Client National College of Art and Design
Location Dublin, Ireland
Leading one of Dublin's oldest art institutions to Net-Zero with a multi-phase strategy
About the project
Heralded as Ireland’s oldest art institution with a vast offering of educational opportunities in art and design, the NCAD is a celebrated institution. It comprises of four No. schools, five No. buildings and a square footage of over 17,000m². Since the original buildings were built in 1817 as part of a distillery with recent renovations taking place from 1980-1998, all the buildings are classified as Protected Structures according to the Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028.
IN2 were appointed to undertake a due diligence survey of the existing heating system to provide an overview of the condition of the existing system and the necessary steps that need to be taken to resolve the reported ongoing issues at the Granary Building. Upon inspection of that building and the whole site, IN2 concluded that works needed to be extended to the whole site as part of an ambitious decarbonisation project to align the site with 2030 decarbonisation goals.
The IN2 team faced numerous issues with this project, the biggest being that the NCAD campus is composed of different types of buildings, some of which were built in the 1970s and 1980s, which were in various states of health. Installed gas boilers had also reached end-of-life as they were experiencing operational issues and didn’t align with 2030 decarbonisation goals. In addition, NCAD also needed to upgrade the electrical and mechanical plant which had been there since the 1980’s. Since the buildings were constructed before modern building standards, meeting 2030 decarbonisation goals is proving to be a much bigger project than NCAD had anticipated. The campus needed a large capital investment, for which IN2 supported the funding application.
The location of the campus also presented its own challenges. Being so central on Thomas Street with The Liffey a few feet away, the campus has very limited access. Nevertheless, IN2 undertook dynamic simulation modelling (EDSL TAS software) to match form, orientation, and fabric of the existing site with internal conditions to reflect how each building on the campus is understood to operate.
Based on these energy models, IN2 was able to identify the most significant energy uses to identify the most cost-effective and suitable measures for decarbonistion strategy for now and for proposed future development. This involves a new systematic connection to a new energy centre as part of a fossil free services strategy, the replacement of existing lighting, and the addition of PV panels.
Due to the high refurbishment cost associated with proposed works, the project is proposed to be carried out over a number of phases in a 20-year time span. It was essential that the initial phase achieved the 2030 emissions targets in order to satisfy the overall targets. IN2 also determined a strategy to achieve NCAD’s 2050 targets and the subsequent upgrades and refurbishments of the existing buildings.
