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ACADEMIC DEBATEThis extension to UCD’s microbiology department is a

rational cube that reworks the campus object building.

Founded in the mid-nineteenth

century as the Catholic University

of Ireland, University College

Dublin (UCD) was first

established in the heart of Dublin

overlookingSt Stephen’s Green.

Famous alumni include Gerard

Manley Hopkins and James

 Joyce. Duringthe 1960s, the

university decamped to a

suburban greenfield site at

Belfield, to the south of the city

centre. Over time the campus has

evolved and expanded, adding

new faculty buildings, student

residences and recreationalfacilities. With 10 faculties, 80

departments and astudent body

of 22 000, UCD is now the largest

university in Ireland.

One of the most recent campus

additions is McCullough Mulvin’s

extension to the Virus Reference

Laboratory (VRL). Affiliated with

the university’s Department of 

Medical Microbiology, the VRL

provides anational diagnostic

virology service for Ireland, as well

as undertakingresearch and issuing

regular publications. The new

buildingslots into atight site

between the main VRL laboratory

and Ardmore House on the upper

part of the campus. Though small in

scale, the project plays asignificant

role in consolidatingtherelationship between the central

buildings and the surrounding

landscape, and, in particular, the

lake directly below it.

Conceived both as aplace of work

and social interaction, the project

is one of aseries of new pavilions

designed to support and challenge

the notion of architecture in the

landscape that informed UCD’s

orginal development in the 1960s.

More specifically, it is clearly an

object buildingin the greenfield

campus tradition, but is also

concerned with connectingwith

its surroundings and creatinga

sense of place. The main public

frontage is defined by atr iangular,

rock-studded parvis while the

inner edge encloses asmall gardenlandscaped in an artfully minimal

 Japanese style, creatingapeaceful

haven for contemplation.

With its lightweight skin and

simple geometry, the new building

forms an expressive contrast with

its more leaden brick and stone-

clad campus counterparts.

Facades are wrapped in ataut skin

of interlockingand overlapping

panels of glass and Western red

cedar which project and recede

fromthe main surface plane.

 The cedar will weather to a

delicate silvery grey, but the light

has aslightly different effect on

the vertical and horizontal boards,

so that the skin will eventually

resemble apiece of wornfabric with subtly contrasting

textures. Extended parapets

give the buildingmuscular, cube-

like, proportions.

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LABORATORY , DUBLIN, IRELAND

A RC H ITEC T

MCCULLOUGH MULVIN

ARCHITECTS

1, 2The new extension isan object

buildingin the landscape, starklydifferent from its neighbours,but it also strivesto connect withitssurroundingsand create asense of place.3Detail of W estern red cedar skin.

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54|2 ground floor plan (scale approx 1:250)

first floor plan

crosssection

crosssection

 The plan is elegantly economical,

with offices on the upper floor

and alaboratory, canteen and

meetingroomat ground level,

with access to the courtyard

garden. In abstract, the plan

resembles a simple unicellular

organism, with acoloured

circulation core as its nucleus.

 The free-standing, sky-blue core

can be glimpsed as you move

through the buildingand acanted

link corridor connects the new

extension with the main

laboratory. The linkingarmalso

functions as an entrance hall.

UCD’Sevolvingcampus can,

perhaps, be compared to a40

year conversation, with new

members joiningin and addingto

the growingdialogue. McCullough

Mulvin’s modest yet intelligently

 judged contribution adds to the

richness of this academic debate.

CATHERINE SLESSOR

Architect

McCulloughMulvin Architects, Dublin

Structural engineer

 ThomasGarland& Partners

Servicesengineer

UCD BuildingsServicesDepartment

Photographs

ChristianRichters

4The crisp cube. Horizontal andvertical cedar stripswill weather inslightly different ways.5Internal Japanese-style garden andlink to the main department (left).6The coloured circulation core.

longsection

site plan

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5 6

1 m ain departm ent

2 link

3 entrance4 circulation core

5 laboratory

6 canteen

7 offices

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5 6

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