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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.



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.
2005
The suggested reality: 1:1 cast concrete panel.
Conceptual model: Pig iron and cast concrete in poured resin. The metaphorical representation of the building embedded in the molten basalt.
Site plan 1:5000: Siting creates shelter and view points. Generating initial view of building as an object in the landscape on approach from hidden parking area.
Verticality of the site: 1:200 corrugated card development model. Exploring relationship between the horizontal nature of the building and verticality of the site.
Ground floor plan: Scraping away the surface to reveal the basalt and ‘pouring’ the building onto the site formed the foundation of its geological relationship.
First floor plan: Concrete is the earth, it is the stone and cement. Like the basalt, the process of casting the concrete sees it transform from liquid to solid. It gives the sense of solidity, density & permanence.
Approach: Anticipation & humanisation. Walls begin to guide visitors into outdoor sheltered meeting area, concealing views and initialising enclosure.
Visitors centre sections: The primitive concrete shell becomes a cold exterior shelter, with careful manipulation of interior light through the folding roof plates.
Material & light: Permeable projection screen. Light spills out below and through the porous chain mail screen, illuminating the AV and retail reception area. Drawing the visitor through the building, signaling something beyond the exhibition area.
Retail & office section: Material patina. Eroding & Embedded. The geological link is strengthened through mixing iron ore with the concrete.
Material patina: The concrete is initially smooth cast, only through time will the iron be revealed and start rusting, bleeding into the landscape. In this way the concrete reveals itself overtime, embedding it into the geology of the site.
Bar & gallery sections: Returning from the causeway a ramp drops down into the basalt to the semi submerged gallery.
Return: The warmth and comfort of the timber lined Bar is reached via a south facing stair, with the presentation of panoramic views on arrival. The stair leads to the exit ramp, creating a visual connection with the entrance and outdoor meeting area.
Bar & gallery cross sectional detail 1:50: Double skin cast concrete construction.
1:5000 to detail & back again: Interior of arts base, showing the contrast between the dark circulation spaces and diffused light in the art studio. Panoramic photograph from return journey, showing buildings embedded into the geology of the site
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