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St Bronagh's Youth Club

Newry, Mourne and Down

Project Details

£1m to £1.99M

Brownfield site, Sited in AONB, Within a Conservation Area

Practice

d-on architects ltd

3rd Floor, 45 Albemarie Street , London , W1S 4JL

d-on architects ltd acted as Design Team leaders for a multi-disciplinary team made up of Structural Engineer, Civil Engineer, M&E Engineers, Landscape Architects, Acoustic Consultant & BREEAM Assessor for the new build St Bronagh’s Youth Club building, Rostrevor. The brief called for a Youth Club building accommodating sports areas including Sports Hall, Multi-Purpose Hall, Community Room, Changing Rooms with accessible changing, Break out Rooms, offices, ancillary accommodation, etc. We led the Pre-Application Discussions with the Planning Authority and co-ordinated the Planning Application securing approval for demolition of an existing building within the Conservation Area and construction of the new Youth Club building within the Conservation Area. We led consultations with key stakeholders of the Youth Club & Department of Education Youth Services as well as public consultations with the wider community. We led consultations with Historic Environment Division addressing issues for the design of a new building within the Conservation Area. The schedule of accommodation and layout of the youth club building followed the Department of Education Handbook. The design of the building in this context evolved from a response to the landscape and is conceived as a timber clad building. The elevated site is viewed primarily from the main road within Rostrevor called Church Street which connects Rostrevor to Hilltown but is also viewed from Cherry Hill where the new building is set against backdrop of the treed landscape. The scale of the building is broken down into a number of timber ‘boxes’ that step down in height as the building approaches the original school building retained on the site. A new external space has been created between the original building and the new youth club building. Dramatic views down Carlingford Lough are visible from this new public space. These views are also captured by glazing to the corners of each ‘box’. The elevation facing the new public space has increased glazing with sliding doors to allow the accommodation to spill out into the external space. We co-ordinated design information and Stage Reports to the Department of Education Youth Services. Technical information was developed at BIM Level 2 by the Design Team, led and co-ordinated by d-on architects ltd. We co-ordinated the Building Control application securing Building Control Plan Approval. The project was traditional procurement under the NEC Contract. The construction was carried out in three phases and co-ordinated between the two educational sites allowing decanting from one site to the next. We attended site progress meetings to co-ordinate technical information with the contractor team. We co-ordinated the design team to assist the BREEAM Assessor to deliver BREEAM. The site was re-wilded turning previously tarmacadam areas into native planted areas, softening boundaries and the building setting as well as providing new habitat for wildlife and new wildlife corridors.