John Hume Building, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Narratives

Mr. Mark Mc Cann

The building is located in the centre of the campus with student residences to the east and the main faculty buildings to the west. The main pedestrian spine, linking all parts of the campus, runs through the site, from north to south. The building provides central teaching facilities for all faculties, and is home to the Psychology Department and a research base for the University. Student facilities including shops, a bank, restaurant and counselling services, are gathered here along with the main campus boardroom.

The teaching spaces include a 450 seat and two 225 seat auditoria at ground floor, each equipped for broadcast and teleconferencing: tutorial rooms and further lecture theatres are located at first floor. The Psychology Department occupies the third floor, with laboratories to one side and offices on the other. The top floor provides a research studio for post-doctoral research and offices for visiting lecturers and research staff.

Design Approach

The building is organised around a linear atrium, with the main theatre at the north end, other large teaching spaces to the east side and the smaller tutorial rooms and offices on the west. The atrium is crossed with a route that links the two main entrances and provides easy access to students arriving from both the east and west sides of the campus.

The major auditoria and student services are located at ground level, where the broad floor of the atrium provides room for mass movement of students. The auditorium at the north end is counter pointed by the student cafeteria and bookshop at the other. Retail uses, including a bank and grocery store, further enliven the ground floor.

The first floor is occupied by large classrooms and tutorial rooms, easily accessed by open stairs and lifts. A broad gallery lines the atrium with glazed bridges to the classrooms.

Building uses on the upper floors are progressively quieter and more private. Lecturers’ and department offices open into external loggia and the research studio has access to a roof garden. These external spaces extend the richness of the environment and the ambience offered by the building.

A sense of community is created as the building rises through a four storey atrium space with balconies giving access to cellular departmental spaces on one side linked by bridges over to shared facilities including a computer suite, library and conference room on the other side. The height of the building creates a natural hierarchy of spaces with the broad, noisy and heavily trafficked concourse on ground floor moving up through teaching spaces on first, quieter departmental space on second and finally research and conferences on the top floor.

The atrium is naturally lit through the roof and a full height curtain wall at the south end. Fair-faced concrete and blockwork are employed to create a light airy space. Accent is provided through the colour of doors, timber skirting, trims and stair treads, balustrading, and vinyl and carpeted floor finishes. At ground floor the lightness of the fair-faced concrete is offset by slate and recessed skirting: horizontal timber panelling, set into openings, announce the entrances to the smaller lecture theatres. The volume of the main auditorium is freely expressed as a curved plastered wall over two storeys, painted a bright orange to emphasise its form and importance.

Externally the building has two distinct faces, each expressing a different relationship with the campus. The main entrance elevation with its long, deep balconies and four stories of blockwork offers a hard civic frontage overlooking the new agora and pedestrian spine.

The rear of the building relates to the softer, quiet parkland setting of the student accommodation. The organic forms of the auditoria are deliberately exaggerated with their sloping walls and copper cladding. These green shapes emerge from below the warm-coloured render of the main building and break the elevation into smaller forms which sit comfortably in the landscape.

Mr. Finbarr Horrigan

The Architects, together with other members of the Design Team were awarded the commission six years ago to produce a Master Plan for the development of the north campus of the University and to design a major new teaching and research building on the same campus.

We set the project team the challenge to design a flagship building for the campus, with spaces of great visual, architectural and functional quality, able to withstand high occupancy and heavy use. We joined the team in developing a building which would be primarily dependent on natural light and ventilation, and which would produce low CO2 emissions in line with our obligations to the Kyoto agreement.

The design process was a fully collaborative one with regular and in-depth consultation at all stages between the Design team, client, and most importantly representatives of the psychology Department ( the end users ) in terms of briefing, room layouts and services requirements for the various spaces.

We believe all these goals have been achieved extremely successfully and we are now monitoring the building and preparing to measure the actual energy usage in the coming academic year.

We look forward to the results and to optimising the performance of the systems in continuing collaboration with the designers.

Finbarr Horrigan
Buildings Officer