Alien design concept in foreign aid building

Architecture & DesignA new building that will show how the Government is spending its development money will excite those who visit it, writes Emma Cullinan

We spent nearly €177 million on Irish overseas aid 10 years ago and now that has risen to around €914 million as we head for the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of our GNP on overseas aid by 2012.

And now there is a dedicated building, on the ground floor of a 1960s office block at the top of O'Connell Street, which shows how that money is being spent, about the countries it is being spent in, and how you can volunteer to help.

Anyone can drop in to the centre six days a week and schools are also being encouraged to visit. But visiting children will not just learn about far-off lands; they will also discover how wild architecture can be. The first room you come to, in the former Eircom showroom that has been converted by Tom de Paor Architects, is the projection room where films are shown about our global brethren - but these are not the only projections taking place, the ceiling also protrudes into the room in the form of angles.

Such soffit acrobats are continued throughout the building and were achieved, says de Paor, "the old way, with string and a dialogue with the builders".

In quieter rooms the ceiling angles drop even lower for gentler acoustics, a relative silence that is also achieved with carpets, while the more open spaces are floored in the same granite as the street to encourage the link between the two which is also eased by huge glass windows and new external overhangs which allow people to shelter while they contemplate what is happening within the building.

They will see films projected on back walls or on the window itself. These audio visuals were created by Martello Media and the graphics by Red Dog. The idea behind such a dynamic building was to engage people, and its transparency helps to open up something that happens miles away, says a spokesperson for the centre.

The design is really brave and slightly eccentric: the angular ceilings are set off by gaps at the tops and bottoms of walls.

Some gaps beneath floating walls are so large that any child not willing to enter the coffee room, for instance, by the conventional route can simply duck beneath the wall. These gaps allow through-views, pulling you forward to the next area and activity, and should people weary there are generous stone plinths to sit on.

"White walls, granite floors and shadow gaps are pretty established," says de Paor. "It is about how you put them together to create something dynamic. Floating helps that because when things meet the ground they become static."

The openness of the building extends to the offices where the staff work: this is screened from the public area only by a glass wall on which the declaration of human rights is etched, in both English and Irish.

People are often wary about being daring with design in their homes, and children have been reared on the idea of bungalow bliss and pitched roof homes with gardens out front and back, so here is an opportunity for them to see design at its edge. As a loose comparison, this is Libeskind or Gehry-esque gallery space albeit on a much smaller scale and budget.

De Paor has praise for the client, both the OPW and Department of Foreign Affairs.

"It has been really good that they allowed us to push at this and it has been a real pleasure to make it happen."

The Irish Aid Volunteering and Information Centre is at 27-31 Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin 1, and is open Monday to Friday (10am-5pm, Thursday until 8pm) and Saturday (10am-3pm), www.irishaid.gov.ie/centre