New Special Educational Needs School

A school building and campus in Letterkenny to serve an established community of students with diverse special educational needs, from pre-school through to adulthood. The project called for extensive consultation and research from the outset to respond to their complex needs. It seeks to define the parameters of what a school for moderate to severe special educational needs should be, not just its functional brief but also its expression, atmosphere and character. 
Twenty-one classrooms are provided in three wings off a main corridor of shared assembly, administration, and specialist educational, recreational and therapeutic rooms. Classrooms, including associated quiet spaces, storage, fittings, and shared sanitary conveniences, are of a repeating module differentiated for aspect (east and west light) and educational and disability needs (early intervention, mild and moderate, autism, severe and profound). All classrooms have direct access to shared external courtyards creating a grid of linked internal and external spaces that provides for flexibility in use and open communication and supervision. It is set within a broader parkland of sensory gardens, trails and landscaped amenity areas. The building and site layout, and sequence of access, has been developed from first principles to provide for safety and inclusivity while avoiding any sense of containment and exclusion.
The extensive single storey building steps with the site topography and is capped by a continuous roofscape folded and perforated to provide for light and ventilation. It folds down to provide a large timber-soffited canopy to the front for shelter at drop-off and collection. Wet dash external render is painted in panels of rich blues and green to tie the overall form into the prevailing geology and greenery. This expression seeks to break down the scale and present a less institutional public face while foregrounding the school as an inclusive, friendly, and characterful presence in the community.

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All photos Richard Hatch photography with exception of model and those with orange circle marked bottom right.

Final image: project presentation of McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects as exhibited at RHA Sumemr show 2021.

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