Navan Credit Union Building

Navan Credit Union

Courtesy of Comhar SDC

Navan Credit Union
Courtesy of Comhar SDC

Navan Credit Union

Courtesy of Comhar SDC

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Co Meath

St Mary’s Credit Union, Navan, Co. Meath is an exemplar building that has recently won a 2010 Local Authority Management Association award for the Best Eco-Friendly Building. The architects Paul Leech Gaia Ecotecture work with the philosophy that a building is like a living organism. It must be built in a holistic way that meets the needs of the users and is designed to work with the local weather conditions and natural resources. Gaia work through a continuous and simultaneous process of research, design, construction, evaluation, dissemination and training to advance the sustainable design of buildings and places.

The Credit Union has 27,000 members– which is equivalent to nearly every member of the community. It is an enterprise that demonstrates sustainability in terms of social and economic coherence in its everyday operations. In the aftermath of the banking crisis the credit union shows the vitality and resilience of community based financing structures. The building is linked to the original credit union built by the firm in the late 1980s. The Credit Union has grown remarkably in that time and needed additional space.

The new building is Ireland’s first 5-storey timber frame building. It successfully dealt with challenges in terms of fire safety aspects, moisture content, density and stress. The architects relied on the most advanced timber technology from both Europe and North America. The fact that Navan Credit Union are the owner-occupiers meant that they were willing to invest in capital costs that would reduce operating costs, such as double wall and box windows, photovoltaics and solar thermal. The total primary energy consumption of the new build is less than 100 kilo watt hours per square metre per annum (on a five day week) based on monitoring since it occupation.

Interior of Navan Credit Union

Courtesy of Comhar SDC

Interior of Navan Credit Union
Courtesy of Comhar SDC

Interior of Navan Credit Union

Courtesy of Comhar SDC

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The building is not just more efficient to operate, but is also sustainable in terms of its embodied emissions. The architects used the Factor 10 principle in which they used less of everything, much more efficiently. However, they were strategic in their approach to material use. For example , cold press (rather than hot rolled) steel for exposed pergola and balconies was used where necessary in a clever way. Small volumes were used to do the task for which they are best suited and in synergy with the timber structure. Ireland has high relative humidity, coupled with sporadic extremes of intense sunlight. This does present challenges in material use. The substance of this building is organic in nature but the skin is a high quality-assurance Terracotta cladding.

Strong efforts were made to avoid persistent organic poisons where possible. Natural wool carpet and organic paints were used. Spider plants and other plants are found throughout the building which deal with particulates, ions and toxins in the air. This is particularly important given the materials in computers and other modern office necessities. Planting has been used extensively to improve air quality within the building. Clay plaster and organic colours were also used throughout the interior to ensure good air quality and humidity balance and avoid allergy triggers.

The building has a living roof comprised of grasses and bamboo. The living roof is designed to harvest water and irrigate this planting; reduce sound impact of extreme rains particularly on the existing building; and irrigate the internal and external landscaping of the building and for toilet flushing.