Ireland’s first Tibetan Buddhist Temple takes a step towards completion with installation of distinctive tiered roofs clad in Nordic Royal – an innovative golden copper alloy from Aurubis.
At the heart of the Dzogchen Beara Buddhist Meditation Centre, on the Beara Peninsula overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in West Cork, the new building was designed in the style of a traditional Tibetan temple. The project’s architect Giles Oliver, who passed away three years ago, envisaged the building as: ‘a beacon of wisdom and compassion’ and the stunning new copper alloy roofs will be seen for miles along the coastline and from boats at sea.
The temple is built over three floors, each defined by a Nordic Royal clad roof with a curved-profile and deep overhanging eaves. Dragon heads and other sacred ornaments with deep spiritual meaning, hand-crafted from copper in northern India then gilded with gold leaf by members of the Dzogchen Beara community, adorn projecting corners and the top roof ridge.
There are numerous copper surfaces and alloys to choose from today. Leon Rossiter, one of the Directors and heading up the Temple project, explained: ‘We trialled different styles of copper by placing samples out on the cliff behind the temple, to face our harsh marine environment for 18 months. But only the Nordic Royal delivered just what we were looking for in a roofing material. We don’t think we could have achieved the look of the temple’s roofs if we had used any other material’.
The Nordic Copper range of architectural copper and alloy products, available from Aurubis – part of the world’s leading integrated copper group and largest copper recycler – includes Nordic Standard ‘mill finish’ and Nordic Brown pre-oxidised copper. The extensive Nordic Blue, Nordic Green and Nordic Turquoise ranges have been developed with properties and colours based on the same brochantite mineralogy found in natural patinas all over the world. In addition to Nordic Royal, copper alloys include Nordic Bronze and Nordic Brass, which can also be supplied pre-weathered.
A growing series of on-line ‘copper stories’ showcase the diversity of surfaces, forms and applications available with Nordic Copper today for all architectural typologies. For more information visit: www.nordiccopper.com or email: NordicCopper@aurubis.com.
