The top prize in a school-designing competition has gone to a firm of Scottish architects.

The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland ran a competition for the design of a new 1,000-student post-primary school in Dublin.

It attracted 154 submissions, including 43 from outside Ireland.

The winning design is by Ayr-based ARPL Architects, who beat off competition from Irish architects.

Their design is to be built on a Department of Education-owned site in Kingswood, Tallaght.

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It is expected that the joint second-place holders, de Blacam and Meagher Architects and the Coady Partnership, will design other schools for Department-owned sites as funding becomes available.

Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn congratulated ARPL Architects on their "innovative design" and said children in Tallaght could "look forward to a school space that truly reflects the needs of the 21st-century student" and said that as a one-time architect, he wanted to "bring fresh thinking and creativity" to school design.

Mr Quinn said: "It is vital that we now consider new approaches to the design of new second-level schools given the changes which are under way both in terms of curriculum and how our students are taught and the number of new schools to be built over the next 15 years."

The competition jury was chaired by South Dublin County Council architect Eddie Conroy.

(NE)