Colaiste Feirste

Colaiste Feirste - Phase 02Located off the Falls Road, Coláiste Feirste is the only Irish Medium secondary school in Belfast. It’s current location puts it at the heart of the Belfast Irish Language community and within the new Gaeltacht Quarter.The first major phase of development was completed in the summer of 2005, and phase 02 will allow the school to increase its pupil numbers by over 50%.As the school site is split over two levels, our scheme proposes that the divide between the top and bottom sites should be logical, therefore this design includes for the removal of the fencing separating the two. The top site focuses on the academic program elements while the bottom site will hold the school’s new sporting facilities, including training pitches and a full size 3G GAA pitch. The General classroom block is to be located to the rear of the existing buildings, connected to the McArdle building and to resolve the changes in level of the site. As the works being carried out are additions to their current buildings, a key design aim was to maintain the existing classroom groups that make up each department. As classrooms are grouped together based on their subject, we want to maintain this, as moving them would ruin the synergy between them. To address this we have added a new floor for the Home Economics Department and smaller extensions have been added to the Technology & Design Department.