Urban Institute of Ireland in Dublin
Grafton Architects 

Urban Institute of Ireland in Dublin

Grafton Architects 


On the northwestern edge of the Belfield campus of the University College Dublin, the Urban Institute joins an original collection of mainly 19th century Masonic School buildings – now called Richview – which are loosely organized around a lime tree enclosed quadrangle. The Urban Institute is positioned to form its own independent entrance to the Richview Campus and to facilitate the required connection to the existing Library – a red brick, Art & Craft, Protected Structure. A balance was sought between the academic tradition of the solitary scholar and the urgent need for interdisciplinary engagement, which demands a place conducive to casual overlap and meaningful academic exchange. The building consists of two layers that combine to form a spatial tartan grid. The ‘ground’ layer is stratified in the east-west direction, establishing degrees of privacy between the environmental laboratory and private research carrels. The ‘sky’ layer of rooflights works in the opposite, north-south direction. The outer crust is wrapped and folded by a skin of terracotta roof tiles, granite plinths, mica speckled render and red brick, which form the material palette of adjacent buildings...[+]


ClienteClient
University College Dublin

Arquitectos Architects
Grafton Architects

Colaboradores Collaborators
Clifton Scannell Emerson Associates (estructura structure); Buro Happold (instalaciones mechanical and electrical); Brendan Merry & Partners (aparejador quantity surveyor)

SuperficieFloor area
850 m²

FotosPhotos
Ros Kavanagh