McCulloughMulvin - Besboro House Child and Adolessent Psychiatric Unit, Cork

Bessboro House and its 18th century demesne has been a therapeutic campus for many years under the auspices of the Sacred Heart Sisters, who still live in the house. A Maternity Hospital and Chapel were built by the nuns in the 1920s, and these two buildings are now the site of a new project by the HSE (Health Services Executive) to build facilities for children and young people with mental health difficulties in the southern region.

The project seeks -by engulfing the older buildings – to change their nature entirely, reversing patterns of use and expectation with a new entrance block on the north side and a sweep of new rooms around a garden on the south, linking the former chapel and the old hospital building with a timber and zinc canopy. New areas are clad in timber stretched over the additional volumes, with low lying zinc roofs/roof lights and large areas of glazing bringing light deep into the plans.

Twenty In-Patient bedrooms, including intensive care facilities, are located within and beyond the old hospital at first floor, therapy/treatment rooms and social areas such as dining space, tv. rooms and a library are at ground level looking to the south and stretching into the garden. Across the open playspace the former chapel becomes a gym and training area, and engulfing that building from all sides are new classrooms, teaching areas, arts space and home economics room to allow young people who are in the unit for a period of a few months to follow normal educational programmes.