Engineering Energy & Environment

Moloney O’Beirne’s design concept for the South East Corner in Trinity College  was generated by the contextual parameters of the site and the nature of the design brief.  The complex was articulated into a series of individual building elements which communicated the function and vision of the new Natural Sciences School and the School of Engineering.

A new landscaped square connecting and opening the Campus to the Lincoln Place entrance was designed to create an important threshold into the Campus. Layered academic volumes were lifted above the ground plan at the axis of the existing Zoology Block and the Chemistry Building, thereby providing a welcoming and inviting gateway for students and staff.

The primary spatial event was a vast subterranean internal plaza, an 'urban room' that occupies the entire shell of the podium base.  This dramatic space including the older subterranean basements under the Zoology building was punctuated by modern interventions of glass and steel.  The space was created to  incorporate the shared teaching spaces, museum and exhibition areas in addition to the cafe. 

The area between the Fitzgerald Building, the Zoology Block and the Chemistry Building provided a dramatic sunken edge visible from all the adjoining new buildings.

Whilst the South East Corner of the Campus doesn't contain the same collegiate quality as the main Campus with formal quadrangles bounded on all four sides academic buildings, it does possess important late Nineteenth Century architecture.  These provide an important reference point for the Eastern end of the Campus and share a number of architectural features, including a relieving arch. A contemporary 'sense of place' evolving from the form, character and grain of the site was intended using the section as the design driver.