Piling is due to commence on the site of our International Rugby Experience in Limerick. The tight urban site is on the edge of a conservation area within the city’s Georgian Quarter and the challenge for us is to create a civic building that sits comfortably within the fine grain of the Georgian context. Once complete, the building will be a will be a new cultural institution and visitor experience to showcase the worldwide game of rugby.
Author and Cambridge academic Mary Ann Steane has written on the Chapel’s “lyrical embodiment of liturgy and light” in an article published in Architecture Today. Dr. Steane previously included the Carmelite Monastery project in her book ‘The Architecture of Light’. The article in Architecture Today elucidates on the Chapel’s filtering of natural light through the internal timber structure, as a means of tying the building to its surroundings.
“On a sunny day the upper surfaces become an animated embroidery of light and shadow in tune with the surrounding windblown foliage, but even on a dull day the way that light is held within the tall enclosure is critical to the project’s narrative of tethering.”