Featured Article
| Part L Revealed |
Since the announcement last September by the Minister for the Environment of substantial improvements to be made under Part L of the Building Regulations, speculation has been rife in the construction industry about what the details of the updated regulations would entail. Jeff Colley examines some of the key parts of a regulatory improvement that will help the Irish construction industry to modernise and meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.
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Official magazine of Easca  |
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Case Studies
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Page 1 of 6
A new development in the historic town of Thomastown, County Kilkenny
brings the cutting edge of green innovation into a setting known for
its medieval heritage. John Hearne
visited the site, where a commitment to the environment is evident in
sustainable design combined with everything from airtight detailing to
technologies such as factory insulated timber frame, low energy
windows, solar thermal, photovoltaic and heat recovery ventilation
Overlooking the medieval streets of Thomastown in County Kilkenny, Friarshill is a new development of ten low-energy houses constructed around a disused farmyard a kilometre from town.
Each unit incorporates heat recovery ventilation within a highly insulated, airtight envelope. Space heating and hot water come via a combination of condensing gas boilers, gas stoves and solar thermal panels, while grid electricity is supplemented by roof-mounted solar PV panels. Though the development is not required to carry a building energy rating, the design team is aiming for A3, with annualised average energy consumption per unit in the range of 73 to 78 kW/h/m2/a, and carbon emissions of 15.5 Kg/m2/a.
For developer Eric Wardrop, Friarshill is not just his first low energy development, it’s his first development. He’s optimistic that in a slowing market, the sustainable profile will work in his favour. “I genuinely believe it’s the only way forward for the future…I’d go even further, in stage two. The ideal thing is to get to the stage where a passive house is economically viable.” Early indications suggest there are grounds for his optimism. Though advertising has not yet begun properly, two of the ten houses have been sold.
Perhaps the most interesting and instructive feature of this development lies in the fact that it ran an estimated 7.5% over budget. The reasons relate primarily to the fact that as far as sustainable design and building practice are concerned, the construction industry generally remains on a learning curve, and learning curves are expensive places to be. Architect Martin Mulligan’s experience finds echoes with almost everyone involved. “Apart from the overhead,” he says, “collectively from the design team, there’s probably been a doubling of the effort, realistically, in time commitment and information, research and resources. It’s certainly not your standard, right, knock out a set of drawings, get it into planning and build it.” And as might be expected, this makes life particularly difficult for the QS. “The biggest challenge from my point of view was getting the information up front on what went into the houses.” says quantity surveyor, Gillian Tyrrell. “I found that we made a lot of changes as we went along. There was a learning curve for everybody, which meant we went in with a certain figure in mind for building the houses and it turned out to be a much higher figure. As things were encountered they were solved, rather than being aware of all these items at tender. It was hard to get an early feel for costs.”
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Issue 1, Vol 5 Out Now
The new look issue of Construct Ireland is available now. Click here to subscribe online and have the latest issue delivered to your doorstep
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