Dromroe Village, University of Limerick

Dromroe Student Village is a development of student apartments, manager's residence and offices, shops, café and centre for community arts. Situated close to the River Shannon on the University of Limerick's South Bank Campus. The sitting of this village offered new opportunity to develop links from the campus core to the Mill Race, the River Shannon, and proposed developments at the North Bank Campus.

The strong visual link from the University Foundation Building and Concert Hall to Plassey Mill, an important historical landmark building was retained through the spatial arrangement of the village buildings. A new pedestrian walk from the Foundation Building was designed along this axis to reinforce the pedestrian link from the central campus plaza. The Mill Race is bridged where the pedestrian route meets with the village and Mill Race Walk.

The village design incorporates 3 and 5 storey apartment buildings and community centre in a linear layout on either side of a village 'street' with in the backdrop of a tree-lined Mill Race.

Detailed landscape design responded to a desire for predominantly pedestrian usage, anticipated and directed circulation; the requirements for fire tender and refuse truck access and the need to create a pleasant and safe environment for residents and visitors to the village. Hard landscape materials selection was influenced by a wish to complement the building materials and by a requirement to ensure continuity of standard materials adopted for hard works detailing on campus. Planting design lends privacy to ground floor apartments, maximises grassed areas and incorporates tree planting to emphasise the rhythm of the winding street and address the open spaces with in the village.