At the TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus, Central Quad is a contemporary interpretation of a classic university quadrangle. Programmed for interdisciplinary teaching, the building is divided into two L-shaped blocks that are oriented around a landscaped courtyard. A simple yet spacious feeling colonnade provides cover and a collegiate atmosphere while large windows are oriented both inward towards the green space of the quad as well as outward toward the campus and surrounding neighbourhood.
In total, the 35,000 sqm building includes a 250-seat lecture theatre with informal learning and common area, staff accommodation, specialist learning facilities including wet and dry laboratories as well as kitchens, teaching restaurants, and workshop/support spaces. The Central Quad is home to 6,500 students and 400 staff and provides flexible and specialist accommodation for ten of the University’s existing schools.
The entry to the building features a double-height atrium with routes through the building open and accessible to indicate the social nature of the university as a place for interacting and engaging with each other. The collaborative spaces of Central Quad are designed to bring together cross-disciplinary groups, both formally and informally to promote new synergies and interdisciplinary research projects. Substantial breakout areas on every level provide spaces where students, staff and researchers can gather in small groups, encouraging informal social interaction.
A five-storey, site-specific sculpture was commissioned for the main atrium. With gentle, constant movement, Alexandra Carr’s Solaris Nexum explores our changing connection to the sun through the technological shifts of various ages.
Organized as a base, middle, and crown, the façade is made of precast concrete and prefabricated panels made of reconstituted stone. The choice of the panels enabled a short construction programme for the building with a high-quality finish and excellent airtightness levels.
The panels follow the 6.4m grid of the laboratories. The regularity of the built form also creates a potential for the facade to be dismantled and reused in the circular economy when it comes to the end of its design life.
