Newbridge Family Resource Centre is one of 109 Family Resource Centres in the country.

Family Resource Centres are ‘not-for-profit’ organisations run by a Voluntary Board of Management and funded by Tusla Child and Family Agency.

Every Family Resource Centre was established to provide a range of supports that help families meet the challenges of everyday life.

The Newbridge Family Resource Centre provides services including a Playgroup, Homework Club, Women’s Group and Outreach Office to local residents.

Kelly and Cogan Architects were appointed in 2003 by Kildare Co. Council to deliver a facilities building for the Family Resource Centre.

The building is located within a large amorphous open space to which three local housing estates are contiguous.

The built form is a H-plan in which the two main ’wings’ contain the day to day functions of the LHD and in which the shorter connecting link element is the social space where adults can take coffee and look out on the courtyard play areas.

The introspective nature of the design was chosen deliberately to focus internally rather than on the surroundings.

The low roof profile is intended to make the building subordinate to its surroundings while the choice of timber windows, cedar cladding, brick and render gives it a complexity greater than its small size would normally indicate.