public spaces after dark
23:00 148
The Student Centre has been placed on a granite square between the 1964 UCD Sport complex and the original Student Centre from 2001, among the playing fields at the western edge of Belfield. By day the area is vital and welcoming thanks to this dense mix of sport and social facilities. In the evening, however, there is little to attract people and the area quickly becomes alienating and lifeless.
The ‘A day in the Life’ research highlighted this disparity, and presented an opportunity to catalyse a 24-hour vibrancy in and around the new Student Centre complex. The new programme concentrates extensive new facilities, which will attract users around the clock, across the formerly daytime use only buildings. Conceptually, the new building and its surrounding plazas echo the
infinite range of human experience they are designed to house. The complex composition of textures, materials and scales define the perceptive journey through the precinct, and it is the inventive application of light which seamlessly transfers their daytime interest into the night.