About
Architect: Carr Cotter & Naessdens
Contractor: John Sisk
Sector: Public – Civic Offices and Public Library
Overview
Dun Laoghaire Civic Office and Library is situated on the east of Ireland just south of Dublin. The location is exposed to severe weather conditions and is ideal to power a natural ventilations system for the library.
The Brief
The architect required a natural ventilation strategy to passively ventilate the main library auditorium where many of Irelands rarest books are kept. Based on the architect’s concept our design comprised of a roof mounted circular wind turret with an external louvre facade that had to be 100% watertight to cope with the extreme weather conditions experienced with an open coastal location, but still allowing the building to breathe and ventilate efficiently under all conditions.
Our Solution
Vision constructed the large architectural towers from aluminium with a marine grade powder coated external façade. The unique feature of these towers is that inside the outer shell are two rotating air scoops, one facing into the prevailing wind and the other on the leeward side; one scoop is for intake the other extract.
The rotation of the inner air catchers is achieved by a modulating stepper motor mounted at the base of the unit connected to an external wind direction sensor so that as the wind direction changes the scoops move to match the direction to harness the wind.
The initial design involved extensive 3D modelling and CFD analysis to plot the cowl air performance characteristics and finished aesthetics.
