Squeeze On Space Lifts Profit But Shrinks Living Standards, Lorcan Sirr

Media

When it comes to the topic of apartment sizes, planners and local authorities should keep this old adage to the forefront of their minds: less is not more. Ireland’s size standards for residential housing have tended to followBritain’s since about the 1940s. The UK has been producing ever-smaller units and with, in effect, no minimum national standard, it has the smallest homes in western Europe. This is not a trend we need to follow. Minimum space standards for a one-bedroomapartment in Dublin reduced from 484 sq ft in 1961 to 344 sq ft in 1987—and finally up to a more …

Bs News November/December

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Cultural Change Through Bim: Driving Lean Transformation In Education, Avril Behan, Malachy Mathews, Kevin Furlong, Ciara Ahern, Una Beagon, Peter Brennan, Colin Conway, Lee Corcoran, Pierce Fahy, Alan Hore, Barry Mcauley, Trevor Woods

Conference papers

This paper presents a case study of how the adoption of BIM-based practices in the AECO industry is being reflected by cultural change in higher education in Ireland. The silo-mentality that has dominated the AECO sector for more than a century has, despite numerous reorganisations, been replicated in the structures of educational institutions, including in Technological University Dublin since the inception of its founding colleges in the late 1800s. Most AECO programmes must include content that is external to the programme’s specific discipline. Through the School structures of the Institute, delivery of such content is known as "service teaching" and …

Let’S Look To Uk To Solve Problems Of Our Ageing Population, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Europe is going grey, very grey. In 1800 no country had a life expectancy beyond age 40, but by 2050 one in three people in Europe will be over 60. By then, one in 10 will be over 80—nearly 500,000 people in Ireland. The ageing population will bring its own problems, caused mainly by health, income and government support. Denmark spends about €5,000 a year on social protection in old age; Latvia, Romania and Croatia spend €500. In Ireland, in 2011, the figure was €2,000.

Live In The Sticks If You Want But The Cost Of Services Will Soar, Lorcan Sirr

Media

As Ireland changes from an agricultural production-based country to one more dependent on its cities, rural Ireland finds itself squeezed between the need to support the source of most of its revenue and a desire to protect its rural identity. It’s difficult to have both, and TDs and ministers frequently find themselves in the unenviable position of trying to defend the closure of garda stations and hospitals in their own constituencies.

Payment Arrangements In The Irish Construction Industry - An Overview, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

The payment arrangements adopted on a contract directly affect the level of risk borne by the client and the contractor. This study has examined various approaches used to pay for building construction work and explains the circumstances in which they used. Most substantial building contracts in Ireland are entered into by way of lump sum arrangements based on either detailed works requirements, bills of quantities or contractor’s proposals; the contractor quotes a price ‘up front’ under these arrangements. Occasionally, measurement approaches may be used where the extent of the works are established in-situ and valued in accordance with tendered rates. …

Our Reliance On Family For Housing Support Won’T Last Forever, Lorcan Sirr

Media

History is more important than geography in explaining our relationship with housing. We have a funny relationship with housing in Ireland, one that goes beyond the usual explanation of our land and property obsession being a post-colonial hang-up. Given our location at the northwest edge of Europe, it would be logical to assume Ireland would have a similar approach to housing as Germany, France and the Netherlands. We are different from our regional neighbours, however, and more like our distant cousins in Malta, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Opportunity Knocks For Developers To Meet Students’ Demands, Lorcan Sirr

Media

Student accommodation is in short supply in Ireland, an issue that was covered in these pages last week. As a housing analyst, I see the topic arising time and time again. In a radio studio recently, Kevin Donoghue, the president of the Union of Students of Ireland, told me that, for the first time, it was not only first-year students who were asking for housing advice, but also second- and third-year students. Students who should have been able to house themselves. There are about 25,000 students in the private rental sector in Ireland. In Britain and Belgium, where I went …

Composing Descriptions For Bills Of Quantities In Accordance With Arm 4 – Worked Examples, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

Two basic skills are at the heart of the measurement process: quantification and description. Descriptions answer the question, what is it? This paper examines the process of composing descriptions for bills of quantities measured in accordance with the ARM4 (Agreed Rules of Measurement). This process involves ‘translating’ design information contained in models, drawings and specifications into bill descriptions in order to enable tendering contractors to accurately price the work. The quantity surveyor’s task is to effectively communicate the cost significant information so that the estimator can visualise what is being described.

Descriptions contained in bills of quantities measured in accordance …

Measuring Building Perimeters And Centrelines - Worked Examples, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

Quantity surveyors are expected to be able to measure the perimeters of buildings as part of their routine practice. Building perimeter measurements are very useful in finding out the overall lengths of foundations, external walls, external wall finishes and associated items. One of the earliest difficulties faced by quantity surveying and construction management students, is mastering the technique of calculating perimeters of awkwardly shaped building plans. The student is typically required to calculate a perimeter and adjust this to derive the centrelines of various elements in the associated construction details. In this paper, the author aims to explain these processes, …

Greater Drogheda: Emerging Demographic Evidence Base For Ireland’S Sixth City., Brian Hughes

Other Resources

With Ireland’s strong economic recovery and the gradual revival of its construction industry, the future potential status and growth of its provincial cities in general for Drogheda, and the near 80,000 population of the Greater Drogheda Area (GDrA), is viewed as having been portrayed in an underwhelming way in the withdrawn National Spatial Strategy (NSS). Drogheda straddles both Louth and Meath counties, thereby presenting historic governance issues. Its impressive growth since 1996, in becoming Ireland’s largest town, has required several county boundary adjustments. This divided governance has inhibited its commercial growth. The purpose of this Paper is to have GDrA’s …

Rent Controls Are Very Different From The Forbidden Freeze, Lorcan Sirr

Media

A growing number of people in Ireland now rent. Up to one third of urban dwellers live in rented accommodation and may never buy, according to the National Economic and Social Council. This is a for a variety of reasons that range from changes in household formation and immigration to incomes, house prices and credit.

Developers Hold Keys To Supply But They Can’T Control Demand, Lorcan Sirr

Media

WITH all eyes on Ireland’s homelessness crisis, rising rental costs and an undersupply of newhousing on the market, people ask where the rising demand for homes is coming from. By concentrating on the economic and construction aspects of housing, many people miss the hugely important demographic aspect. Housing is and always will be about people. Brian Hughes, of the government’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) expert group, and Declan Redmond and Brendan Williams of University College Dublin have identified the four main drivers of housing demand—and they’re not what you’d think.

Rent Certainty Is Not Rent Control, Tom Dunne

Reports

The housing crisis and the debate about rent control should result in a beneficial change to the regulation of the sector but the opportunity could be lost for want of clarity of thinking about the nature of rent certainty and the distinction between it and rent control. At present rent is regulated by the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 (RTA 2004) which provides that rent can only change once a year and cannot be more than the market rent. Many argue a greater degree of rent certainty is required and that rent should not be allowed to increase by more than …

Bim; Postgraduate Multidisciplinary Collaborative Education, Malachy Mathews

Conference papers

BIM Technologies and Process are steadily increasing in the design and construction industry. The amount of undergraduate courses delivering BIM based applied and theory courses is also on the rise. These students will be entering a job market where their skillsets in digital modelling and collaborative practice will be in demand. However, existing AEC (architectural, engineering, construction) professionals are recognising the changes happening in the industry. Each domain is influenced and challenged by BIM. The traditional process and workflows will change as BIM adoption grows. Tobin [1] states the long-term impact of any innovation is often not understood when it …

Bs News September/October

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Medieval Architectures For Religious Tourism And Hospitality Along The Pilgrimage Routes Of Northern Italy, Silvia Beltramo

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Sacred spaces are, and have always been, places of reception: hospitality is in fact a precept of God. Many biblical passages remind us of this, such as the one (Gen 18, 4-5) in which Abraham welcomes three guests, washes their feet and offers them a piece of bread and a place to rest under a tree. Saint Benedict too, in chapter 53 of the Rule, insisted on the need to honour pilgrims and travellers, who should be welcomed with a charitable service ready for devotion and stated that all guests who entered the monastery should be received as …

Thermal Energy Storage In Building Integrated Thermal Systems: A Review. Part 2. Integration As Passive System, Dervilla Niall, Sarah Mccormack, Philip Griffiths, Luisa Cabeza, Lidia Navarro, Albert Castell, Alvaro De Grazia, Maria Brown

Articles

Energy consumption trends in residential and commercial buildings show a significant increase in recent decades. One of the key points for reducing energy consumption in buildings is to decrease the energy demand. Buildings envelopes are not just a structure they also provide protection from outdoor weather conditions always taking into account the local climate. Thermal energy storage has been used and applied to the building structure by taking advantage of sensible heat storage of materials with high thermal mass. But in recent years, researchers have focused their studies on the implementation of latent heat storage materials that if well incorporated …

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Renting Trouble: Current Government Policy Of Relying On The Private Rented Sector To Deliver Social Housing Is Unlikely To Succeed, Tom Dunne

Reports

A review of the history of housing in Ireland shows that owner occupancy and social housing were policy choices by successive governments. Owner occupancy was heavily supported through a system of grants and tax breaks and social housing was directly provided through local authorities at subsidised rents. In recent years policy has changed and tenure neutrality is now guiding the government’s attitude to housing. This is a significant change which has not been sufficiently discussed and has consequences which are not appreciated. Relying on the market to provide rental housing for people on low incomes and who may be in …

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Darndale Park Report, Ciaran Cuffe, Daniel Blanchfield, Andrea Culjak, Meadhbh Ní Lochlainn, Orla Gilleece, Lin Zhao, Niall Thomas, John Lucey, Zainab Mansary

Students Learning with Communities

No abstract provided.

Km Symposium: Designing Work, Knowledge Cafe Presentation, John Walsh

Conference Papers

This visual presentation looks at the history of office spatial design, particularly in relation to the evolution of the Open Plan office. Starting with the invention of the steel beam which facilitated the creation of large open-plan floorplates in the later part of the 19^th Century, the presentation looks at examples of open plan offices up to the present day. In particular this presentation looks at “the cubicle” and the impact of office spatial and furniture design on different work-modes including collaboration and concentration.

Arm4 - A Working Guide - Section B - Preliminaries, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

This paper is a companion to Section B – Preliminaries of the Agreed Rules of Measurement 4^th Edition (2009) and is provided as a guide to help better understanding of ARM and to clarify its contents. It is hoped that it may remove some of the disagreements which can arise on construction projects due to differences of interpretation. The paper follows ARM sequence, stating the rules first and following these with notes and commentary on the individual rules.

Because contractual terms and arrangements are a central concern of the preliminaries bill, this paper has been written with a particular …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Knowledge Management: Collaboration Versus Concentration In Open Plan Workspaces, John Walsh

Articles

This paper looks at the design of open-plan offices, particularly in relation to the impact ofspatial design on different work-modes. It briefly examines the history of the open plan office, lookingat how today’s typical open-plan workplace has evolved. It considers how workplaces can besuccessfully designed to facilitate the seemingly conflicting requirements of supporting both collaboration and concentration

Beautiful 19th. Century Iron Gates Reinstated At Grangegorman., Dublin Institute Of Technology

Media

No abstract provided.

Arm4:A Working Guide:Section A:General Rules, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

This paper is a companion to Section A – General Rules of the Agreed Rules of Measurement 4^th Edition (2009) and is provided as a guide to help better understanding of ARM4 and to clarify its contents. It is hoped that it may remove some of the disagreements which can arise on construction projects due to differences of interpretation.

The paper follows the ARM sequence, stating the rules first and following these with notes and commentaries on the various provisions. Some items contained within the ARM are self-explanatory, and therefore require no further comment. Explanations are generally by text …

Measuring Timber Pitched Roofs In Accordance With Arm4, Tony Cunningham

Other Resources

Measuring Timber Pitched Roofs in Accordance with ARM4

Abstract

Timber pitched roofs are the dominant form of domestic roof construction in the Republic of Ireland. This worked example demonstrates the principles and techniques involved in measuring a very simple roof structure design in accordance with the principles of the Agreed Rules of Measurement (ARM4 – 2009). The worked example, nevertheless demonstrates a number of important techniques commonly used in measuring roof structures. The demonstration is addressed to Irish students of quantity surveying related disciplines at foundation level.

Recent Demographic Growth In Ireland: Implications For Future Spatial Planning And Housing Provision., Brian Hughes

Other Resources

The recent publication of Ireland’s Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government’s ‘non-statutory’ Planning Policy Statement (PPS) of end January 2015, heralds the prospect of the replacement of the National Spatial Strategy (2002-2020) with a National Planning Framework (NPF). The PPS emphasises that future Planning Strategy should be both evidence-based and plan-led. As a contribution to such aspirations, this Paper presents a demographic approach applied to the spatial context for current housing needs and points to compelling reasons for developing Ireland’s cities whilst curtailing the ongoing proliferation of villages, small towns and one-off housing, and for services provision, infrastructural …