From a factory grid to a creative campus

The story

Dundalk's architectural story reaches beyond churches and castles. In 1967, the architects later known as Scott Tallon Walker were commissioned to design the P. J. Carroll cigarette factory. Its disciplined structural grid, long low form and relationship with art made it a distinctive statement of industrial modernism. The building is part of the town's manufacturing legacy, including an industry whose products have serious health consequences.↗1

Dundalk Institute of Technology acquired the factory in 2001. Its adaptation provided classrooms, laboratories, recording and film facilities, and spaces for creative work while retaining the original architecture. The project received a RIBA Regional Award in 2012. This is a visible example of a building gaining a different future: the same framework that once organised production now supports learning and cultural practice.↗1↗2