RIAI Architect Award has been presented to JCA Architects for 2020 for the Urban Design and Master-planning for Nano Nagle Place. The RIAI award is due recognition of the sensitive, imaginative and exemplary masterplan taken forward by JCA Architects and the wider design team.
About the award
On 22 October 2020 the winners of the 2020 Royal Institute of Architects (RIAI) Architecture Awards were announced. The awards celebrate work carried out by members of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) members, both in Ireland and overseas, in 2019 and highlight the contribution that architects make to society for everyone’s benefit.
The prestigious RIAI architecture awards were first established in 1989 to celebrate excellence in the built environment and the work of RIAI-registered architects. This year, the RIAI announced 12 Award Winners across 11 categories, including Adaption & Re-Use, Conservation, International, Learning Environments, Living (Homes), Public Space, Well-Being and Workplace.
Nano Nagle Place (the transformation of the South Presentation Convent site in Cork) has been recognised as ‘an exemplar urban renewal project’ winner in the Urban Design category.
See 2020 Irish Architecture Awards celebrate Irish Design at Home and Abroad
Nano Nagle Place – ‘an exemplar urban project’
As the Awards video describes (see link HERE):
The architectural work that realised Nano Nagle Place today, demonstrates how large redundant building complexes can be sensitively transformed for a varied mix of uses, and creates an attractive destination that positively contributes to the surrounding area. The success of the completed project is on many levels.
- The sustainable reuse of historic buildings retaining their character and significance
- The transmission of the site’s values
- The continuity of the memory of the original religious community
- And, the reorganisation of the private space to make it more accessible and provide a contemporary meeting place.
“We’re over the moon that the JCA Architects have been awarded the RIAI Architect Award for 2020 for the Urban Design and Master-planning for Nano Nagle Place. Nano Nagle Place aims to be a shining light for sustainable heritage and community focused urban regeneration and development. JCA and the wider design team took forward the vision of the Presentation Sisters and have wrought a stunning but historically sensitive transformation of over three acres of convent architecture and landscaping dating back to the late 1700s. They have woven in the C21st modernist home for the UCC / CIT School of Architecture and their masterplan is helping drive regeneration in Cork’s historic South Parish neighbourhood. Working with our esteemed Chairman Jim Corr and under the direction of Development Director Michael O’Sullivan, the team at JCA can be justifiably proud at securing the award. Cork is culturally richer for such a restoration and evidence that heritage investment is investment in our shared history and in our living communities!” (Shane Clarke, CEO Nano Nagle Place).
(Note: It is both beautiful and inspirational to see all the current award winners in each category alongside mention of the commended projects, demonstrating the inherent contribution of good architecture to every aspect of our lives including our well-being. Nano Nagle Place – can be seen 13.32 minutes in).
See: https://presentationsistersne.ie/initiatives/
And also see: Nano Nagle Place