Project Description

This R&D Office campus in Dublin, Ireland, which serves as the social media company's EMEA headquarters, encourages collaboration, drives innovation, and brings vibrancy to the work day in a comfortable and supportive environment.

Located at the edge of City Center, approximately 670,000 square feet of a former bank headquarters was completely transformed from a rigid Modernist office campus into a flexible, adaptable, open, and accessible work plaza. The design intent was to develop a master plan that reshaped the pattern of circulation for more connectivity and permeability, providing a creative platform for community engagement.

A central atrium anchors the campus and creates an activated heart that stitches the buildings together to drive a deeper sense of connectivity. Social spaces where people can come together--for events, meetings, dining, etc.--are positioned around the atrium to constantly and consistently draw employees and visitors, while quiet spaces for heads-down work are concentrated on the building's five upper floors.

The design team mitigated the acoustical challenges with this composition through the careful selection and positioning of materials and plan elements, including a wood sun shade, acoustical conference room pods, and acoustical perforated stair balustrades to provide necessary environmental controls that make the atrium more habitable and inviting. This approach allowed the upper floors to maintain both visual and physical openness to the whole atrium--with no walls or glass separation--fostering true engagement between all its users, active or heads-down.

The acoustical reverberation in the space is vibrant and alive, bringing a vitality to the heart of campus; it feels occupied with even just a few occupants, while the lunch-time crowd does not overwhelm the space with noise. Library spaces sit above the conference room pods in the main atrium, and communal seating areas and open office space surround the upper atrium balconies. By grounding the broader workplace program around the improved atrium, a much-needed sense of vibrancy was created, which is sometimes lacking in the modern office.

The atrium's ever-changing nature creates constant interest and intrigue, which keeps staff and their friends coming back for more. Construction phasing was choreographed so that building occupants would perceive a completed space during each building section opening over the duration of the 5-year project. The temporary demising (hoarding) wall between the main atrium and final phase was removed, revealing the new yellow stair, finally connecting the adjacent section during the completion of the final phase in 2023.

Link bridges connect the buildings at different heights and direct occupants towards communal spaces on the upper floors, such as the fourth-floor dining that takes advantage of the south-facing roof terraces with long-distance views. Attention to wellness and care for occupants earned WELL certification--a first for the company's international portfolio. The project also targets LEED Gold and is powered exclusively through electricity, further ensuring that the total redevelopment would not be detrimental to the community or its environment.