Winner of this year’s RIAI Irish Architecture Award for the best conservation/restoration project, the new library in the small town of Rush in Southern Ireland is an inspiring example of a modern intervention in a 19th century building
The project required a sensitive approach to investigation and planning and the architects decided very early on in the process not to make any changes to the
exterior of the church. And so a modern intervention was designed to hold all the library facilities within the church building, with a commitment to rescuing, as far as possible, the existing materials and to retaining the internal features of what had been a place of worship.
The intervention is formed as an undulating American black walnut plane which fills the nave of the church, running across the floor and up on both sides, creating an inverted ‘U’shape, which can be removed, with two galleries at the top. The rich, dark American hardwood species used for the modern structure creates a strong contrast with the light lime plaster of the old walls, creating a striking reversal of what might be expected in a more conventional juxtaposition of old and new structures.
And in a careful observance of the building’s original function, the architects have created gaps and spaces in the structure to frame features such as the confessional booth, creating further strong visual contrast between the old and the new. Rush Library is the kind of project that lead architect Niall McCullough loves doing. And the choice of American walnut, with its rich colour and texture, was hugely effective in creating the contrast he was looking for between old and new in the interior of a traditional 19th century church.
(www.americanhardwood.org)