The stone mullions surrounding
this visitor centre by Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects imitate the towering basalt columns of the
volcanically formed Giant’s Causeway. Created around 60 million years ago by
the movement of basalt lava, the causeway is the most popular tourist
attraction in Northern Ireland and comprises over 40,000 columns that step
down from the foot of the cliff into the sea. Heneghan Peng Architects won
a competition in 2005 to design a visitor centre for the Giant’s Causeway,
providing exhibition spaces, a cafe, toilets and a giftshop.
The new building
opened this summer and is described by the architects as “two folds
into the landscape”. The first fold rises up from the ground to create a
building with a sloping grass roof, while the second angles down to form a car
park and entrance that meets the level of the approaching road. “It
is a carefully sculpted intervention,” say the architects. ”It is both
visible and invisible; invisible from the cliffside yet recognisable from the
land side.” Between each of the stone mullions, vertical windows line the walls
and surround a cafe that overlooks the coastline from the far end of the
building. Visitors can climb up over the grassy roof, where skylights let them
peer down into the exhibition spaces. Floors inside the building are
staggered to negotiate the sloping site, but ramps connect each level.
The project is located at the ridgeline of the
North Antrim coast at the gateway to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The
proposal for the new visitor facilities can be understood as two folds into the
landscape. One folds upwards revealing the building and the second folds
down to form the carpark and shield it from view of the approach road and
coastal path. Between the two folds, a ramp leads to the coastal ridgeline
which is restored at this location. The visitor’s centre at the Giant’s
Causeway is experienced as an event along the route to the Causeway and the
coastline. It is a carefully sculpted intervention into this landscape which is
both visible and invisible, invisible from the cliffside yet recognisable from
the land side. Internally the building can be understood as a series of
stepping floor plates which are linked by a series of ramps. These floor plates
allow the different activities of the building to flow into each other creating
a fluid movement through the building for the visitor.
The cafe has been
situated close to the main building entrance with a long view to the coastline.
The visitor ends the route through the building by exiting onto the access road
to the stones. The folds are precise and geometric yet vanish into the
patchwork that forms the tapestries of fields. The architectural expression of
the edges of the folds is singular, stone mullions that echo the columnar
landscape of the Causeway site. The strategy for the building creates a space
between the basalt and the folded plane of the grass roof; a space formed
within the materials of the site. The basalt edge is formed as a weave between
basalt stone columns and glazing where changes are created in transparency and
opacity along the visitor’s route. What belies this simple façade concept is a
carefully engineered solution which evolved around the inherent properties of
the locally sourced basalt stone. The aspirations for this project in every way
are of the highest order as befits its location, excellence in architectural
and landscape design, excellence in sustainable practices and construction.
Client: National Trust
Gross Internal Area: 1800m2
Location: Northern Ireland
Gross Internal Area: 1800m2
Location: Northern Ireland
Architecture, Landscape Concept
and Interiors: heneghan peng architects
Competition: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors) Chris Hillyard, Aideen Lowery, Marcel Piethan
Project Design & Construction Stages: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors), Julia Loughnane (Project Architect), Monika Arczynska, Jorge Taravillo Canete, Chris Hillyard, Kathrin Klaus, Carmel Murray, Padhraic Moneley, Catherine Opdebeeck, Helena del Rio.
Competition: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors) Chris Hillyard, Aideen Lowery, Marcel Piethan
Project Design & Construction Stages: Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors), Julia Loughnane (Project Architect), Monika Arczynska, Jorge Taravillo Canete, Chris Hillyard, Kathrin Klaus, Carmel Murray, Padhraic Moneley, Catherine Opdebeeck, Helena del Rio.
Structures: Arup
Building Services: Bennett Robertson
Quantity Surveyor/Project Manager: Edmond Shipway
Building Services: Bennett Robertson
Quantity Surveyor/Project Manager: Edmond Shipway
Landscape: heneghan peng
architects (Concept design) Mitchell + Associates (Implementation)
Exhibition Design: Event
Accessibility: Buro Happold
Acoustics: FR Mark
Exhibition Design: Event
Accessibility: Buro Happold
Acoustics: FR Mark
BREEAM: SDS Energy
Fire/Traffic/Environmental: Arup
Specialist Lighting: Bartenbach Lichtlabor
Specification: Davis Langdon
CDM Coordinator: The FCM Partnership
Competition: 2005
Appointment: 2006
Start On-Site: November 2010
Completion: May 2012
Open to public: July 2, 2012
Contractor: Gilbert-Ash
Contract: NEC 3 Option A
Appointment: 2006
Start On-Site: November 2010
Completion: May 2012
Open to public: July 2, 2012
Contractor: Gilbert-Ash
Contract: NEC 3 Option A
Did they have to put pots there because people would otherwise hit their heads and end up unconscious at the entry?
ReplyDeleteWell, this is not the building you describe on these photographs...
ReplyDeleteThanks, It's just a mistake.
ReplyDelete