Dunshaughlin Pastoral Centre
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Public space for visitors to congregate outside the centre
Richard Hatch (website) Download Original
Community resource centre housed within a slate-coloured polyhedron
McGarry Ni Eanaigh Architects have provided a parish office, café, multi-purpose hall, meeting rooms and a youth room in a single storey building, which sits between the village of Dunshaughlin’s church and Parochial House. The route between these buildings defines the Centre’s entrance, and provides a landscaped area for social events to spill into.
The Pastoral Centre’s form, an asymmetrical, slate-coloured polyhedron, responds to the angular slate roofs of its neighbouring buildings. The sharp lines of this polyhedron are emphasised by a razor-sharp parapet and cladding of fibre cement panels.
The public route from Main Street terminates at a timber and glass entrance beneath a bright-yellow aluminium soffit. This flash of colour continues internally in the ceiling, perforated for acoustic properties, and mirrored by a rubber floor to match.
Data
- Begun: Nov 2009
- Completed: Nov 2010
- Floor area: 502m2
- Sector: Civic
- Total cost: £1.3M
- Procurement: RIAI form of contract
- Address: Parochial House, Dunshaughlin, County Meath, Ireland
Professional Team 
- Architect: McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects
- Client: Parish Council of Dunshaughlin and Culmullen
- Structural engineer: Barett Mahony Consultant Engineers
- M&E consultant: Homan O'Brien Associates
- Lighting consultant: Homan O'Brien Associates
- Quantity surveyor: Bruce Shaw Partnership
- Main contractor: Aidan Elliott Construction