Quinn School of Business, University College Dublin

Traditionally, Irish and European educational design was primarily focused on teaching. However, by shifting the emphasis to learning, RKD’s design approach to the Quinn School has changed the rules and defined the new standard in educational facility design.

E-learning and internet technology had previously been incorporated in the design of teaching institutions but the Quinn School was the first building of its kind in Europe to actively promote e-learning at a fundamental design level. The facility offers its students and staff a fully integrated learning environment designed to adapt to cutting-edge developments and technologies that will ensure the school itself remains capable of attracting, nurturing and generating world-leading graduates long into the future.

Every student’s laptop is wirelessly networked with full access to integrated teaching programmes but the technology is not an end in itself. Learning is truly integrated within the Quinn School because that technology assumes its proper and effective role within a built environment that promotes natural daylight and ventilation, positive spaces designed to promote interaction and the exchange of knowledge, and purposefully calculated people movement systems that encourage communication and multi-level feedback between students and staff.

The original design brief tasked RKD with the challenge of providing students with “every possible chance to succeed.” Drawing on extensive experience, RKD took the innovative decision to create such an open and egalitarian environment fully understanding the direct benefit it would have on the developing minds of students – instilling in them a sense of responsibility and importance while reinforcing their belief that they were learning within an environment in which there were no barriers to realising their full potential.

UCD produced this video to mark the Quinn School’s 10th Birthday: