Client: Eurigena Consortium / TU Dublin
Location: Dublin
Cost: undisclosed
Completion: March 2021
Central Quad is an interdisciplinary teaching building for the TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus. Science, research and innovation-focussed, the Central Quad accommodates ten schools from the College of Sciences & Health, College of Engineering & Built Environment and College of Arts & Tourism. It also houses general learning space, distributed learning commons, staff accommodation and building support.
The building is a contemporary and dynamic interpretation of the classic university quadrangle, split into two L-shaped forms blocks around a landscaped courtyard. A simple, but generous, colonnade provides shelter and a collegiate atmosphere. Large windows look inwards to the green space of the quad and outwards to the Grangegorman Campus and its neighbourhood.
A clear entrance to the quad is marked by a double height atrium. The 35,000sqm building contains general learning space – including a 250 seat lecture theatre and informal learning and commons areas, staff accommodation and building support - as well as a range of specialist learning facilities such as wet and dry laboratories, workshops, kitchens, support spaces and teaching restaurants.
Routes through the building make it an open and accessible building and announce its role as a teaching and social centre for the university. Reflecting the ambitions of the new Campus, the Central Quad, brings together the whole of the university ecosystem to interact, engage and learn together.
A five storey, site specific sculpture was commissioned for the main atrium. With gentle, constant movement, it reflects the shifting light, drawing attention to the upper stories and connecting the schools within the building.
Alexandra Carr’s Solaris Nexum explores our changing connection to the sun through the technological shifts of various ages. In the artwork, Carr considers celestial architecture, advances in optics and renewable energy as paradigm-shifting technologies that give hope for a sustainable future for humankind.
Read more in Explore: Art and Science.
TU Dublin’s vision is of a Campus that is part of the community and the city. Grangegorman Campus is the largest higher education development in Europe, accessing a previously closed site to welcome in locals, students and visitors alike.
The campus has relocated TU Dublin’s 20,000 staff and students, currently housed in 39 buildings across Dublin, bringing them together in a single campus.
Developing body
Grangegorman Development Agency
Structural & MEP Engineers
Mott Macdonald
Landscape architects
Stephen Diamond Associates
FFE Consultant
Red Apple Design
Acoustic Engineers
iAcoustics
Fire Engineer & Accessibility consultant
Michael Slattery Associates
Planning Consultant
McGill Planning
CDM Advisor
ASM Group
Façade Consultant
FMDC
Artist
Alexandra Carr
Photography
Ste Murray