Irish World Music Centre

Urban concept: a vertical landmark

The Irish World Music Center (IWMC) is located in a privileged spot in the future North Bank of the Limmerick University Campus. Learning from the fragmented urbanism of The Clonmacnoise and its compelling tower, the project assumes its importance within the North Campus, visually and programmatically, and becomes a vertical landmark

As a tower, the project responds to the context with a multiple aim:

– Create a reference point on the bank of river Shannon linking with monastic settlements of learning and prayer.
-Generate a visual nexus between the South and the North Campus.
-Give identity to the open space called “Piazetta” on the North Campus.
-Use of a minimum space in plan to enable the addition of a further building of similar area and a future exhibition space-multipurpose hall of 1000m2 in the zone offered by the general plan for the IWMC.
-To enjoy the marvelous views of the Irish landscape and the Shannon River Banks in its vertical urbanity

Building concepts: the body, the timer and the crystals

The Unified Body: The program that the IWMC requires is clearly divided by those which need loud music( Performance Theatres, Dance Studios, Tutorial Studios, Practical Rooms) and those who are relatively silent (offices, storage, technical rooms, research rooms, etc).

The project responds to this situation joining the noisy oriented programs within a single unified body that grows vertically, composing a self sustainable equilibrium of masses. Its finishing is in wood as the string instruments body.

The Timer: The vertical circulation is divided into straight circulation (elevators and stairs within the body) and the spiral promenade located in-between the wooden body and the double skin. This spiral has been formalized as a “sand timer”, with an inflection point that marks the separation between external visitors programs and internal students programs

The crystals: The unified inner body is opposed to the abstract and crystallographic double skin. Meanwhile the former represent the organic form of Dance, the latter represent the structural abstraction and immateriality of Music. This external double skin folds inwards at the top of the building as a folded sock, generating a courtyard that provides air and vegetation.