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"The level of mechanical ventilation and cooling is small," Frank Reilly adds. "Air conditioning would be a huge energy draw in an air conditioned building. The biggest draw of energy here I suppose would be the lighting and we've reduced a lot of that really with the occupancy sensors and the dimming.”
The OPW plans to subject buildings it has designed – including the Drumshanbo veterinary offices – to a 'BREEAM for Ireland' assessment. BREEAM – the Building Research Establishment's environmental assessment method – rates buildings based on their environmental performance, in areas such as energy use, transport, water, materials, land use and waste.
The OPW specified an aluminum double-glazed cassette window system throughout, featuring double thermal breaks and argon-filled cavities. "It's a fairly standard casette type system, but it's a very high performance system," Sean Moylan says.
Windows are recessed back about 400mm on the first floor. On the ground floor they're projected forward about 20mm. "[Downstairs] they look more or less like picture frames hung on the wall, so they kind of express that impenetrability of the stone itself."
Working with a thermodynamic model of the building at the outset, the designers could simulate how the glazing specification would effect the building's thermal performance. "That identified areas where we had too much glazing versus too little glazing," Moylan says.
The OPW chose a reinforced concrete construction for the walls. All
concrete used contains 50 per cent ground granulated blastfurnace slag
(GGBS), a cement replacement derived from steel industry wastes without
the high carbon footprint of traditional cement. Traditional concrete
is responsible for approximately 5 per cent of global carbon dioxide
emissions.
The 2,800 square metre building was completed in April and can hold up to 110 staff
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