The Urban Institute is the latest addition to the somewhat haphazard collection of buildings surrounding the School of Architecture in UCD. In this setting, creating a valid site plan for any new building is a challenge and one that Grafton Architects have met with great style and verve.

When seen from the courtyard, the new building is partly obscured by the library where the new institute stands like a younger cousin in the back row of a family photo. The tall roof monitors sail across, pointing to the west towards the building's entrance.

Here the rear fa�ade of the Memorial Hall is drawn into play to frame an outdoor space overlooked by the common room. At the entrance, the low walls and irregular paving extend out from the porch to control the approach to the building.

From here the passageway, passing below the connecting bridge to the Library, creates a chain of informal meeting spaces where students from the different buildings can get together.

This siteplan strategy of playing off the more favourable features of the surrounding buildings in order to create new outdoor spaces for students and staff to mingle is very successful.

Inside the building, the combination of the discipline of the load-bearing masonry walling and the brief, with all those little offices, has not been allowed to hinder the full three dimensional play of space, light and materials.