IDA Regional Headquarters Athlone Refurbishment

We were appointed by IDA Ireland to design the refurbishment of their regional headquarters in Athlone, Co. Westmeath. The two-storey 15,000 sq. ft regional HQ building was brought in line with the current nearly-zero energy buildings (NZEB) standards and achieved an A3 Building Energy Rating (BER).

In order to achieve the above, a full replacement of all mechanical and electrical (M&E) systems, windows and doors was required. We also upgraded the insulation of the building fabric, including walls, roofs and floor slabs.

Sustainability

The decision to re-use an existing office building and refurbish it rather than construct an entirely new building resulted in a significant embodied carbon reduction.

We put in place a number of sustainability solutions to reduce the existing building’s carbon emissions. The plumbing fixtures throughout were reviewed, with a specification developed to reduce water consumption in the staff bathrooms and welfare facilities.

The building was equipped with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, electric vehicle charging points and heat pumps for both the heating and cooling of the building itself, and for domestic hot water heating. It was also designed to provide the optimum thermal performance, with glazing and cladding options selected to achieve a well-insulated building.

Energy was reclaimed from the ventilation system using a heat exchanger and further energy reduction was achieved by using CO2 demand-controlled ventilation to all occupied spaces.

In order to reduce the quantities of cement needed for the concrete structures of the project, we replaced up to 70% of the material with GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag). GGBS is considered a green construction material as it is a by-product from blast-furnaces used to manufacture iron. In comparison to Portland cement, the manufacture of GGBS requires less than 20% of the energy and produces less than 10% of the carbon dioxide emissions.

Challenge

As this project involved the refurbishment of an existing building from the early 2000s, several challenges arose. During initial opening up works, we identified building issues regarding fireproofing, insulation, and debris in the cavity which all required remediation. 

Construction was carried out in an occupied business park, with the structure itself part of a larger collection of buildings with interconnected carparks and landscaping areas. This posed a risk to site management, working hour restrictions, interfaces with services, traffic management, potential service outages to adjacent facilities, and delay to deliveries.

While it was not possible to make significant changes to the footprint of the site, a number of minor revisions to enhance the site in terms of accessibility, external amenity space, and provisions for the improved energy rating were required.