Last summer Wexford County Council announced the open, two-stage competition in order to procure a building of outstanding architectural quality. A total of 94 entries were received from around the world and after a short-listing process, which gave the six shortlisted entries the opportunity to develop their proposals further, NORD Architecture were selected as winners.
NORD (Northern Office for Research and Design) was founded by Robin Lee and Alan Pert in July 2002. In 2005 the co-directors were included in the Architects Journal exhibition 40 Under 40 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition showcased the best young practices in the UK. In 2006 NORD Architecture won the prestigious Young Architect of the Year Award, the only practice outside London to have reached the final list. They have also made The Observer Hot List 2007.
The other shortlisted entries were
- Board Architecture and Urbanism (Netherlands)
- Bucholz McEvoy Architects (Ireland)
- Denis Byrne Architects (Ireland)
- MCA Mario Cucinella Architects SRL (Italy)
- Patrick Harrington Architects (Ireland)
NORD Architectures proposal resolves effectively the programmatic and architectural complexities of a contemporary council headquarters while integrating a strong sustainable environmental strategy.
A generous urban scale forecourt, a terraced civic garden, forms the transition between the street and the main entrance to the new building. Areas of soft landscaping are dedicated to a rich variety of plants indigenous to the Wexford area, while hard surfaces are formed from smooth cut slabs of stone derived from local sources. The landscape is further punctuated by shallow pools of water.
The design of the internal environment makes reference to the existing patterns of townscape: public spaces within the building are treated as streets, courtyards, gardens and squares.
A public internal street is the main organising element of the building. From here all council departments can be accessed via the main entrance. Expressed as individual blocks or buildings, they form the street, which becomes an active space, one that encourages social and public activity to pervade the whole building at ground floor level and ensures clear legibility and easy way finding for visitors.
A series of landscaped courtyards between these blocks bring in natural light and ventilation to all spaces and provides direct visual contact with the surrounding countryside. These disparate spaces and activities, which create a townscape environment within the building, are wrapped by a unifying glazed skin. This skin performs both symbolically and environmentally. Symbolically, as well as presenting a coherent and unified face, which gives it a scale appropriate to both the context and its civic status, it expresses a desire towards transparency in political terms. Environmentally, it functions as a thermal buffer, controlling solar gain, glare and helping to preheat air when necessary before it enters the building, all of which reduce the energy consumption of the building and so the running costs.
On the corner of the complex, above the main entrance, a tower form rises to house the council chamber. Perceived as a special space, it has distant views towards the River Slaney and Wexford Town. The organisational strategy allows for direct engagement with the civic functions or a more leisurely discovery of the building as a civic place; open, inviting and democratic.