4 minute read
What If IADT... Repurposed the Media Cube?
from The Eye Issue #4
by The Eye
By Amy Ní Mhurchú
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For a few years now students have been feeling the squeeze, trying to find a few seats to collaborate with your peers, trying to find a computer to send that crucial time-sensitive email, trying to line up for lunch in the canteen without becoming part of the world’s longest human centipede, being told we can’t have more lockers because there’s nowhere to put them, or if you’re in a studio course, just trying to find space to make that large scale project you’ve been working on - and by large scale, I mean anything that isn’t table top size.
While we’ve been feeling the squeeze the buildings themselves are starting to show the strain, an interview in the very first issue of the Eye revealed that the canteen is serving multiples of the number it was originally designed for, the automatic doors are constantly malfunctioning and college equipment is continuously in different states of disrepair from overuse.
Recently, student critique of the lack of space is met with ‘the new Digital Media Building will solve that’ and while it isn’t clear even when the new building will be completed it has already been earmarked by Governing Body as an opportunity to “significantly grow student numbers” rather than alleviate existing growing pains (while at the same time marketing IADT on its small student numbers - but that’s a conversation for another day).
Which, apart from leading the author to question the motives of the decision makers of the institute, brings us to our proposal; what if IADT repurposed the Media Cube?
The Media Cube sits proud on 1,100 sqm and currently houses a mix of hotdesks, IADT staff offices and private companies and before we ask what can be gained by displacing these private companies we should ask what we would be losing. Presumably, the companies in the Media Cube provide a source of income. According to the IADT website a large office for your company will set you back €650 per month.
Considering that a lot of students are paying that and more for their digs to get to IADT, even with multiple companies, it doesn’t seem like a huge source of income for an institute and certainly not balanced against the cost of building new space. I’m also aware that on occasion companies located in the Media Cube might offer a couple of summer jobs to IADT students, however, again it doesn’t seem that a couple of summer jobs outweigh the benefit of a drastically improved education for all students at IADT.
Finally, the fun bit, what we stand to gain. There are numerous ways of putting those 1,100 square meters to use, however, one strategy that might be the most impactful would be to move the canteen to one floor of the Media Cube. The space then available in the Atrium could be allocated to the studio currently in the Backlot.
This would allow those students to be less isolated, closer to more core facilities, provide more opportunity for crossdiscipline collaboration and finally begin breaking up the Atrium, Quad and Carriglea student cliques. In turn this would free up the Backlot as a storage facility for materials and large scale works that currently hinder the 3D Fabrication Studio. The Backlot is better served by safe access for vehicles and proximity to the 3D studio for storage than the Media Cube.
That is but one floor of the Media Cube - the other floors could be given over to IADTSU, Clubs and Societies and student social spaces. This would give those aspects of the student experience the degree of autonomy from the institute that would really let them flourish.
An expanded social space would mean that those students who need to let off steam by playing pool or table tennis aren’t agitating students who prefer a calmer environment between classes, preventing the polarisation that is starting to take hold among students.
It would give the Students’ Union the appropriate office space so that they can offer students private and uninterrupted consultations, therefore allowing students to feel more comfortable availing of the supports offered. This would again, open up another studio space in the Quadrangle where studio space is desperately needed for students to develop their practices.
In relation to the rest of the campus, which is estimated to be upwards of 10,000 square meters the Media Cube may not seem like much space but the points illustrated above show that even a little bit of extra space, that is not immediately leveraged for accommodating even more student numbers, would go a long way towards alleviating some very real issues students at IADT are experiencing.
