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BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards Winner
In South Dublin, Ireland, 12 slim buildings cluster near the Irish Sea. Elmpark Mixed-Use Development, designed by local firm Bucholz McEvoy Architects (BCMEA), includes apartments, office space, a hotel, hospital, conference center, restaurant, and a public garden complete with cafés and performance spaces.
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The term “mixed-use” seems insufficient to describe the development; rather, it is a small city.
Elmpark is some 40 percent denser than is normally allowed under Dublin law, but the project’s sophisticated, sustainable design was approved by a city council that saw the virtue in this high-density, energy-efficient project. Stuttgart, Germany–based environmental engineering firm Transsolar collaborated closely with BCMEA to create this holistic project.
“We think of Elmpark as an energy field,” says BCMEA design principal Merritt Bucholz. The narrowness and north–south orientation of the structures take advantage of daylighting and natural ventilation. Office structures use no mechanical ventilation or air-conditioning and are heated entirely by wood pellet boilers.
Three on-site power generators reduce the inefficiencies associated with transporting energy over long distances; heat produced as a by-product of generating electricity is used to heat the pool. Bucholz notes that owner Radora Developments “has become an energy company, in a way,” selling power directly to tenants. This stabilizes the cost of energy, says Bucholz. All of this translates to a 60 percent reduction in energy use.
Despite the size and number of buildings on the site — the largest of which are 8-stories tall — Elmpark is what the architects call a “legible pedestrian city.” The buildings sit on risers that allow foot traffic below, while 7 acres of carefully landscaped gardens give the project a lighter feel than might be expected. “People expect a kind of relentlessness to it,” says Bucholz, “but you don’t get that walking through the project.”
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