CRH education centre granted permission on Belgard Castle grounds
By Aideen O'Flaherty
PERMISSION has been granted to CRH for the development of a centre of education, learning, innovation and collaboration, and a learning archive, on the grounds of Belgard Castle in Tallaght.
CRH Group submitted plans for the construction of a learning archive, and for the construction of a basement archive space, reading rooms, exhibition spaces and ancillary, toilet and storage facilities providing a link to the lower Castle Courtyard through one of three existing fuel vaults.
It is proposed that the learning archive will be connected to the centre via an underground link and will be located between the Coach House and the castle’s annex building.
Elsewhere, the education, learning, innovation and collaboration centre will be located at the site of the existing main car park and grounds maintenance facilities.
There are plans for the building, which has a floor area of 4,314sq. m, to contain flexible education spaces of various sizes, and breakout and collaboration spaces, as well as dining facilities, kitchens, store rooms, welfare, plant and ancillary support spaces and is constructed over basement, ground, part-mezzanine and rooftop pavilion levels.
The submission includes plans for the centre to be connected below ground level to The Learning Archive via an underground link with a floor area of 230 sq. m.
The applicant included provisions for an extensive landscape enhancement programme and the provision of a new internal access road and service delivery adjacent to the centre.
The proposed plans also provide for the removal of the front, two-storey section of the existing finance building to construct an entrance pavilion, the removal of an existing temporary security hut and the demolition and the removal of the existing machinery sheds and demesne maintenance buildings.
South Dublin County Council granted permission for the development last month, with a number of conditions.
These conditions include the requirement that the structures cannot be used for any other purpose than that indicated within the application for planning permission, and the council’s architectural conservation officer must be contacted to inspect the safety measures put in place to safeguard and protect Belgard Castle, which is a protected structure.
