STUDENT RESIDENCES, BROADSTONE, DUBLIN

The heart of this project is the provision of 96 student beds in a strategic location in Dublin’s north inner city, located within walking distance of three major third level education institutions. The site is ideally located adjacent to QBC and future LUAS line. Critically it also mediates a pivotal urban condition between Constitution Hill, Broadstone Park, Kings Inn and Broadstone Station.

The building design was generated from three distinctive objectives: to provide a setting for student life separate to the campus experience; to create an urban intervention that went beyond identification as a residential block and to execute the use of materials as clear sculptural elements.

A predominantly four storey development, the section of the building takes advantage of the four metre rise to the park area, with a four storey over basement area on the park side. The initial phase of construction comprised excavating out the entire ground floor of the project, under pinning an existing house on the site and creating a retaining wall to the boundary. The removal of the earth facilitated shuttering out the foundations and pooring neat concrete footing for the steel frame.

The design of the main four storey student housing block is organised with five student house units per floor, arranged around a central atrium space. This space is top light, dynamic and bright, containing bridges, galleries and staircases connecting all the house units. The main entrance is at ground floor level on Phibsborough Road through a stone box that contains the managers’ reception area and wind lobby. The main student concourse area located off the reception is top lit through the atrium above and contains the main circulation stairs. All the communal student areas such as living area, study room and laundry are also entered off this space. At the top of the atrium is a small reading room with access onto a roof garden, allowing the residence to have a full view of the city from the top of Constitution Hill.

The section from Phibsborough Road to Broadstone Park was conceived as a mediating ground between the urban and parkland settings. This is highlighted by a series of visual cuts revealing the common areas of the building at the first floor, which corresponds with the park level. A second entrance to the development via a pivoting gate off the park completes the connection. This leads on to a communal outdoor terrace which houses the seminar room for student use and acts as a connection between the existing building at Royal Canal Bank and the main student block.