The CIBSE Building Performance Awards recognise the people, products and projects that demonstrate engineering excellence in the built environment. They are the only industry awards that focus on actual, measured performance outcomes, and not just design intent or performance specifications.
The Building Performance Consultancy award recognises the firms that are meeting and exceeding client expectations of building performance and are actively spreading knowledge and best practice of building performance.
Our award submission for the CIBSE Building Performance Consultancy Nomination included a variety of projects which showcased our abilities as a Mechanical & Electrical (M&E) Consultancy. These included:
The first Publicly Procured Project (PPP) to be delivered using Building Information Modelling (BIM) Level 2
Lawler Consulting worked as the M&E Engineers as part of a 14-primary care centre bundle, using BIM to create the exemplar design for the Dungarvan Primary Care Centre, upon which the other centres were based. The other primary care centres include Kilcock, Wexford, Carrick-On-Suir and Waterford, the latter of which gold at the 2019 Irish Construction Excellence Awards in the Education or Healthcare Building category.
While designing these buildings, our engineers considered users of these facilities potentially having compromised immune systems and special medical needs, including lighting installations and natural daylight designs sympathetic to circadian rhythm and filtered air to reduce airborne infections.
M&E Design of Center Parcs, Longford using BIM
Lawler Consulting was appointed as M&E design engineers on this impressive €233m development, with onsite accommodation for 2,500 people across 395-acres. The resulting M&E systems, which were designed and delivered through BIM, included 42 air handling units (ANUs), 2 megawatts of boiler capacity for 3 swimming pools, 3 CHP units (totalling 800kW thermal load which have the capacity to offset 600 tonnes of CO2 annually), 10 different thermal experiences in the 5-Star Aqua Sana, a bowling alley, bars, themed restaurants, 466 Scandinavian style lodges and 30 apartments.
Lawler Consulting also provided ancillary certification for building control which involved issuing weekly observation reports for BCAR process, during the constriction phase of the project. Snag reports were also issued to contractors in pre-agreed stages allowing for snag-free handover to the client.
Building Performance Consultancy Knowledge Transfer
Our knowledge transfer was shown through our involvement in several conferences and events to improve industry awareness, alongside publications from our employees, including the following:
- The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) event “EPC Facilitation – A Business Opportunity for all Market Actors” where our Managing Director, Daniel Ring, provided a presentation on the benefits of EPC facilitation for Energy Service Companies (ESCOs).
- The European CEO Conference 2019 at which our technical director Jason Smith delivered a case study presentation on data-led asset performance.
- James Duggan’s piece in BSN where he discussed the difficulties in improving the energy performance of clients’ properties for reasons including design-for-compliance culture, i.e. energy performance is theoretical and not measured; an operational performance that is invisible to the market, most especially investors and occupiers; actual energy performance being difficult to acquire and challenging to define and oversimplified mandatory rating systems such as Display Energy Certificates (DECs); and provided suggestions for overcoming these obstacles.
- The implementation of WELL and Fitwel standards throughout the office environment was also highlighted to display our ongoing efforts to improve the comfort and wellbeing of our staff. The WELL Building Standard takes a holistic approach to health in the built environment addressing behaviour, operations, and design. Our building was seen to facilitate certain aspects of all 7 concepts of the WELL standards which focus on air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind.
Our submission included some very complimentary feedback of our work on a variety of projects coming from clients including Dublin City Council, Bunscoil McAuley Rice, SISK Building Contractors, Meubles and Kilkenny County Council.
Congratulations to all the team for their hard work and those involved in preparing the award submissions. It really is a testament to the exceptional efforts and attention to detail of our team, in all projects undertaken, that we have received a CIBSE Building Performance Consultancy Nomination. We are looking forward to attending the awards (virtually) this year!
To read more about the shortlisted entries for the CIBSE 2021 Awards click here.
To learn more about our work, you can view our projects here.
