Gilroy McMahon win competition to design Primary schools for the 21st century

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., today announced that Gilroy McMahon Architects is the winner of an international design competition for primary schools.

The winners receive a €10,000 award.  The second and third placed entries will receive a prize of €2,000, with the commended entries receiving €1,000 each.

The Department of Education and Skills (DES) will use the results from the competition and feedback from the one day conference in Dublin Castle, “Designing Primary Schools for 21st Century Learners” to inform the future design of primary schools.

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It may also decide to use the designs in the building of new primary schools when appropriate.

Commenting on the winning design, Minister Quinn said, “The aim of this competition was to focus on creating innovative places of learning, fit for the students of today and tomorrow.  The brief was simple – to design a school which would incorporate 16 mainstream classrooms and specialist accommodation for pupils with Special Educational Needs.”

“I am very pleased with the standard of entries and wish to congratulate Gilroy McMahon Architects for their winning design.”

54 entries were received for the competition with 13 coming from abroad, including teams from Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Australia.

The competition was an opportunity for the Department of Education and Skills to explore with architects and educationalists the development of innovative architectural designs that respond to emerging 21st century needs of primary school learners and teachers.

The Pedagogical Brief attempted to inspire designs that are innovative and that can accommodate future changes in learner needs and pedagogy over the coming years.

The competition followed on from a highly successful Post Primary School Design Competition in 2012, where the winners,ARPL Architects, were awarded the commission for the design of a new post-primary school in Kingswood, Tallaght.

The Minister thanked the judging panel for the competition that included nationally and internationally-renowned architects and educationalists, and representatives of the Department of Education and Skills.