Student city: architects can envision change

In the present situation, UL exists as ‘University outside of Limerick.’ To get from the city centre to the university campus, it takes ten minutes to drive (traffic permitting) or twenty minutes by bike. And waiting for a bus may take you half an hour and more. Time-consuming as it may be, this is an emotional commute as well – from the grey streets of Limerick to the green campus of UL, this self- sufficient precinct by the Shannon. Hence, the geographical distance between city and university grows into a mental divide. As one student was clearly speaking his mind, “I came to study at UL, not in Limerick.”