Marine Institute Galway

The Marine Institute at Oranmore Galway is a modern world class headquarters situated on an impressive coastal location overlooking Galway Bay. The building has been sensitively placed into its context with both the selection of materials used and the building design achieving a sympathetic relationship with the immediate landscape.

The organic design approach permits flexibility yet maintains identity. Natural materials have been used for reasons of site suitability, lifecycle costs and sustainability. The landscape design attempts to acknowledge its institutional and functional role, while at the same time, achieve a synthesis with its setting.

Selecting TerraPave® Country Cobble as the chosen product for the hard landscaping around the Institute enabled the architects at the OPW to achieve a balance between the building design and landscape. The natural appearance of the product also gives a distinctive olde world charm to the project. A further objective within the design was to achieve a unique identity for the Institute whilst remaining contemporary and practical. With this in mind paving was an obvious choice for the hard landscaping providing both natural beauty and flexibility in design. (Photos courtesy Gerry O'Leary / OPW).