The vision to re-invent Christ Church, Cork, arose from an aspiration to provide a unique music venue and arts centre in the heart of Cork City while protecting and restoring the historic character of the structure and ensuring its survival through continuing compatible use. This vision was realised through the amalgamation of this historic building with the adjacent Triskel Arts Centre, housed in a converted warehouse on Tobin Street, and the physical linking of both buildings to accommodate a challenging new use. Christ Church was to become the new home for Triskel – central to Cork’s cultural life since the late 1970’s.
A conservation strategy was adopted, to allow the structure to evolve and adapt to meet the challenging needs of the new use while still retaining the building’s particular significance. Repair works to the existing building fabric were carried out wherever possible and interventions were designed to be reversible and sympathetic, so as not to detract from the integrity of the earlier structure.
Project Architect Murray O’Laoire Architects: 2008 – 2010, Cork City Council: 2010 – 2011
