The centre is designed to be almost invisible, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor
Heneghan Peng Architects took everyone by surprise in 2003 when it beat more than 1,500 other entrants from 83 countries to carry off the prized commission to design the Grand Egyptian Museum at the Pyramids of Giza.
So it was no real surprise yesterday when Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain announced that the Dublin-based practice had won another international competition for a much more modest project - a new visitor centre at the Giant's Causeway in Co Antrim.
Like its much more ambitious project on the outskirts of Cairo, the visitor centre is slotted into the landscape at some distance from the main attraction, in deference to the Causeway which shares this much with the Pyramids - both are Unesco World Heritage Sites.
The Giant's Causeway, with its basalt stepping stones, is only one of three such sites in Ireland, the others being Brú na mBóinne in Co Meath, and Skellig Michael, off the coast of Co Kerry.
Heneghan Peng's idea was to "fold" the new facilities into the landscape. "The Causeway is the destination, not this building, so what we tried to do was to make a building that was like a pause along the way," Róisín Heneghan said of its winning scheme.
The project is constructed between two folds in the landscape, creating a passage that leads to the crest of the ridge overlooking the cliffs of the Causeway coast. On one side, rising up, is the visitor centre itself; on the other, dipping down, is the car park.
The new 1,800sq metre centre is intended to be experienced as an event along the route. The "passage" through the site connects with the coastal walk, heightening visitor awareness of the extended coastline.
It is designed to be almost invisible, to maintain the mysteries of the Causeway's basalt landscape. Utilising the natural topography, its roof is covered in grass and it only has glazed walls on two sides, neither of which faces the sea.
"The foldings are precise and geometrical, yet vanish into the patchwork that forms the tapestries of fields," the architects say. "Each of the two foldings extend from the project into the landscape as if to merge with the coastline, yet fulfil distinct functional requirements.
One of the folds hides cars from being seen from the ridgeline and the road, while the other houses the interpretive areas as it "weaves into the visitor's movement through the site". It will also re-establish the original ridgeline, which is cut by the present visitor centre.
The folding of the landscape "opens up to greet the visitor, visually and spatially leading to the ridgeline with its view over the cliffscape, or inviting them inside to the protected spaces within its folds". Thus, the landscape itself remains the icon, rather than the building.
The design allows for an uninterrupted relationship with the natural site while providing a facility for those who want to use it. It is also 15 minutes walk from the main attraction.
In that respect, it is quite different to the €25 million visitor centre under construction at the Cliffs of Moher. Though also largely subterranean in design, it will sit almost on top of a spectacular landscape.