In September 2010, the Irish Government launched a major new urban regeneration development program including state of the art mental health facilities, a purpose-built third level education campus for the Technological University of Dublin (“TU Dublin”) and a variety of public amenities, to be built on the grounds of St. Brendan’s Hospital in Grangegorman in Dublin 7.
This development includes the “TU Dublin Campus at Grangegorman – East and Central Quads PPP Project”, which has been delivered under a single contract to design, build, finance and maintain the two quads for 25 years.
Locations
Central Quad (Food, Sciences, Health & Engineering) – The Central Quad buildings will accommodate academic activities and facilities required for a total of ten schools from the College of Sciences & Health, College of Engineering & Built Environment and the College of Arts & Tourism. These schools and their associated academic, teaching and specialist facilities will be grouped within the Central Quad to maximize the benefits and efficiencies to DIT from locating together related disciplines and functions such as wet & dry laboratories, the National Optometry Centre and specialist culinary arts training facilities. The gross internal floor area for the Central Quad is approx. 36,000 m2.
East Quad (Creative & Cultural Industries) – The East Quad buildings will accommodate the majority of academic activities and facilities required for the College of Creative & Cultural Industries which currently consists of seven schools, five of which will be accommodated within the East Quad. The accommodation will include a 400 seat music performance hall, music, dance & drama performance & practice spaces and creative arts & media studios. The gross internal floor area for the East Quad is approx. 16,000 m2.
Technology
The TU Grangegorman project is currently the largest investment in audio visual technology within the education system in Ireland. There are approximately 240 teaching locations along with a campus wide signage distribution system, a 400 seater auditorium and 2 large rehearsal studios. The teaching locations comprise of music rooms, lecture theatres, scientific laboratories, skilled workshops, art workshops, large & small classrooms, seminar rooms, collaboration rooms, breakout areas and social areas.
The audio-visual technology used for the teaching locations is a mixture of laser projectors and large flat panel displays. Control systems are a mix of Extron push button and touch screen controllers. Signal distribution, switching amplifiers are also Extron. The teaching stations were supplied by TopTec who were very helpful in providing custom designs of some of their products.
Techcom were appointed in August 2019 and the project was completed for teaching by September 2021. During the project program we encountered a good relationship with Covid 19 but thanks to the hard work and diligence of our staff and the main contractor SISK all went well and everybody was safe.
