Gilroy McMahon

Ballinfoile, Galway

Located next to a historic boreen, around which the Galway festival is organised each year this project has both sporting and social functions. It must be inviting and engaging. In consideration of the tight schedule of accommodation an aspiration emerged that, where possible, the design should create added ‘spatial’ value i.e. that the juxtaposition of activities to create a sense of shared and overlapping space might create a sense of greater space.  The building's main entrance addresses local users of the Boreen, a future pedestrian route, and provides an entrance to Terryland Forest Park. The building is designed to broadcast novelty and vitality.  Its unique form is instantly recognisable at a distance. Scale, window proportion, materials and colour - anthracite, mustard and silver - taken from the Galway landscape achieve a unified totality and echo the language of our vernacular architecture.