Grangegorman, Dublin, Ireland

The Dublin Institute of Technology is the 2nd largest university level centre for education and research in Ireland. It is moving from 39 locations around Dublin to a new city centre campus at Grangegorman.

The overall development programme involves the construction of 385,000m2 of floor space in 30 building plots over a period of 15 years. The €28 million Site Infrastructure and Public Realm project converts a 30-hectare brownfield site into a site providing all required services to the 30 building plots, whilst also creating a public park that will eventually become a living, learning park. The project timescale was just 10 months, with a fixed budget and an immovable completion date.

Using a collaborative management approach, jointly agreed objectives, open-book monitoring and a process by which problems could be escalated to the appropriate point of decision authority: the project was completed on time, within budget and to a very high quality standard.

The judges considered it to be an excellent example of how determination combined with a high level of willingness to achieve common goals can overcome challenges that normally cause huge disruption to projects.