Newsview: Stephen Holl Architects design selected for UCD campus

Does the winning design for a new UCD campus makes the grade? Rose Martin finds out.

T here’s been a bit of a stir in Irish design circles recently, not all of it positive, with the announcement that Stephen Holl Architects, (SHA), has won the competition for a new entrance campus for UCD.

This follows on an international competition last year, with a shortlist unveiled in April and the choice of design has seen a lot of sneery dismissal from some of the brethern of the architectural community in the country.

The new plans, as seen above are inspired by the Giant’s Causeway, ( “where 60 million year-old natural geometry is a stream of consciousness), and the work of James Joyce, and SHA looks to have adopted what critics describe as the firm’s ‘phenomenological approach’ in creating significant work of architecture. Joyce and the Causeway — bit of a stretch, like?

Anyway, here’s what Holl says, including his own capitalisations: “Our design ….focuses on Place and Space, the notion that Architecture arises not out of a vocabulary imported from elsewhere, but from this special Place and culture, projected toward the future with original, inspiring Spaces for the highest level of education for generations to come.”

SHA has previous in University building design, and perhaps that was one of the reasons that firm was chosen above the other five applicants, albeit that all had the requisite experience and clout.

The firm has recently completed the Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond, Virgian, (a beautiful building) and the Reid Building at Glasgow School of Art, and has h a long list of American Ivy League buildings to its credit.

The plans for UCD are familiar, in that SHA again uses translucent, glazed structures similar to the Virginia building in what the judging panel described as “a new compelling entrance precinct” to the south Dublin campus.

The shortlist of six finalists was whittled down from a field of just under a hundred applicants and included four American firms, of which the most familiar would perhaps be Studio Libeskind, which designed the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, formerly the Grand Canal Theatre — it also included Stephen Holl Architects.

UN Studios from The Netherlands and Stirling-award winning firm, O’Donnell Tuomey, from Ireland (who have recently finished a modern, domestic structure on a steep site at Sunday’s Well, Cork), represented Europe.

The competition jury, comprising significant members of UCD’s academics and administrators, also included some interesting personalities and international names. Emerging Starchitect, Sir David Adjaye was there, as was Ann Beha of Ann Beha Architects, who is a member of the Harvard University Design Advisory Panel, and renowned urban planner, Joe Berridge of Urban Strategies had a seat, as had Hugh Campbell, Dean of UCD’s School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy.

Financier, Dermot Desmond, of International Investment & Underwriting was also a member, along with developer, Sean Mulryan, of the Ballymore Group, with architect Malcolm Reading, of Malcolm Reading Consultants as competition organiser and chair.

The new ‘Centre for Creative Design’ will have a budget of €48 million and will comprise a gateway campus building with studios, lecture halls, exhibition space, foyer, cafe, and observation centre.

And in typical architect-speak, the project is desribed by SHA, thusly: “The Centre for Creative Design is designed around five concepts:

Place, inspired by geometries of the Giant’s Causeway and the work of James Joyce.

Space for experience, instead of an object.

Gateway, presence on the horizon, R138 and up close.

Natural Light and generous proportion to all interior spaces and a Circuit of Social Connection linking all the different people working in the building in a free and open way to give a kind of creative collaboration as the heart and soul of the building.”