Quadrangle

The proposed layout of a quadrangle by the school’s architect created an open and spacious centre-piece. The intention was to reinforce this space by developing the fourth side, as it was the only side with no buildings. A line of timber benches were set against the concrete planters to create a thickening of social space, one which would belong primarily to the students. 

A spatial relationship is created between the wooden structures and the school building with its pitched roofs, while a pattern of enclosing sculptural elements become less intense towards the street, as students move out towards the wider world. 

Since humans began to form social communities they have built structures to enable the activities of daily life. The new structures, like a fallen tree, offer a gathering point for the communal interactions of Newpark Comprehensive. Extending up into the sky, the Irish oak columns are firmly anchored to the ground, bolstered by a wide stance. The compositional elements of the structures are expressed, while an awareness of how they were built, is also preserved imbuing it with a sense of honesty and material presence. The solid oak benches retain the feeling of having once been part of a tree but are refined to reveal the presence of human hand; symbolizing how ideas now carved and cast began with thoughts of a primordial forest settlement. 

Alan Meredith was born in 1991 in Laois, Ireland. Alan’s work to date straddles the boundaries of contemporary craft, sculpture and architecture and has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. Alan began working with wood from an early age and his ongoing work is informed by a sympathetic understanding of material. 

His studio’s creative approach is tied to the desire to make meaningful and appropriate interventions within a given context, based on this informed understanding of material and the means by which it may be manipulated. 

Alan has exhibited at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, University College Dublin, Sculpture in Context, RDS National Crafts Competition, Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival, Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, Konsfack Stockholm, Tent London, UCCA Beijing and SoFine Art editions Dublin. Awards include Irish Woodturners Guild president’s prize and the Irish American Cultural Institute, Muriel Gahan Scholarship. 

Graduating with a Masters Degree in Architecture from University College Dublin in September 2015, Alan currently works out of his studio in County Laois, imagining and creating one-of-a-kind and speculative pieces for both public and private clients. 

Curated by Aisling Prior.

Alan Meredith Studio with input from -Jim Mansfield (Kavanagh Mansfield and Partners) Structural Engineer -School Architect - Martin McKenna (Smith and Kennedy Architects)
Main Contractor - Duggan Brothers 

Photographer - Ste Murray www.ste.ie