Blackwater Community College, Lismore, Co. Waterford

The Brief for this co-ed post-primary school was to significantly increase the amount of teaching accommodation, providing, inter alia, a new SEN facility, new GP Room and new mainstream and new specialist classrooms in order to increase the enrolment from 600 to 1000 pupils.

A strong part of the school’s ethos revolves around sport. The sports facilities needed to be reconfigured and added to, providing a full-sized GAA pitch, and 4 Astroturf pitches (the latter part-financed by the school)

The challenge for the Architects was to create a cohesive campus out of a disparate collection of existing buildings dating from different eras and of differing styles and materials. The retained existing buildings (2 were demolished) comprise the Monastery Building (a Protected Structure), a copper clad extension which, together with the Monastery Building, formed the former County library (c. 2000) and the Main School Building and PE Hall, both completed in 2004.

The concept hinges on infilling between existing buildings and linking them all together. The final outcome was 2 new extensions, (one single storey and one 2-storey) and modification and refurbishment of the 4 existing buildings. Strategies employed to create cohesion included 1) using a simple palette of materials and colours that flows through the Extensions and Links, 2) mimicking the volumes of the former County Library in the single storey extension and 3) creating a series of social spaces, particularly at the nodes where links meet buildings.

A strong physical and visual link between the main social space in the 2-storey extension and the sports pitches emphasizes  the importance of sport embodied in the school’s ethos.