A “CLIMATE wall”, a grass roof and plastic bubble-filled concrete are highlights of a €40 million engineering building to be opened by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at NUI Galway today.
The new “living laboratory” is the largest engineering study centre in Ireland, and it has more than three dozen “green credentials”, according to its designers.
College students using the nearby swimming pool will find the water is heated with recycled energy channelled from the 14,250sq m engineering block.
“Low embodied” energy materials used in the construction include a zinc exterior face and a south-facing “climate wall”. This has separated glass sheets, which allow for heat capture.
The four-storey building – resembling several “doughnuts” and curved in sympathy with the nearby river Corrib – is fitted with a combination of natural gas-fired and pellet biomass heating, along with a ground source heat pump and solar hot water heating.
A grass roof on laboratories will provide insulation and soakage, and the building will harvest rain water, some of which will be used in its “low-flush” toilets. Even its taps will be “low-volume spray” .
Energy systems will be one of the range of courses on offer to students along with “sports and exercise”, biomedical, environmental, civil, electronic, mechanical and even “undenominated” engineering – the last for first-year undergraduates unsure which branch to pick.
A “landmark day in the university’s history” is how NUI Galway president Dr James J Browne has described the building’s opening.