Sports Campus Ireland was planned to assume a key position in the nation’s sports infrastructure and to support Ireland as an internationally competitive country of sport.  At the same time, it was devised to become an architectural landmark, one symbolising the increasingly elevated status of sports activities.

The ‘formal landscape’, in clear contrast to both the natural and the existing cultivated landscape, is a central idea of the design.  Though the campus itself will be frequented by large crowds, it will present itself in a way that allows each individual person to understand and ‘experience’ it. This will be achieved by making clear contrasts and by establishing easily identifiable features separated from each other by the soft and friendly creative landscaping.

Linking elements include a water feature, meandering paths and a system of covered walkways.  The visitor will be caught up in a remarkable new landscape where open, covered and closed spaces interact to form a holistic organism, a universe.

Sports Campus Ireland, Dublin 2000-2002

masterplan with Behnisch, Behnisch + Partner (now Behnisch Architekten)