CORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

PJ Hegarty was awarded the contract in 2003 for the construction of a new Tourism and Catering Studies Building at Cork Institute of Technology, which was commissioned to provide much-needed state-of-the-art facilities to service the huge demand for trained personnel in the thriving tourism and hospitality sector in Cork and Kerry. The design was a part-single storey, part-two storey brick-clad building with functional and decorative brick chimneys.

Client : Cork Institute of Technology
Service : Education
Architect : Boyd Barrett Murphy O’Connor
Quantity surveyors : Bruce Shaw Partnership
Structural engineer : Malachy Walsh & Partners
Services engineer : Arup Consulting Engineers
Value : €12 million

The Tourism and Catering Studies building was the largest in a new development of three buildings located adjacent to the existing library building on the CIT campus. With a total floor plan measuring 4,300 m², the building accommodates six teaching kitchens, two production kitchens, a demonstration kitchen, a lecture theatre, computer laboratories, language laboratories, classrooms, staff accommodation and ancillary rooms.

The three buildings interconnect and encompass a large open central circle, with a curved portion of the façade of each building forming part of the circumference to an 800m² feature-paved circular area.

The structure itself consists of locally stiffened concrete-blockwork cross walls, concrete ring beams and concrete floor slabs. The building is finished in clay brickwork, patinated copper, aluminium-framed windows and oak-framed and -panelled doors. The building took both the RIBA European Award and an AAI Award in 2007.