St. Columba’s Church - Ballygomartin
The development of the Nursing Home site at Ballygomartin is the first project undertaken by ADP for the Primecare Group. It includes a replacement community church as an integral part of the overall scheme.
Design
The former location of the original St. Columbas church presented a restricted site and required a thoughtful design in order to provide the accommodation required. The church needed to form a visual landmark at the corner of the site and it was important that it wasn’t dominated by the nursing home. The plan form is simple extending over two floors with the main church on the lower floor.
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The entrance area is set in a curved projection with full height side windows and houses the lift and main staircase. The toilet facilities are located just outside the doors to the main church hall. On the first floor is a cafe facility with kitchen and large windows. Behind this is a second hall which can be divided by a folding acoustic screen. An office and further toilet facilities are accessed from here. Stairs to the rear provide secondary escape to the ground floor and to a large storage area in the roof space. Externally the building is in three basic parts with alternating render and brick finishes to help delineate the basic forms. The main body of the church, and hall above, reduces in width and feature full height narrow windows which repeat as the building narrows again towards the entrance. The steep roof pitch just behind the entrance gives a dominating height without being a formal steeple.
