Located in Dublin, Ireland the DCU Institute of Education is the newest faculty of Dublin City University and is based in DCU St Patrick's Campus. The 12,000m2 and €50M Campus re-development project was completed in 2015 when the institution formed part of St Patrick's College an important third level institution in Ireland, the leading function of which was as the country's largest primary teacher training college. Founded in Drumcondra in the northern suburbs of Dublin, in 1875, with a Roman Catholic ethos, it offered a number of courses in education, arts and languages. On 30 September 2016, St Patrick's was dissolved as an institution and incorporated into the fifth faculty of Dublin City University, the DCU Institute of Education. The former St Patrick's College is now known as DCU St Patrick's Campus.
It may be said that the gardens of St Patrick’s College represent both an early 18th century garden, principally in the boundary planting, and a Victorian garden which was a good example of the renewed interest in formal parterres and terraces at that time. They may be said to be of local and regional interest. However the impact of construction on the site, the introduction of playing fields to the west, vehicular access and new planting had degraded the original gardens. For this reason, in the streetscape of the Drumcondra area, the screen created by fine deciduous trees and stone walls to the formerly enclosed college is a distinctive feature and advantage to the amenity of the area. Given the historical importance of the gardens and historic buildings it was important that the design of the new buildings was inherently bound with the strategy for revitalizing the gardens. In doing so the new intervention was conceived as a series of 'programmatic bands' as the main organisation tool for the development. Two new fully accesible buildings, a new Library to the East and a Teaching facility to the West along with a new bridge to the existing 18th century building formed the core of the re-development.
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To the north of the main historic garden an underutilised but still beautiful double row lime tree avenue was rescued and strategically incorporated into the scheme to have a double purpose: firstly to act as the new entrance to the campus, one of high ceremoniousness due to its grand character; and the second to act as the first layer of the Library building's façade, providing dense solar shading in summer and allowing sunlight through in winter. This newfound 'route' would become the new thoroughfare that linked the north campus, stretching from the street to the East to the playing fields to the West; and in doing so it would organise the new buldings not as blocks but as parallel bands of accommodation or as a series of 'programmatic bands' that would conform each building according to their different uses.
The Library comprises spaces for reading and studying that look to the tree canopies and historic gardens beyond as the first programmatic band, a lightwell and vertical circulation or 'grand stair', a space for the main book collection and finally the services and cellular spaces form the rest of the bands. The Teaching building houses state of the art classrooms and lecture theatres articulated by a lofty sculptural atrium.
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This architectural and landscape ensemble forms a memorable and distinct approach to the college as the band organisation is clearly legible in the architecture of the flagship building facing the street and city beyond.
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The Library building is cladded in a rich chocolate brown Fiber C GRC panel system which complements the colors and textures of the lime tree avenue which changes throughout the year from intense green in spring and summer to yellow and brown in autumn and winter; it features shotgun blast perforations in the street corner which brings dappled light to the interior spaces and also to the entrance atrium on the opposite side of the building. The cladding is complemented with large areas of thermally broken structural glazed curtain walling with the glass finished flush with the Fiber C cladding. The atrium, a dramatic four storey space features a full structural glazed curtain walling element with colored glass panels which baths the space with streaks of colored light, resembling other stain glass feature windows on the campus and echoing the original religious character of the institution.
To bring light deep into the plan of the library a 'light and circulation' band or 'lantern' was conceived as a huge open space that traverses the building featuring a grand stair and a series of bridges cladded in colored glass for wayfinding purposes. Along this space the structure of the building, a low CO2 fair faced concrete frame, showcases the rational approach with which the building has been conceived, where all elements of the building including the rainwater downpipes are exposed and left to view thus illustrating their purpose. The street end of this band projects from the façade plane and also up beyond the roof to catch light, in doing so this otherwise empty space materialises its function as a light and bright lantern-like element and as such it is clad in insulating glass with an expanded metal inlay which gives a metallic glow and appealing glint when the sun shines, producing a soft light in the interior while providing an effective protection against sunlight and glare. The expanded metal screen inlay performs the function of a directional selective daylight system, as the countless metal perforations act as shading elements in miniature. This 'lantern' element serves a third function at urban scale as a prominent 'floating' reference to state the renovated presence of the institution towards the street and the city.
The library's main collection is housed in a third band to the north of the lantern and it is cladded in a dark blue variegated brick which is also used to contain the cellular spaces like small offices, lift, general services and escape stairs. The use of these robust material echoes and complements the materiality of the rest of the campus.
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The Teaching Building comprises a classroom band to the south, a lecture theater wide band to the north and both are organised along a 'lantern' band that brings natural light right down into the building's atrium where an undulated 'roof-that-becomes-wall' containing the main auditorium bounces and distributes the daylight to all interior spaces. In contrast to the Library building the palette of color in the interior of the Teaching building features an almost all-white character only counterpointed with a few elements like the long green bench that terminates the undulating 'roof-wall', the wall to the classrooms on the first floor and the loose furniture.
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The buildings are designed to be fully accessible for people with disabilities. The main entrance to the building is served with a wheelchair accessible ramp from the east entrance and there is an external platform lift to the south side of the building to accommodate the change in site levels. A passenger lift provides wheelchair users access to all floors. Disabled toilet facilities are available on each floor. All built in furniture including the reception desk is designed for people with disabilities. The buildings are designed to achieve a BER rating A3. The CO2 emissions for the building is calculated as 30 kg CO2/m2/year. Each building uses 138 kWh/m2 compared with 300 kWh/m2 of a notional building, thus making them a sustainable example of buildings of this kind.