The majority of my time with O'Donnell + Tuomey was spent working on the new Student Hub building in University College Cork. It is ODT’s second addition to the campus, following their Sterling Prize-nominated Glucksman Gallery building, which opened in 2004.

The Hub aims to consolidate all of the student administration operations on the campus within one building, as well as offering a ‘market hall’ space for larger events and gatherings.

The program involves the refurbishment and reformatting of the 1860s medical education Windle building, whose stately form had become muddled due to the accretion of a number of ad hoc '70s and '80s extensions to its rear.

The program of works includes the demolition of these jumbled additions, making way for a sweeping, stone-clad two-storey intervention to plug into the rear of the old building. This curved extension, the opes of which borrow from the vaguely ecclesiastical proportions of the existing building's Gothic Revival windows, houses a "market hall" -  a space for students to congregate.

Above this stone extension to the Windle building is a bronze 'lantern' - a slim, angular tower (of 3 stories), clad in deep, storey-height fins, which would house event spaces and further administration offices.

Additional administration spaces and student union offices would be housed in the recalibrated interior of the Windle building.

With enabling works underway to clear out the ungainly late-20th century additions, the building is set to open to students and staff in early 2018.