Affectionately known to the Irish horse racing community as simply Curragh, Curragh Racecourse represents Ireland’s premier thoroughbred racecourse.
The brief for architects Grimshaw, developed in collaboration with Dublin based architects Newenham Mulligan & Associates, was to design a new racecourse grandstand for 6000 people, within a masterplan able to accommodate a crowd flux of up to 30,000 people.
The redevelopment of the stand at Curragh was to create a greater sense of excitement and atmosphere, along with a bolstered range of world-class facilities for jockeys, horses and racegoers alike, with the stand creating a heroic centrepiece to all.
ABOVE: the new ‘floating’ grandstand roof was developed to create a greater sense of excitement
The new Curragh grandstand is composed of stacked horizontal forms, coupled with a an awe-inspiring ‘floating’ roof set against a stunning landscape. The cantilevered roof truly highlights the copper colour of the Kalzip roof, which was used specifically to reference the Irish vernacular and Kildare’s agricultural heritage. The contemporary continuous roof soffit is made from sinusoidal Kalzip aluminium panels. These in turn provide a homogenous and stunning appearance in contrast to the rolling landscape. Several Kalzip geometries were used in the process, with the Kalzip 65/400 product is in straight form and 65/tapered, as well as the matching W18/76 perforated sinusoidal aluminium profile.
The Kalzip roof was specified for a number of factors. Firstly, the copper coloured finish worked perfectly with the design aspirations, along with the geometry of the roofing and perforated panels.
Kalzip helped us to achieve a certain composition when it came to the floating-effect roof. The trusses and cantilever follow the curved grid and then tie to a series of pier columns at the back. These in turn are supported by the concrete raker beams of the lower terraces. A 42m by 175m structure, the deepest cantilever stretches 45m.
