The new learning resource centre and amenity facility building at Carlow Institute of Technology has won both the Overall prize and the Building category prize in the Irish Concrete Society (ICS) annual awards. The versatile use of concrete was cited as a key factor in the winning project.
Designed by Glasgow-based Faulkner-Browns, the £6.7 million (€8.5m) three-storey building, completed in 2000, is described as a modern interpretation of the traditional university quadrangle. A new courtyard is bounded by a covered walkway, fronted by a colonnade of freestanding concrete frames which help to visually unify the disparate building elevation on four sides. The mezzanine floor and roof are supported by a series of dominant concrete shafts and also by a row of tapering concrete columns.
A footbridge over the N11 motorway at Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, won the Infrastructural Award, beating off competition from a number of other projects including Dublin's Millennium Bridge.
The Milkbar in Montague Street, Dublin 2, was the winner in the Small/Elemental projects Category for creative and skilful use of terrazzo in counters and floors, to create a sculptural feel for functional elements and the organisation of space.
Sculptor Jean Greene won the ICS Sculpture award for her piece, Concrete Repose.
