10-hectare relocation campus for the Institute of Technology Tralee at exposed Atlantic-facing Dromthacker — a curved linear masterplan organised around protective covered ways, calibrated for performance and longevity in demanding conditions. Began 1996; first students arrived autumn 2001.
ABK was commissioned to relocate the Institute of Technology, Tralee — a major third-level education facility serving 3,500 full and part-time students in the Kerry region — from a congested town-centre site to a 10-hectare site at Dromthacker. Work began in 1996, with the first students arriving in the new buildings in autumn 2001. The site, although offering fine views, is highly exposed to weather driving in from the Atlantic; in Paul Koralek's words, 'It's a site where you simply have to design for the climate.' Socrates was the project architect for the original competition submission.
The masterplan responds with a curved linear plan organised along a series of protective covered ways — creating, when complete, the diagram of 'a city in miniature'. Buildings are constructed from rendered blockwork with pitched or curved aluminium-clad roofs, calibrated for performance and longevity in the demanding conditions. Socrates Miltiadou led the masterplanning and was project architect for the Business and Information Technology (B&IT) Studies Building and the agricultural education buildings — two of the first major completed phases of the new campus.