2. BERLIN
dublin
unit c mountpleaSant buSineSS centre
LOTTUMSTRASSE 9
upper mountpleaSant avenue
GARTENHAUS
dublin 6 | ireland
10119 BERLIN | GERMANY
t + 353|1 4 96 63 40 10
T 49|30 73 73 96
f + 353|1 4 96 63 41 11
F 49|30 73 73 96
info@bmcea.com
AWOLPERT@BMCEA.COM
WWW.bmcea.com
WWW.BMCEA.COM
bucholz mcevoy architectS ltd
BUCHOLZ MCEVOY ARCHITEKTEN GBR
director Karen mcevoy
GESCHÄFTSFÜHRER
director merritt | ANNETTE WOLPERT
MERRITT BUCHOLZ bucholz
director Klaudia cacic
REGISTRIERT IN DEUTSCHLAND
regiStered in ireland | no 247318
SN 31|245|64032
dublin
unit c mountpleaSant buSineSS centre
upper mountpleaSant avenue
dublin 6 | ireland
t + 353|1 4 96 63 40
f + 353|1 4 96 63 41
info@bmcea.com
WWW.bmcea.com
bucholz mcevoy architectS ltd
director Karen mcevoy

3. FINGAL COUNTY HALL
Client Fingal County Council Fingal County Hall is an open and transparent expression of local government, providing
Contact David O’Connor a sustainable, low energy working environment for 450 Council employees.
Tel + 353 (1) 890 5055
Size 11,244 m2
Construction period August 1998 - June 2002 An existing crescent of tall Holm Oak trees and a 150-year-old Himalayan Cedar
Project Value EUR 21 million along the western edge of the site are retained establishing a civic scale befitting that
Contractor PJ Hegarty & Sons of a County Hall. The trees together with the building give form to a new civic space,
Contracts Manager Gerry O’Keefe the ‘public foyer’ of the County Hall, part internal, part external. Visitors arrive in a
green floored ‘piazza’ colonnaded with the trunks of Holm Oaks and roofed with their
foliage. The five-storey high atrium, defining the edge of the space is the meeting
point of public and private, a ‘vertical main street’, extending in an open gesture
towards the community.
Using the mild climate of Ireland to its best effects, Fingal County Hall is a building
“Sustainable design integrates consideration of resource in which the form and fabric have been carefully ‘tuned-in’ to the environment.
and energy efficiency, healthy buildings and materials, Maximizing the use of natural day-lighting and ventilation were fundamental
ecologically and socially sensitive land-use, and an
generators in the creation of the office environment. The heating, cooling and
aesthetic sensitivity that inspires, affirms, ennobles...”
Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future, ventilation requirements change with the seasons - a flexible environment responding
UIA| AIA Congress of Architects, 1993. to these seasonal changes creates a comfortable place to work.
A balance was sought between automatic controls and human intervention. People’s
perception of their comfort level depends on their ability to open a window or vent
ie., on whether or not they can have some control over their immediate environment
– for example vertical ventilators, person-sized in scale, divided (at midsection) like
people tend to dress, offer a user-friendly way of letting the façade breathe.
FINGAL COUNTY HALL 1

4. Building Plan Form The internal public space is organized along a curved atrium ”buffer” space; a spine
to which are attached three office wings - in between these are landscaped gardens
or ‘outdoor atria’.
• Shallow office ‘bars’ (13.2m) orientated on the east-west axis allow movement
of the sun and wind to play an important role in natural lighting and cross-
ventilation of open-plan office space.
• Cellular offices located at the ends of the ‘bars’ ensure an open path for cross
ventilation.
• Areas with heat producing equipment (photo-copiers etc.), tea stations, toilets,
are located in vertical cores with direct access to outside air.
• Future flexibility is guaranteed by use of a 1.5m planning grid in office areas
allowing numerous permutations of possible space divisions
Ventilation Strategy Cross ventilation is employed to naturally ventilate the office and public areas.
• Office areas are cross-ventilated – Supplemental ‘stack-effect’ ventilation is
provided by stairwells at extremities of the plan – louvres are located in upper
levels, doors to office areas are held open on electromagnetic basis.
• Atrium is ventilated by natural convection, with vents at the top and bottom of
the space. Also acts as ‘chimney’ to drive ‘stack-effect’ ventilation exhausting
air from offices overlooking it via subtle vertical vents (smoke evacuation uses
same strategy).
Thermal Mass | Storage • Sculpted structural concrete slabs are exposed to maximize thermal mass, which
evens out temperature gradient.
• Summer – slabs cooled by night ventilation
• Winter – slabs absorb casual heat gains from the space, retain this heat thus
reducing energy required for morning pre-heat
Lighting •
•
Light is one of the most important ‘materials’ employed in the project.
Building structure designed to optimize daylight penetration, by sculpting
the floor|ceiling slabs, using upstand beams to increase the height of façade
glazing.
• Concrete soffit| rib combination is shaped into gently opposing curves, which,
in combination with light shelves internally and externally reflect light deep
into space in an even distribution, resulting in a naturally lit office for a large
proportion of the working day.
• BMA-designed uplighters integrated into the concrete slab and facade provide Multi-Disciplinary Advanced computer modeling (CFD) was used alongside traditional 3D models to
predict thermal performance, levels of ventilation airflow, natural daylight throughout
ambient, diffuse light to the work-plane, when daylight is insufficient, reducing Design Process the year. Computer models were continuously improved until design requirements
eyestrain and eliminating glare on VDUs.
were met. Good communication and commitment of all design team members to
• Daylight sensors prevent energy wastage through unnecessary lighting.
producing a low energy and environmentally conscious building was essential from
initial concept design.
Facades • Intelligent” north and south facades are articulated differently to control solar
gain, ventilation rates, glare and daylight levels according to their orientation.
They are composed of different combinations of: Energy Targets An ambitious energy consumption target for the building was set at 97kwh|m2|year
(electricity plus fossil fuel) according to “Econ19”. The building is currently in a
• Brises-soleil to reduce solar gain
“settling in” phase as facilities managers and occupants become familiar with how
• High-level windows on a BMS to control peak summer ventilation and the night
the building performs etc.; it has therefore not been possible yet to achieve accurate
cooling strategy
in-use figures.
• Above desk-height manually opening windows
• Manually operated vertical vents with opening doors for winter use, fitted with
rain and insect screens to allow use without draughts or rain ingress Building Construction A short word about the way of making Fingal County Hall: Our approach was focused
on craft and human skill; materials, structures, surfaces, are created by human thought
and formed, touched by human hands. We sought to imbibe the building with a level
Materials The building is designed as an enduring part of the community it belongs to and
which it supports – with a specified 120-year design life, durability and on-going
of sensuousness and longevity that we feel is critical to the concept of ‘sustainability’.
In our increasingly digital, disposable culture, we feel that expressions of human
maintenance were of paramount importance in the selection of materials. Materials
creation must reflect that humanity in their making.
are used to fulfill these and environmental requirements– terracotta is used on the
south façade to absorb thermal energy, glass (recyclable) and aluminium (recyclable)
is used on the facades to maximize daylight.
Heating Etc. Underfloor heating to the Atrium is provided via a heat pump whose heat source is
ground water from a 160m deep bore-hole. Other heating is provided by condensing
and high efficiency gas-fired boilers. Water conserving toilets and taps are used
throughout.
ATRIUM VIEW
FINGAL COUNTY HALL 2 FINGAL COUNTY HALL 3