Open House Dublin: Discovering TU Dublin Grangegorman
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This October, visitors can step inside some of TU Dublin’s most distinctive buildings at Grangegorman as part of Open House Dublin.
Across three tours delivered by TU Dublin and the Grangegorman Development Agency - Lower House, Central Quad and the newly opened Academic Hub & Library - visitors can discover how a historic Dublin site has been transformed into a modern university campus, while many of its architectural and historical connections have been retained.
The story begins with the Lower House, one of the oldest buildings on the campus. Originally designed by Francis Johnston, the building opened to patients in 1814/15 as part of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum, which became the largest psychiatric hospital in Ireland. After years of disuse and considerable deterioration, the protected structure was restored as part of the development of the new campus and reopened in 2021.
Today, the building has an entirely different role. During the Open House tour, visitors will move through its refurbished spaces, including dining areas, student common rooms, a dance studio and gym spaces. The tour will also reveal some of the building's 18 music practice rooms, alongside student and staff areas.
From historic restoration, the tour moves into the scale of the Central Quad, the largest building on the Grangegorman campus. Designed by Fielden Clegg Bradley, the Central Quad covers approximately 36,000 square metres and is home to around 6,500 students and 400 staff. Six storeys rise above a large basement containing teaching kitchens, reflecting the range of disciplines taught within the building, from science and engineering to hospitality.
Visitors will enter through the main entrance before making their way up the building's main circulation staircase. The tour continues across the first floor, taking in large lecture theatres, interior artwork and other key spaces.
The final stop is the Academic Hub & Library, designed by O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects. Here, contemporary university life is woven together with another important part of Grangegorman's history.
The Academic Hub incorporates the restored North House, built between 1848 and 1854 as part of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum and later associated with St Brendan's Hospital. Rather than standing separately from the new development, the protected historic structure has been incorporated into the Academic Hub & Library, with the new building wrapping around it.
Inside, the ground floor has been designed as a shared space for the wider Grangegorman campus community. There is a learning commons, café and community space, alongside student and staff supports including Academic Supports, Careers, Maths Learning, the Academic Writing Centre and Disability Supports. An exhibition space will also feature archive and display material from the Royal Irish Academy's Grangegorman Histories Project.
The Academic Hub tour then moves upwards through the library, which occupies the first to fourth floors, before crossing back into the historic North House. The route brings visitors back down through new student and staff areas, creating a journey between old and new within a single building.
Together, the three tours offer three different perspectives on the Grangegorman Campis. The Lower House reveals the site's architectural and institutional history; the Central Quad demonstrates the scale and ambition of the contemporary university; and the Academic Hub brings those two worlds together.
For visitors, Open House Dublin provides an opportunity to see parts of TU Dublin that are normally experienced primarily by students and staff — from lecture theatres and libraries to music rooms, student spaces and historic interiors.
All three tours take place on Saturday 17 October, with tours at 10am, 11am and 12pm, and each tour lasts approximately 45 minutes. The tours are pre-book only.
Together, the three buildings tell a larger story about Grangegorman: a historic site being given new life as a place of education, creativity, and community, while its architectural past remains an essential part of its identity.