University College Architecture Students engage with the public to inform their design decisions

At Open House Dublin 2025, second year architecture students from University College Dublin School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Study took over the street under the iconic LUAS Bridge in historic Dundrum. The bridge crosses a once-thriving district now searching for its own future.
For two days, UCD’s students bravely confronted pedestrians and cyclists to hear criticism of the urban form, see smiles from small children planting native seeds, and briefly lift the spirit of the space under this giant bridge.
Zafia, one of the students, said “I don’t really see ugliness here amongst all of this concrete and traffic. Instead, I see the space as raw material to be designed. Architecture could unite the two sides of the bridge, continue its rhythm, and add a powerful part of the urban form.”
The contours of our future heritage begin to emerge when one listens to these young designers. Heritage, as they see it, is more than Dundrum’s Victorian red brick cottages and ancient stone monuments. It’s a continuum of the past and the present, some of which will serve new functions requiring the best of their creative endeavors.