Visitors Centre & Arts Base for the Giants Causeway Part 1 Project 2005 Colin Wharry Queen's University Belfast | UK Responding to an area of natural beauty & geological significance requires a sensitive yet robust approach, due to the harsh atmospheric conditions. Creating simple shelters with a sense of solidity, density and permanence, reminiscent of Neolithic Irish architecture, resist formal integration & do not articulate their form to respond to the landscape. Instead are embedded via their spatial & geological relationship with it.Secondary elements in the form of walls relate directly to the site, becoming more responsive to the landscape. The walls extend out into the landscape passing around and through the building blocks, forming enclosures, shelters, retaining walls & directional paths. Colin Wharry This project was undertaken between February and May 2005. During this time the student considered the intellectual and constructional response to placing architecture within the World Heritage Site known as the Giant’s Causeway, on the northern coast of Ireland. Beginning with astute observations, the proposal developed to carefully place manmade form into this dramatic wind-blown landscape. Walls lead from respite from the wind, to sheltering roofs from the recurring rain, to a heated core of occupied spaces. The proposal is art, it is construction and it is embedded in the unique Irishness and raw beauty of this special place.