CIT CORK SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Located within the centre of Cork City overlooking the River Lee, this six storey 12,000 sq.m., building functions as a centre of musical excellence locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Central to the architect’s concept are the themes of ‘collegiality’ balanced with the requirements of speechless teaching.

The school accommodates music tuition studios; a 450 seat rehearsal hall; ‘black box’ theatre; staff and student common rooms; music library; live recording suite; drama suite; staff boardrooms; administrative offices; flat floor classrooms and raked lecture theatres. The heart of the building is a public concourse that connects the teaching, performance and administrative spaces. The school is built on the grounds of the old school and has been specifically developed for the site taking consideration of its urban context and to make a dramatic contribution to the urban realm of Cork City.

The design of the public and teaching spaces cultivate a sense of encounter, interchange and ‘esprit de corps’ for visitors, academic staff and the 400 full time and 2000 part time students across all age groups.

To achieve rigorous fabric sound insulation, mid-frequency reverberation times, and external noise and mechanical service noise limitations, many of the spaces utilise ‘box within box’ construction. The design detailing isolates the floating floors, walls, ceilings, services and acoustic glazing, from the primary masonry structure. As part this commitment to quality of installation two adjacent studio rooms were built on site ahead of programme as ‘sample rooms’. These rooms were used as demonstration spaces for the critical elements of the fit-out, such as bespoke acoustic panelling and acoustic glazing and then subjected to rigorous acoustic testing.

The school, one of the first five ‘pilot PPP schools projects’ undertaken by the Irish Government, includes the most advanced IT, communication and specialist audio systems integrated together to form a world class environment for audio teaching and learning. The comprehensiveness of the design approach and sensitive integration of component elements mark this project as a model of its kind.