The Human Biology Building at NUIG is carefully knitted into its surroundings on campus. The design recognises the strict geometry of the early campus grid buildings, and extends this with a tall colonnade linking alongside the canal, to the new square which it creates outside “Aras Na Mac Leine” (the student centre). At the same time, a subtle splay in plan, marries the new building equally with the earlier listed buildings, and establishes a new geometry for the further development of future phases.

The project incorporates undergraduate medical teaching facilities, including lecture theatres, a mortuary, anatomy and physiology laboratories, as well as postgraduate research focused on a large bio-resource unit and the central microscopy facility of the university.

This complex brief is accommodated in a seemingly simple building form, which combines functionality, sustainability and economy and creates a unique internal atrium space which will be the focus for the medical faculty in NUIG.