ACEI 2020 Design Excellence Awards

The Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland has announced the ACEI President’s Design Excellence Awards for 2020.  Varming Consulting Engineers, a founding member company of Cita, was successful in winning the prestigious 2020 ACEI Design Excellence Award in the Mechanical and Electrical Category for Three Park Place.

Three Park Place is the latest completed building of the Park Place Office Complex, which is being developed by Clancourt Management on Hatch Street in the Dublin 2 Business District. The total constructed area of Three Park Place is 18,000 sq.m., which has been customized for multiple tenant occupancy.

The adjudicators’ Award Citation for the winning project read: “This modern nine storey office building on Hatch Street is an excellent example of BIM-aided delivery of a sustainable environment to BER A3 and LEED Platinum ratings. Night cooling storage and the use of Combined Heat & Power plant along with solar panels integrated with a ‘green roof’, enhanced ventilation and a thermally efficient façade all contribute to this achievement.”

The Varming project vision was to achieve the highest standard of m&e performance, based on agreed budget costs and using state of the art engineering design protocols to reduce the carbon footprint and minimise the operating costs.The application of this approach subscribed strongly to meeting energy efficiency targets and to achieving design compliance with CIBSEand BRE guidelines on sustainability.

In-house computer modelling by Varming of the building design enabled various glazing options to be evaluated. Part L modelling demonstrated that a Building Energy Rating of A3 could be achieved. The finished building achieved a LEED Platinum Certification and a BER Rating of A3 .

The execution of the BIM process validated the m&e installation design by virtually eliminating Site stage clashes and provided a fully co-ordinated as-built BIM model as part of the Operating &Maintenance Manual documentation. The BIM screen shot shown below from the model  gives some indication of the extent of complex co-ordination that was required to accommodate heavily serviced areas within the building structure.