County Antrim, Northern Ireland

Mass Tourism has a paradoxical effect: The infrastructure for access and interpretation it demands can obscure the very thing visitors come to see. Wilderness is mediated and culture commodified. Tour buses block the postcard view.

Sightseers have flocked to the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland since the 19th century, and today half a million people a year travel to this craggy formation of volcanic basalt columns lining a string of steep-sided bays. For the last 12 years they have been greeted by a dreary range of timber sheds, installed after a permanent visitor center was destroyed by fire. In 2005 the government organized an international design competition for a replacement befitting a UNESCO World Heritage site. The newly complete $30 million building, by Dublin-based Heneghan Peng, is exemplary in its balance of competing demands, making space for commercial and transport requirements while recognizing that these should not intrude on visitors' experience of the place.

Many competition entrants exploited the prominence of the cliff-top site above the western end of the causeway, proposing flamboyant structures that would dominate views from inland as well as from the water's edge. Heneghan Peng took a different approach, folding its building into a remade landscape in a careful choreography of concealment and revelation.

From the shore the center is essentially invisible; it fills a gap in the existing ridgeline, but is screened by man-made berms that read as part of the natural landscape. From cliff-top trails, too, the accessible grass roof hides the building below. To the south, however, architecture emerges from the manipulated topography. 'It was important not to bury the building'that seems too easy'but to work with both the building and landscape form,' says architect R'is'n Heneghan, who runs the office with husband and former Harvard GSD classmate Shih-Fu Peng.

Approaching the center from the nearest town, Bushmills, the road brings visitors to the foot of a green ramp leading up to the ridge. To the west, the main body of the 19,375-square-foot building pushes upward as if subject to the same eruptive force as the stones of the causeway. Its two principal facades, composed of close-spaced rows of sharp-angled black basalt columns, taper off into the distance. The first diminishes as the ramp alongside it ascends to meet the ridge, while the roofline of the second drops gradually until it meets the ground next to an existing hotel to the west.

East of the grassy slope, the building's angular volume is echoed by a void'the negative to its positive'where the ground has been excavated to make a parking lot, crisply defined by the center's columnar facade and a smooth basalt retaining wall.

The stone is beautifully reflective of the ever-changing weather, shining like a mirror in sunlight and jet black in the rain. The choice and deployment of material make a direct, almost literal reference to the causeway, but the apparent simplicity of the idea belies the complexity of its execution. Basalt cannot be cut thin enough for cladding, so the 208 columns are formed from over 14,000 stacked stone blocks, in a variety of shapes and sizes, that fit together with extraordinary precision'a tribute to the architects' digital model and the stonemason's craft.

Visitors can choose from three routes to the head of the causeway trail: over the ramp, via a tunnel from the parking lot, or'for those willing to pay'through the visitor center. The interior arrangement underscores the sense that the center is a 'passage' through the ridge, not the final destination: From the entrance portico at the southern corner, a bright splash of daylight at the back of the cavernous room draws the eye along a broad promenade toward the exit.

To the left, the main components of the program'a caf', gift shop, and exhibition area'jostle uncomfortably in the single volume. A more emphatic partitioning of the space envisaged by the competition scheme was dropped to increase flexibility, and retail now dominates. Nevertheless, the room's fundamental quality remains evident: Daylight spills in from high windows and lofty skylights, and the finely detailed folded concrete roof and steel-plate columns lend elegance to material robustness. The stepped section of the basalt-flecked polished concrete floor presages the fractured pavement of the causeway.

There is not a right angle anywhere. Heneghan Peng established four axes through the site as an organizing principle, and the logic of this somewhat arbitrary grid is followed with maniacal consistency'from the massing of the terrain and placement of the structure to the shapes of trash cans and ticket machines. This discipline might have produced sterile or incommodious spaces, but the imagination and effort with which the concept has been translated into built fabric gives the whole project a rich internal coherence and another connection to the causeway, whose polygonal stones hint at the variety within nature's underlying geometric order. This is truly a building in and of its place.

Chris Foges is the editor of the London-based journal Architecture Today.

Completion Date: May 2012

Size: 19,375 square feet

Cost: $17.7 million

People

Owner: The National Trust

Architect:
Heneghan Peng Architects
14-16 Lord Edward St, Flr 2
Dublin 2
Ireland
t +353 (0)1 633 9000
f +353 (0)1 633 9010

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Architecture, Landscape Concept and Interiors
heneghan peng architects

Competition
Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors)
Chris Hillyard, Aideen Lowery, Marcel Piethan

Project Design & Construction Stages
Shih-Fu Peng, Róisín Heneghan (Project Directors)
Julia Loughnane (Project Architect)
Monika Arcynska, Jorge Taravillo Canete, Chris Hillyard, Kathrin Klaus, Carmel Murray, Padhraic Moneley, Catherine Opdebeeck, Helena del Rio.

Engineer(s):
Structure + Fire: Arup

M+E: Bennett Robertson Design

Façade: Dewhurst Macfarlane

Consultant(s):
Structures
Arup

Building Services:
Bennett Robertson

QS|PM:
Edmond Shipway

Facade Engineering:
Dewhurst MacFarlane

Planning:
Turley Associates

Civils:
White Young Green

Landscape:
heneghan peng architects (Concept design)
Mitchell + Associates (Implementation)

Exhibition Design:
Event

Accessibility:
Buro Happold

Lighting: Bartenbach LichtLabor

Acoustical: FR Mark

General contractor: Gilbert Ash

Photographer(s): Marie-Louise Halpenny & Huft+Crow as per file name

Renderer(s): Archimation

CAD system, project management, or other software used: AutoCAD		  

Products

Structural system
Concrete retaining walls and ceiling slab

Manufacturer of any structural components unique to this project: Bespoke design of steel columns; 7 no. 30mm plates bolted together (custom)

Exterior cladding
Engineered basalt stone columns with glazing/ stone infills (custom)

Bead blasted stainless steel handrails with stainless steel cable mesh infill (custom)

Roofing
The mix of grasses planted on the green roof and ramp was grown from seed collected from the surrounding fields to ensure the delicate ecology of the area was preserved. The green roof provides both insulation from the sun and a natural evaporative cool­ing effect. (custom)

Built-up roofing: Grass roof (grown using a mixture of locally collected seed and amenity grass)
On topsoil
On insulation
On waterproofing
On Concrete roofslab

Glazing
Basalt facades: Stainless steel frame with nylon spacers integrated into basalt stone columns (custom)

Entrance Screens: Stainless steel curtain wall glazed screens (custom)

Skylights: Glazed rooflights with stainless steel frame (custom)

Doors (custom)
Entrances: Glazing bonded to Schueco doors

Metal doors: Anodised Aluminiumbonded to Shueco Doors or Bead Blasted Steel

Wood doors: Oak

Sliding doors:Glazed by Besam

Revolving door:By Boon Edam

Hardware
Locksets: Assa Abloy

Closers: Dorma

Exit devices:Dorma

Interior finishes
Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: Bespoke aluminum and oak(custom)

Paints and stains:Clear lacquer

Wall coverings:Anodised aluminium acoustic wall panels in main space by Durlum Germany

WC Wall coverings: Terrazzo (custom)

Floor: Basalt chip in polished concrete screed (custom)

Furnishings
Office furniture: Bespoke color core formica(custom)

Reception furniture: Bespoke aluminium clad counter(custom)

Tables: Bespoke oak(custom)

Lighting
Interior lighting: Bespoke stainless steel fittings by Durlum Germany

Exterior: Bespoke LED fittings to facade by Durlum Germany

Dimming System or other lighting controls: Dali system for exhibition lights

Plumbing
bespoke corian sink to public rest rooms

Other unique products that contribute to sustainability:
The building design has already achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ award, which mea­sures overall sustainability in design, materials, energy, construction management and ecology.

Passive Design and Carbon Reduction
The lighting gains and internal gains from occupancy exceed this loss: the building is therefore a ‘passive’ design which requires no heat to offset fabric losses during op­erating hours. A ground source heat pump system has been chosen to meet the heating require­ments for the Centre. The Centre incorporates a number of  heat recovery systems.

A Fresh and Comfortable Internal Environment
The design strategy comprises a low-carbon displacement ventilation system which delivers air at low velocity at 19-21°C directly to the occupied zone and warmed air rises by buoyancy to the passive extract points at high level. Extensive research has indicated that displacement ventilation systems also give better internal air quality than conventional ventilation, due to the segregation of exhaust air by the stack ef­fect.

Cooled by the Earth
The M&E designers have used the surrounding landscape as a cooling heat ex­changer and have also taken advantage of the thermal mass contained in the build­ing fabric for stability.

The green roof provides both insulation from the sun and a natural evaporative cool­ing effect.

The building includes very high levels of thermal mass with 4,900 tonnes of concrete are exposed to the internal space and supply air plenum. The thermal mass helps average day and night temperatures within the building.

Local and Sustainable Materials
The design life of the building is 100 years, with minimal services intervention re­quired during subsequent refurbishments and materials and systems have been se­lected with this in mind. Responsible sourcing of building materials has been based on BREEAM / Green Guide to Specification recommendations.

The white concrete used for the roof structure has a high recycled content to give a Green Guide ‘A’ rating and the stone in which the building has been clad is also an ‘A’ rated material.

The basalt is locally quarried in Kilrea, Co. Derry, from the same lava flows which formed the Causeway (not from the Causeway area itself as the local rock strata is protected)

Water Conservation
The water conservation measures adopted have reduced the water consumption by 75% compared with a standard approach, with significantly reduced load on the local drainage infrastructure and treatment systems.

Site Ecology
The replacement visitors’ centre improves on the extensive hard landscaping of the previous accommodation by creating a green roof and grassed ramp to increase the available green space. The mix of grasses planted on the green roof and ramp was grown from seed collected from the surrounding fields to ensure the delicate ecology of the area was preserved.

The National Trust staff gardeners and horticulturalists have the knowledge and skill to maintain the native planting and encourage the biodiversity of the site.

Economic Sustainability
Income generation has been factored into the design and facilities provided to en­sure ongoing economic sustainability of the Visitor Centre. Tourism is vitally important to the local economy within and around the Causeway Coast area. The new visitors’ centre has the potential to generate additional income for local businesses.

The ‘Park and Ride’ system based in Bushmills reduces traffic congestion at the Causeway site and provides sustainable economic links with the town, encourag­ing visitors to the Causeway to visit shops and facilities in the town, assisting with its regeneration and development.