2010 – Long Room Hub, Trinity College, Dublin

Architect: McCullough Mulvin Architects

longroomhub6

The building has been designed to accommodate a team working on the digitisation of the treasures of Trinity’s Old Library: a vital component of the plan to open the significant Manuscript and Early Printed Books collections of the Library to the world. The building also houses research facilities for post-doctoral students, offices for international Visiting Research Fellows, seminar rooms and space for lectures, conferences, symposia and colloquia.

“The rectangular building form- four stories high with higher rooflights penetrating the volume to form shafts of light- perches on the end of the Arts Block, closing the square and framing the view to Front Square over the roof of the 1937 Reading Room. The new building is seen as a powerhouse of ideas; the honeycomb granite surface is broken and imprecise; it floats over the existing fabric; the canons of light crash through the form, disturbing expectations and creating zones and double heights for work and research. Its character is formed by its thin-ness; it can be seen through from side to side, the external envelope broken by recesses forming balconies.”