Primary School Cork Part 1 Project 2006 Ivan O'Connell University College Dublin | Ireland The school began with the notion of cultivating altogether new use while maintaining the atmosphere of a past one. The site, once the home of a long demolished distillery, formed a hidden room-like space on the doorstep of the city. In its form the school acts as an inlay in this void, maintaining a sense of absence in its inhabitation of the place. While heightening the sense of enclosure, a place of discovery within the traces of the past, the school also turns to Cork, making its presence felt, so that the city might cast its eye to it. PRIMARY SCHOOL, CORK CITYIn response to a standard Department of Education brief for an eight classroom primary school, this project provides a stimulating environment for young children in their early educational development. The classrooms are bright and airy with good orientation and relationship with external spaces. They are capable of being used for a variety of teaching methods. The circulation and ancillary spaces are conducive to social activity and play. There are external covered play areas and good use of the site, which borders an old millrace of the river Lee in Cork city. The external forms are evocative of the former industrial use of the site.