Ruadhán Jones
Presentation Sisters examine the newly refurbished gardens at South Presentation Convent, now Nano Nagle Place.
Credit: Clare Keogh The redevelopment of the first convent founded by Presentation Sisters’ founder Nano Nagle has won the Urban Design award in a prestigious national competition.
The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland gave the award, describing the South Presentation convent in Cork City as “an exemplary urban renewal project”.
The project, completed in 2017, Nano Nagle Place (NNP) is a multi-faceted organisation incorporating the convent, ministry activities, a heritage centre, gardens open to the public and a café.
The Presentation Sisters initiated the project as a means of preserving “the heritage and ethos of Nano Nagle… by creating a sacred place for contemplation and reflection and developing a new sustainable resource to share with the Cork Community”.
Jessie Castle of JCA Architects was part of the team who re-designed NNP. She said they were thrilled with the result.
“We are very pleased,” she said. “I think this award in particular does really reward the big team of people that were involved in the redevelopment of the site.
“There’s a lot of competition for these awards,” Ms Castle continued. “It’s good for the centre as well, it has been very successful. The masterplan has been realised fully in terms of the architecture but really it has been carried through by the people running the site now, the sisters and the user groups.”