New Tallaght school to set standard for rest of Ireland

A NEW state-of-the-art secondary school is to be built in Tallaght.

A firm of Scottish architects succeeded in a competition for the design of the new 1,000-student school in Kingswood.

The winners, Ayr-based ARPL Architects, fended off some of Ireland’s best architects in their bid to take on the project.

The contest, organised by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI), attracted a total of 154 submissions from interested parties – 43 of which were submitted from international entries from 14 countries.

The Scottish architect’s firm has signalled their introduction to have the school fully constructed and opened by late August 2017.

Commenting on the project’s massive potential, Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, said the children of Tallaght will benefit from a school that

“truly reflects the needs of the 21st-century student

?.

“It is vital that we consider new approaches to the design of new second-level schools given the changes which are underway, both in terms of curriculum and how our students are taught, and the number of new schools to be built over the next 15 years,

? the minister said.

He explained that the school would be an innovative design that will bring fresh thinking and creativity to the design of schools throughout Ireland.

The school was initially earmarked by Minister Quinn to cater for increasing demographic demand in Tallaght.

The minister also said that traffic management issues associated with the new school would be dealt with as part of the normal planning application process.

The competition jury was chaired by South Dublin County Council architect Eddie Conroy.

It also included two representatives of the department – technical manager Tony Sheppard and senior architect Eamon Greville.

The school forms part of a building process announced by the Minister last year.

It has been estimated that e430 million will be spent on 18 new primary schools, 12 primary school extensions, nine new secondary schools and extensions to a further nine across the country.

The winning entries for the new school in Kingswood will be exhibited at the RIAI Conference in the RDS on September 24.

A colloquium on post-primary school design, with presentations by the winners and an exhibition of all entries, is also scheduled to take place in late November.