Monaghan Peace Campus has been designed as a new ‘living room’ for Monaghan, creating a shared space for gathering, learning, and culture. It provides a new home for the County Library and Museum, alongside community and youth hubs arranged over four floors, around a shared atrium. The client was Monaghan County Council, with SEUPB Peace IV as the primary funder.
Located to the north of Monaghan town centre, on the brownfield site of the former council machine yard, the existing site level, accessed from the south via Plantation Road, sat 3.5 m below the steeply banked and partially retained North Road boundary. Due to its low–lying topography, drone footage was recorded at envisioned storey levels to inform potential framed views towards the nearby Peter’s Lake at the heart of Monaghan town and the surrounding drumlins beyond the immediate streetscape.
As the site is viewed from an array of angles, approaches, and diverse streetscapes, the design concept envisaged the building as a dynamic sculptural form. The form and fenestration relate to the internal programme, with the permeable, visible library space located on the ground floor and the ‘black box’ museum galleries on the upper floors. Externally, form and fenestration relate to framed views and respond both to the existing context and the newly created external spaces. The angled plan form has been located adjacent to the exposed North Road boundary, creating a sheltered entrance area and public space to the south, accessible from the lower–scaled terraced streetscape of Glaslough Street.
The introduction of a podium level both elevates the architectural mass and allows for the creation of urban linkages, pedestrian–focused public gathering spaces, a stage area, and a contemporary ‘market’ square at the entrance level — none of which were envisaged within the original brief. The site has been designed with multiple access points to provide permeability and natural surveillance 24 hours a day. To ensure the prominence of pedestrian movement at entrance level, the original site topography and access from Plantation Road have been utilised to isolate vehicular access to the 130 parking spaces within a naturally ventilated undercroft.
Externally, a consistent material palette incorporates brick, blue limestone, and zinc. The mellow tone of red–brown brick sits in contrast to the angular articulation of the built form, which visually shifts its form as the visitor navigates the site.