This year, the IGBC is celebrating World Green Building Week, publishing articles on how its members are “powering positive change”. The first article of this series will focus on the current retrofit at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).
C.I.T main campus in Bishopstown is playing host to a revolutionary project, using BENCHMARK Ceramic Granite Façade and Karrier Panel System to help transform both the aesthetics and the performance of their 1970’s building stock. The retrofit was developed by the C.I.T research team in partnership with Kingspan and Architectural Metal Systems (AMS), and forms the first stage of an ambitious target to achieve Net Zero Energy, whereby the building would generate as much energy as it uses, by 2020.
The 1974 building used as the project test bed featured precast concrete walls in desperate need of modernising. To achieve this architects Henry J. Lyons, part of the project design team along with main contractors Summerhill Construction, specified BENCHMARK Ceramic Granite Façade in a stunning polished black. Turlough Clancy, Project Architect from Henry J. Lyons explained this decision “As architects our brief was to develop a façade system that offered a new contemporary exterior finish to the existing façade while also achieving exceptional U-values and airtightness. We chose BENCHMARK Ceramic Granite Façade as it both respected and expressed the modular nature of the existing building.”
The building’s concrete walls were not only visually uninspiring, but also had extremely poor thermal performance with an external wall U-value of 2.4 W/m2K and air loss of 14.77 m3/hr./m2. The key priority on the first stage of the project was therefore to reduce this heatloss and minimise the building’s overall energy requirements.
To accomplish this, the project design team and C.I.T research team developed a unique solution, installing AMS’s Renovate curtain wall around the building’s original façade. A modular system, combining BENCHMARK Karrier Panel with AMS’s triple glazed Thermstrip Window System, was then constructed offsite and installed in stages onto the curtain wall by Wesco aluminium & uPVC. Finally the Ceramic Granite Panels were then installed onto the Karrier Panels.
BENCHMARK Karrier Panel System is designed to be simple and fast to install, easily accommodating openings. It is also able to achieve high levels of thermal performance with U-values as low as 0.14 W/m2.K. This performance helped bring a massive reduction in heatloss from the building, with the new envelope, including the windows, achieving a U-value of 0.31W/m2.K.
The Net Zero Energy Retrofit 2020 testbed project has attracted significant funding from the Department of Education and Skills and will house both the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Management Systems (CAMMS) and the Medical Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (MEDIC) including research space, training rooms, offices and meeting rooms.
C.I.T are also currently reviewing a wide variety of energy generating technologies including PV solar technologies, Micro CHP and wind energy to be used as part of Phase 2 of the project. To assist this process current energy usage is already being carefully monitored allowing the energy burden to be properly assessed. Analysis of the energy usage of the testbed project has shown that primary energy use has decreased by more than 31% in the first year following the retrofit, reducing CO2 emissions by almost 28%.
This article was written by Kingspan as part of the World Green Building Week 2015 series, “Powering Positive Change”.
