Health & Science Centre, University College Dublin

UCD commissioned MOLA Architecture to design a 30,000sqm Health and Sciences Building to bring together four previously dispersed academic schools -Nursing and Midwifery, Diagnostic Imaging, Physiotherapy and Medicine- within a single collegiate setting. The architectural brief required separate academic identities while establishing a common civic address and shared spatial core. This duality informed the building’s massing, circulation and material expression.

The programme is arranged as a series of wings set around tall atria that act as internal streets, bringing daylight deep into the plan and natural ventilation. These atria organise the building at multiple scales: as orientation devices, as environmental moderators and as social rooms where informal learning and collaboration occur. Staff offices and student facilities are deliberately co-located along these routes, reinforcing permeability between disciplines and supporting contemporary pedagogical models.

A robust and durable palette underscores the academic character of the complex, with key elements articulated for legibility and long-term performance. A library at the heart of the building provides a shared academic resource and a symbolic point of convergence for the four schools. It is expressed as a glazed volume supported on a 30-metre glued-laminated timber portal frame, lending the complex a clear centre of gravity and a strong architectural identity within the Belfield campus.