Robin Lee Architecture, in association with Arthur Gibney and Partners, has completed Wexford County Council Headquarters in Ireland.

The 11, 500 sqm building on the outskirts of Wexford town brings together the services and departments of Wexford County Council that, until now, have been housed separately within the centre of the town.

The new headquarters gives identity to the collective endeavour of the council as a unified organization while giving individual expression to the separate departments and their unique activities.

The accommodation is laid out as a series of six discrete blocks; each block houses key services and individual departments. The blocks are gathered around a large central space, a ‘civic forum’, which gives access to all of the council facilities.

Open and fully accessible, the space supports the way-finding strategy with enquiry desks, public counters and informal seating throughout. It allows the building to be navigated in a safe and efficient manner, while offering opportunities for civic ceremonies, presentations and social gatherings.  Separating the blocks, and filled with planting and serene pools of still water, courtyards bring light into the deeper portions of building and connect the interiors with the surrounding landscape, providing a sense of place and context. These spaces combine to place social interaction at the heart of the building and allow the public realm to pervade the whole building at ground floor.

Inside walls and floors are clad in Irish blue limestone, creating a sculpted interior volume with a calm, refined atmosphere. Externally an outer an outer layer of glass wraps around the blocks and acts as the outer skin of a double façade to optimize energy efficiency whilst giving the building a single, coherent identity and scale appropriate to its civic status.