Dermot Bannon & The Big Build, RTÉ One, Monday, October 2nd at 9.35pm
“This is the story of one of the biggest, most exciting building projects in Ireland” – Dermot Bannon
If you were going to build a truly world class medical training centre, designed to accommodate lecture theatres, an auditorium, a gym, a library and state-of-the-art surgical training facilities, where would you build it? And how would you build it?
If you were the Royal College of Surgeons – you’d do it right in the heart of Dublin’s city centre, by Stephen’s Green.
The Royal College of Surgeons has embarked on a build of genuinely EPIC proportions. The modernisation of the college’s prestigious 19th century base, to a bespoke 21st century training centre.
Dublin’s planning regulations stipulate that the building must remain in scale with the streetscape around it, and that’s only five stories high.
To make the building work on that site, they need ten.
So, if you can’t build up, where do you go? You go down!
This is going to be the deepest building in Dublin and this is not a job for the faint of heart. To orchestrate this ambitious project, the RCSI has appointed Bennett Construction with Construction Manager Carol Smillie, at the helm.
This is a HUGE project with huge statistics to match.
Filmed over two years, and presented by the nation’s favourite architect Dermot Bannon, the cameras follow the trials and tribulations of the build from its first inception, into the deepest darkest ground and through to the finished jaw dropping reveal.
Peter McGovern Architect and Director of Henry J Lyons Architects who designed the building said: “No 26 York Street builds on 200 years of excellence and innovation in medical training while providing a unique reason for students to study with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The new building underpins the College’s historic presence on St. Stephen’s Green providing state of the art clinical and surgical training facilities as well as a new library, auditorium and sports facility. The design seeks to create a clinical stage set for learning and forms a contemporary and distinctive representation of the character and spirit of the institution. At the heart of the project, themes of transparency, openness and collaboration contribute to a rich variety of spaces for individual and group learning.”
This is one hour of television you do not want to miss!