Printing House Square, Trinity College Dublin

Printing House Square provides 250 student bedrooms over a Health and Sports Centre for Trinity College. The courtyard plan is a strategic extension of the existing sequence of Trinity squares. It also acts as a new public city square and gateway between the College and the city, bringing increased life to this impenetrable section of Pearse Street.

The form is like a granite rock with a distinctive undulating stone roof. On the grander scale reflecting the mountains in distant view to the South and, at closer quarters, a grouping of ordinary Georgian roofs in the city. The building's materiality reflects its form and location with a board-marked concrete working plinth supporting a granite clad upper world. Occasional glimpses are provided from the courtyard down to the basement levels below.

The building also establishes a strong formal and material relationship between contemporary architecture and historic fabric. The architecture folds down to provide a more intimate context around the Printing House. New windowless gables are articulated as moulded planes setting the Printing House’s Classical temple architecture in a rocky landscape setting, allowing it to retain precedence in views from New Square and the steps of the Berkeley Library.