International Rugby Experience - L'Architecture D'Aujourd'Hui
January 2024
Text Níall McLaughlin Architects
Images Nick Kane
Since 2022, a brick lighthouse has lit up the city of Limerick, in the south of lreland, where London architect Níall Mclaughlin has completed the lnternational Rugby Experience. Set within a dense fabric of brown brick buildings typical of the Georgian style of the 18th and 19th centuries, the building is topped by a "glazed lantern" that condenses the structural strengths of the building - and an alliance between aesthetic and engineering. To bring light and warmth to the top floor, the architect pierced the roof with several eye-shaped rooflights, emerging above the parapet line. Their shades were designed to respond to the sun's path, being tallest to the south and lowest to the north. In this way, it allows indirect daylight from the north to enter the hall space while deflecting direct sunlight from the south. Below, the vaulted ceiling recalls the crowns of the arches throughout the building, "reflecting some of the forces found in the game of rugby:'
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