Building designed by Van Dijk Architects wins national award
A building designed by Dundalk architectural firm Van Dijk Architects has won an award at the Irish Construction Excellence Awards 2020.
The Advanced Technology Building built by Clancy Construction for IDA Ireland in Waterford took the honours in the category for Best Industrial Project Under €10m.
The winners were announced at a gala virtual awards ceremony on Saturday November 7.
The project was also short-listed for the BIM Excellence Award in association with CitA.
The eye catching building which won the award for Clancy Construction, sits on 1.7acre of land in the Waterford Business and Technology Park, on the outskirts of the city.
Aoife McGee, the lead architect on the project who works in Van Dijk’s Belfast office, explains that it has been designed to meet LEED Silver accreditation relating to sustainable energy and cost efficiency.
The building comprises c. 3,060 sq m of technology and office space and features the newest industry standards and technologies available to the construction industry.
‘It’s on the outskirts of Waterford city with lots of greenery around it, so it was really important for us to have good connection with the landscape. All the offices are light-filled and have views of the surroundings. The offices are east facing, getting the morning light which makes the building heat up during the day.’
The building was constructed in 15 months and the testimonials received from the client and design team spoke volumes for how Clancy and its site management team managed and completed the Advanced Technology Building (ATB) for IDA Ireland in Waterford. T
185 tons of waste material was removed from bonfires by Louth County Council as part of the Halloween clean up.
The clean up came as a ‘significant cost’ to the council and the material was removed both before and after a string of fires around the town.
The issue was raised at the public meeting of the JPC last week and sparked calls for a new approach to dealing with bonfires.
Louth Chief Supt Christy Mangan said that ‘people had to look at themselves’ in terms of the level of dumping that took place in relation to the sometimes ‘organised’ bonfires. Cars were seen pulling up and feeding the bonfires with household waste bags and other rubbish.
However, with CCTV cameras now operating, people who deliberately dumped could be fined, if the council and gardai can work on data protection issues in respect of the incidents.
Paddy Donnelly from Louth County Council said that the council usually get the litter warden to visit schools, warning about bonfires, but that wasn’t possible this year.
They worked with the gardai on removing items in advance, but a lot of the bonfires were put up later and there wasn’t time to get rid of all the stuff.
‘We have Operation Tombola in place each Halloweeen but we can’t get to every place. It’s hard to control when the match is lit,’ Chief Supt Mangan added.
Mr Donnelly said it was very disappointing to see so much dumping and only weeks earlier the council had organised a mattress amnesty.