Carrigacunna Pool

Carrigacunna Pool in Cork, Ireland by Springett MacKay Architecture, 2003

The second piece in a three-phase improvement and restoration of Carrigacunna Castle in Southern Ireland is a new indoor swimming pool designed by London's Springett MacKay Architecture (now MSA Limited). Located between two walls of a stable dating back to the 18th century, the project also included a link to the main building and a small courtyard.

The corridor plays an important role in the project, separating the courtyard and the pool but also acting as a fulcrum for the intervention. Its two long walls exhibit the old and the new, the new wall shared with the courtyard is light and transparent and the existing wall shared with the pool is heavy and deep, its original openings leading the the water. Here a transition is made from the outside of the courtyard to the inside of the pool, from open to intimate.

From the courtyard one sees the openings of the existing wall (and the pool beyond) through the new glass wall of the corridor. This simple addition sets up a contrast between the Castle (dating back to 1457) and the link. The rhythm of the mullions and openings beyond is echoed by the stepping stones, just as the presence of the water in the indoor pool is echoed by a reflecting pool outside. In effect, the architects created a subtly symmetrical project, unifying the composition as an entity within the larger sprawl of the Castle.

The pool space itself is the most dramatic for a number of reasons. First, to stabilize the existing rubble walls a concrete tank was built inside the walls to contain the water, in effect filling the whole space with a sheet of water. Second, without room for a platform around the water, as is typically done, one can access the pool from any of the openings in the wall. And third, the architects inserted a small window at the north end of the space to frame a view of the castle and landscape beyond. Overall the architects achieved maximum effects through a minimal intervention in a contemporary manner.