Bunscoil an tSleibhe Dhuibh, Belfast

This project involved the construction of a new primary school on a greenfield site. The school consisted of 7 classrooms, an assembly hall and resource areas around a central open courtyard. The building was single storey and was formed using load bearing masonry. The structure was supported on traditional strip foundations. The roof consisted of timber trussed rafters over the classrooms, structural steel trusses over the assembly hall and loose timber rafters over the resource areas in the courtyard. A main feature was the addition of a glazed wall to the internal courtyard to bring natural light into the school and to link the courtyard with the internal resource spaces. 

The school was amongst 6 finalists from the North nominated for the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects award in 2006. The striking building, which has at its centre a spacious, light-soaked inner courtyard, enabled on completion the school's pupils to move out of the dilapidated prefabricated classrooms they had formerly occupied.