A new £18.5m visitor centre has opened today (3 July) at the Giant's Causeway - Northern Ireland's sole UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the County Antrim coast.

The building - designed by Dublin, Ireland-based heneghan.peng - is inspired by the site's 40,000 hexagonal basalt stones and the legends of giants Finn McCool and Benandonner.

Event Communications has worked on the interpretative design of the centre, which includes interactive experiences exploring the story and science of the Giant's Causeway.

A café and a retail facility also form part of the 1,800sq m (19,375sq ft) building, while guests can access the centre's grass-topped roof offering panoramic views of the site and the Antrim coastline.

Arup was responsible for delivering the structures and Bennett Robertson oversaw building services, while Bartenbach Lichtlabor provided specialist lighting.

Edmond Shipway; Dewhurst MacFarlane; Turley Associates; and White Young Green also worked on the development, along with landscape architects Mitchell and Associates.

Funding was provided by the National Trust (£6.25m); the European Regional Development Fund (£6.125m); and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (£3m).

The Heritage Lottery Fund also contributed £3m towards the construction of the new visitor centre, which has already received the BREEAM 'excellent' standard for sustainability.

The development has been guided by 10 principles of sustainability, including the green roof and water conservation measures, as well as the utilisation of geothermal energy among others.

NT director for Northern Ireland Heather Thompson said: "It was extremely important for us to create visitor facilities worthy of this unique, legendary visitor attraction.

"As well as looking the part, we wanted to ensure the building was sustainably built using the latest technologies wherever possible. Currently 600,000 people visit the stones each year, and the new centre will enable us to increase capacity by 30 per cent."

Details: www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Image: heneghan.peng