second means of escape is required. Meeting rooms have a load factor of 1 person/sqm. This would put all of the above spaces over the threshold. Even a lower factor of 0.7 would put most of the spaces over the limit.
We devised a scheme that filled most of the site footprint at ground level and made the bridge into a wide paved ‘Artspace’ that tapered into the site to create the pedestrian link. The Arts centre entrance and small commercial space faced each other across this space. The building’s upper floors stepped in from the perimeter to drop light into the ground floor, facilitate openings above and mitigate impact on the surrounding existing building’s and users.
We managed the two stairs but only by trimming some of the brief to what we thought were more realistic areas.We are looking forward to seeing how the winners / shortlisted schemes dealt with all of the above & hearing anyone else’s experiences.
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here’s our entry for anyone who’s interested…
http://www.openofficearchitects.ie/projects/comp_west_cork_arts/splash_page.htmI wish other offices would post theirs aswell – it seems like such a shame that the representation of competition work is so low on archi-websites
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This is our entry also if anyone is interested, we would greatly appreciate any feedback!!
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re. the last post , nice effort, i too entered w/ a few friends but it was a bit of a last minute job. do you mind me asking what software package you used to model the scheme?
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combination of vectorworks, cinema 4d, Vray and photoshop.
Thanks for your reply. -
it seems there are some very interesting competitions going on in Ireland, most say: “The competition is open to architects holding a qualification listed in the EU Qualifications Directive 2005/36/EC†does anyone know if Canadian Architect follow that category?
Great work for both open office & big house by the way, good luck.
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I don’t know Sami – you’d best ask the riai
and if anyone has any entries they’d like published on archiseek at
http://ireland.archiseek.com/unbuilt_ireland/cork/west_cork_arts_centre/index.htmljust email me at pclerkin@archiseek.com
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