ST MARY’S CREDIT UNION

ST MARY’S CREDIT UNION

ST MARY’S CREDIT UNION

Client : Gaia Ecotecture
Service : Commercial
Architect : Gardiner & Theobold
Quantity surveyors : Paul Leech (Gaia Ecotecture)
Structural engineer : Paul Leech (Gaia Ecotecture)
Services engineer : Derham McPhillips
Value : € 7 million

PJ Hegarty has been involved in many progressive, sustainable building projects, and one of our notable projects was a five-storey extension to St Mary’s Credit Union in Navan, Co Meath, which won the 2010 Local Authority Management Association award for the Best Eco-Friendly Building. The building work included the extension, plus refurbishment of an existing 10,000 m² facility.

We employed an eco-friendly, sustainable design methodology through all stages of the project, aligning with our client Gaia Ecotecture’s holistic ethos that a building should work with the local weather conditions and natural resources.

We constructed a highly innovative timber structure building with clay plaster on interior walls and partitions, external clay tile cladding, and utilised renewable solar energy for passive heating of air and water.

Ireland’s first five-storey timber frame building has an energy efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, while a grass roof enables the harvesting of rainwater for recycling, and to irrigate the internal plants, which also thrive on a huge amount of natural light. Where possible materials used were from sustainable sources.