Plans were unveiled yesterday for a €14 million "Irish Performing Arts Village" to be built in the grounds of the University of Limerick campus.
The "village", which is to be completed in 2007, will stand on the Clare banks of the river Shannon in the university's new north campus and will provide a new home for the Irish World Music Centre, which is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary at UL under the directorship of Prof Michéal Ó Suilleabháin.
French architect Daniel Cordier, who won a two-stage international competition to design the village, yesterday unveiled a three-dimensional model of it at the university. Overlooking the Clare hills on the banks of the Shannon, the building will house dance studios, glass-fronted music practice rooms, a tented roof garden, a water fountain and even a Zen Garden, where students of chant can practise their levitation techniques.
It will become a permanent base for the many performance groups based at the university including Daghada Dance Company, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and the Artist-in-Residence, former Riverdance lead Jean Butler, who is currently completing a Masters in Contemporary Dance Performance.
The French architect said he took much of his inspiration for the design from symbolism of ancient monastic sites, including Clonmacnoise on the banks of the Shannon.
The innovative project will be partly funded through the University of Limerick Foundation, which has a proven track record in attracting private funding for projects on campus.
However, it is also hoped the new facility may attract some matching funding from the State.
Prof Michéal Ó Suilleabháin said yesterday that the location of the arts village on the banks of the Shannon was a key element of the project.
"It is absolutely vital to the building and to ourselves that we're beside the river Shannon," he said.
A planning application for the new building is expected to be lodged next spring, with a completion date due in late summer 2007.