The Architecture Review

Founded in the mid-nineteenth century as the Catholic University of Ireland, University College Dublin (UCD) was first established in the heart of Dublin overlooking St Stephen's Green. Famous alumni include Gerard Manley Hopkins and James Joyce. During the 1960s, the university decamped to a suburban greenfield site at Belfield, to the south of the city centre. Over time the campus has evolved and expanded, adding new faculty buildings, student residences and recreational facilities. With 10 faculties, 80 departments and a student body of 22 000, UCD is now the largest university in Ireland. One of the most recent campus additions is McCullough Mulvin's extension to the Virus Reference Laboratory (VRL). Affiliated with the university's Department of Medical Microbiology, the VRL provides a national diagnostic virology service for Ireland, as well as undertaking research and issuing regular publications. The new building slots into a tight site between the main VRL laboratory and Ardmore House on the upper part of the campus. Though small in scale, the project plays a significant role in consolidating the relationship between the central buildings and the surrounding landscape, and, in particular, the lake directly below it.