When the European Commission decided to locate its new European Union Food and Veterinary Office in Dunsany in Ireland it set out a range of strict criteria for the building. The e32m structure had to meet high standards architecturally and structurally. It had to provide comfortable, efficient working conditions for the 250 staff, who were relocating from offices in Brussels, and incorporate a wide range of different facilities, not just office space, but also 13 meeting rooms with adjoining booths for translators, plus a crèche.
The impact of the 10 ha (23 acre) development on the rural surroundings and local inhabitants also had to be taken into account.
The consequence of this detailed specification must rank as one of the most ambitious timber buildings in Europe.
In selecting the team of architects and designers at the Office of Public Works in Dublin, the Commission chose probably one of Ireland’s most qualified architects, and one with a reputation for focusing on environmental issues, designing buildings completely in harmony with their
surroundings. Ciaran O’Connor, who led the design team, is a winner of, among many others prizes, the All-Ireland Landscape Award, the Ford Foundation Conservation Award and the Europa Nostra Medal. And he has also worked on projects in Germany and Canada.
Many of his design projects, and especially this new centre, have to take into account ‘sensitive rural locations’. And he is known for his love and understanding of wood, a rare but happily increasing quality in modern architects.
In his report to the European Parliament Environment Committee delegation which visited Dunsany to take the lie of the land, the architect told them his concept for the building had ‘endeavoured to incorporate bioclimatic and sustainable design’.
According to Les Howard, clerk of works on site, the 13,500m2 building is ‘98% reusable or recyclable’ and only the paint, adhesives and bitumen do not qualify. All flooring materials, from the wool-based carpet and the marmoleum, to the American oak, are recyclable.
The use of natural materials throughout the project has been a guiding principle and solid hardwoods are used extensively for the exterior and interior of this monument to timber. The use of natural light and ventilation are fundamental to the design with more than 30 skylights incorporated throughout the two-storey building, as well as double glazed hardwood screens.
Attention to detail extended to the Dublin team’s design of American hard maple dining room tables. These are tables with a difference: by ensuring that the tops are reversible, their life expectancy is ©
ß doubled, thus increasing the yield from the forest resource.
Choosing Ciaran O’Connor for the job, the EU could be pretty sure sustainability would be a priority. As co-author of the Irish Specifiers Timber Guide and as chairman of the panel of judges for the annual Irish Joinery Awards, he was well qualified to exploit the benefits of timber and to select those from sustainable sources.
The use of American white oak for the Vet Centre’s exterior cladding and for the interior joinery – such as the glazed screens and floors – is especially striking. The
timber originates from the oak-dominated forests of the eastern US, which have a long-established record of effective management. For instance, in Pennsylvania, thanks to
on-going replanting, tree cover has increased from less than 10% of the land area at the beginning of the last century to almost 70% today.
Close attention was paid to the need for the oak to be kiln dried to a moisture content of 16% plus/minus 3%, in order to accommodate the Irish climate (the normal American moisture content standard is
6-8%). Slow grown oak from the north was selected and the machining and impregnation treatment of more than 16 containers of oak for the exterior cladding were personally inspected by Mr O’Connor at the importers yard of Smee Timber Ltd in Winsford, Cheshire.
Smee Timber also supplied two containers of solid American ash for several large-scale ceilings, machined by Swift Horsman Ltd of Ware in Hertfordshire, which supplied most of the specialised joinery.
Solid American cherry was widely specified for the interior joinery, which produced a contrast with the lighter coloured beech veneered panels supplied by FR Shadbolt & Sons Ltd in London. Select Hardwood Ltd of Dublin installed the extensive solid American white oak floors, and O’Neill Ltd of Londonderry produced much of the
on-site joinery.
The completed building now stands as a fine example of how timber can meet the high specification of a modern building complex, constructed to today’s standards of efficiency and sustainability. The aesthetics are plain to see and may well rate highly when judged in the forthcoming Irish Architectural Awards for which the building is now entered.
It should also rest well with the administration of the European Union (which commissioned and paid for the building) given its apparent growing interest in timber as a modern, environmentally sound and desirable construction material.
And on the subject of reforestation, one of Ciaran O’Connor’s finishing touches in Dunsany is the attention he’s given to the planting of trees on the site. These are a direct reflection of the species mix growing in the surrounding countryside – truly a green design and an outstanding architectural achievement.
