Sports Ireland Campus

Sport Ireland is tasked with developing the National Sports Campus at Abbotstown into a local, national and international centre for sporting excellence. Since 2019, MOLA Architecture has been appointed to 2No. Sport Ireland Architectural Frameworks to support this ambition, providing masterplanning, architectural, conservation and advisory services across the 200-hectare estate. The framework facilitates the long-term delivery of world-class facilities for athlete development, participation and community engagement.

A central commission has been the Village Centre Masterplan, the notional heart of the campus, organised around a new public space integrating an existing stream, stone cottage and historic parkland landscape. Proposed buildings define a coherent civic edge and include a hotel, conference facilities, offices, athlete accommodation and a food academy, all set within a landscape network linked to Abbotstown House, the stable buildings, walled garden and wider grounds. Connectivity, legibility and high-quality pedestrian approaches formed key masterplanning drivers.

In parallel, MOLA prepared a strategic masterplan for the Sports Institute, located within a protected structure formerly used as an agricultural laboratory and later adapted to include high-performance gyms, medical suites and a 4-lane indoor running track. The work includes an extensive expansion of the high performance facilities including a specialist Environmental Chamber for sports training.    As part of this wider architectural framework, MOLA delivered the Long Barn office development -an adaptive reuse project transforming historic agricultural buildings into contemporary office accommodation for the Olympic Federation of Ireland, combining retained roof profiles with a restrained modern extension.   MOLA has also delivered the new offices for the SI Sports HQ2, NGB Storage compound as well as works on the Eastern Stables, Historic Sheds, Cross Block and Gate Lodge.

Taken together, the work provides Sport Ireland with a coherent roadmap for campus development and facility upgrade, aligning architectural, landscape and operational considerations to support the evolution of a national sporting destination.