Sisters of Mercy, Castlebar

The building is a modern reinterpretation of the ancient ecclesiastical cloister form, organised around a secure external garden space. The special functions of oratory, library, and social spaces project into and articulate this central garden area, with the oratory rising double height to establish its hierarchy within the complex. The purity of the circle is only broken to create the entrance and to provide service / support areas.

The curved mono-pitch roof allows a controlled fenestration to the external elevation appropriate to the scale of the accommodation, whilst creating large double height glazing to the inner elevation, flooding the interior with an ever changing quality of light and making the central garden a key focus and ‘external room’ of the building.