MAC
Belfast
This commission was won through an RIBA International Design Contest in 2007. The building was completed by Hackett Hall McKnight in February 2012, providing performance spaces, art galleries and supporting facilities.
A new public space for the city has been provided in the foyers which recall the tight streetscape of the neighbourhood – a compressed urban environment characterised by top–light. The approach to material and construction evokes a relationship to the robust character of the preceding Victorian merchant city; large scale tough brick buildings. The construction exposes structural in–situ concrete and brick as both external and internal finishes.
In 2013 this project received the Downes Medal, awarded by the Architectural Association of Ireland for an individual project. The MAC received an RIBA National Award and was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award and the Design Museum Designs of the Year.
Photography: Christian Richters, Alan Jones QUB, Donal McCann
Awards:
RIBA National Award
Civic Trust National Award
AAI Award
The Downes Medal
Brick Development Association Awards: Public Building of the Year
Brick Development Association Awards: Supreme Award
Nominated for the EU Architecture Prize, the Mies van der Rohe Award