Public Realm Masterplan, Dublin City University

The renewal of the public realm on the DCU Glasnevin campus formed a significant component of the University’s Phase 1 Capital Development Programme (2015–2021), to which MOLA Architecture contributed architectural and urban design expertise. Delivered in collaboration with Brady Shipman Martin, the project reorganised the campus’s principal landscaped mall and its adjoining quadrangles, addressing movement patterns, landscape structure and the need to accommodate increased student numbers. Approximately 9,000sqm of new hard and soft landscaping was constructed, marking the most visible transformation of the campus during this period.

The masterplan acknowledged that the historic east–west axis of the mall no longer reflected contemporary desire lines following the systematic infill of campus sites and the intensification of academic activity. The public realm strategy responded by opening the perimeter planting and introducing a series of diagonal pedestrian routes across the mall, strengthening permeability between faculties, services and residential buildings. These interventions established a more legible movement network and reinforced the mall as the civic heart of the campus.

The completed works provide a generous public forum for students and staff, supporting informal gathering, outdoor learning and everyday campus life. The project illustrates how carefully judged spatial adjustments, supported by planting, paving and lighting, can recalibrate a university campus to contemporary patterns of use and foster a stronger collegiate atmosphere.