The c.5,400m development consisted of a 3 storey, open plan Customer Care Office Building for Irish Life Assurance Company at the IDA’s Finnabair Business Park just south of Dundalk, Co. Louth. The building provides office accommodation for various customer care and support teams for the tenant’s business activities as well as providing hot desk areas, meeting rooms and conference facilities. Ancillary accommodation includes a central canteen, as well as individual tea stations on the office floors, restrooms, an equipped gymnasium with adjacent changing facilities, and break out or relaxation spaces for staff around and external to the building. There are 225 no. staff carparking spaces on the site, including 2 no. car-charging points. There is also a covered shelter for 20 bicycles at the north end of the building, close to the changing room areas on the ground floor, and there is provision for a further 60 covered bicycle spaces should demand increase.
The development is NZEB (Near Zero Energy Building) compliant and has also successfully been awarded LEED Gold status in January 2020 by the United States Green Building Council.
The office spaces are arranged over three levels around a central, naturally top lit atrium, which provides great daylighting levels down through the floors. A feature open staircase rises up to service all office levels in this atrium, with further access/exit stairs accommodated at the north and south ends of the building. These access/exit stairs rise to roof level and link to internal plantrooms and the external roof spaces, with their external plant and equipment fully accessible.
The building roofs are generally flat to accommodate plant provision and access, with the exception of the main atrium fully glazed rooflight which is pitched in two directions.
The elevations are composed predominantly of curtain walling with high performance glazing, rising from ground level to roof parapet level. The staircore masses and other ‘bookend’
walls are solid elements, clad in Portuguese granite stone panels, supported on reinforced concrete walls.
The building is fully air conditioned with raised access floors and suspended ceilings throughout for services and IT distribution.
Winner of the Green Good Design Award 2020.
Shortlisted for Commercial Project of the Year - Irish Construction Industry Awards 2020
