The Irish Construction Industry Awards wouldn’t be the same without IN2 Engineering Design Partnership being among the winners. Since the awards – which have established themselves as the benchmark for those demonstrating excellence and innovation in Ireland’s construction industry – were launched in 2014, IN2 has been a winner every year with the exception of 2016.
In 2014 and 2017, the leading MEP services engineering consultancy was named Engineering Firm of the Year, while technical director David Walshe scooped the Designer of the Year award in 2015. Nominated in three categories for this year’s Irish Construction Industry Awards, IN2 did it again by taking home the Consultancy of the Year award.
The awards ceremony was held in Dublin’s CityWest Hotel on June 14 last and Tim Gillen, Tim Jago and James Redmond were present to collect IN2’s latest accolade from Vincent Weldon of sponsors Tech Refrigeration & Air Conditioning.
“We were delighted with our win,” associate director Tim Gillen says.
“We have been fortunate enough to win a number of awards over the years and this one is right up there. It’s great recognition for our team and what we do. We were also shortlisted in the Education & Training Excellence and the Engineering Firm of the Year categories. We’ve won the Engineering Firm of the Year award on two previous occasions, but the Consultancy of the Year award was open to a wider and more diverse range of companies, and was therefore harder to win. We had to see off stiff competition to win it.”
Founded in 2002 by Barry Flynn, David Walshe, and Ian Carroll, IN2 Engineering Design Partnership has grown to employ over 50 staff at its offices in Dublin (Ranelagh), London, Belfast and Athlone. Projects are based in Ireland and the UK across a wide range of building sectors delivering low energy projects from conceptual design through to building handover and beyond. Integral to the company’s approach to MEP services design is combining specialist expertise in innovative passive design, sustainability and building simulation techniques.
A core ethos is providing bespoke, customer centric solutions with progressive approaches to energy efficiency, integrated building services and environmental designs to suit the client’s requirements. With a highly-experienced MEP engineering staff, together with specialist in-house expertise in Passive Design, Sustainability, Dynamic Thermal Modelling, Airflow Simulation (CFD), Lighting Simulation and BIM, IN2 has the capabilities and experience to deliver low-energy projects from Conceptual Design through to Building Handover and beyond.
IN2 has the distinction of being a BSi BMI Level 2 Certified company. The practice’s resources include 12 BIM specific technical staff comprising modellers, coordinators and managers, who are committed to achieving excellence. IN2 is fully committed to utilising BIM during the full lifecycle of each of its projects. Effective BIM implementation helps avoid design alterations while reducing risk and time reworking the scheme. The effective use of BIM enables the design team to resolve design problems such as service clashes before a project reaches site. Further benefits include the generation of long-term maintenance cost plans for the completed building.
IN2 has worked on numerous prestigious contracts in the commercial, education, residential, healthcare, civic / culture, conservation and sport / recreation sectors. The firm is the lead M&E consultant on the new €70 million TCD School of Business which is due to be completed later this year. It’s also currently working on a large office and hotel development on Dublin’s North Wall Quay. Bennett Construction are the main contractors on this 25,000 sq. m. project.
The practice recently worked for the HSE and NDFA on primary care centres in Coolock, Tuam, Limerick, Ballinrobe, Ballymote and Boyle in conjunction with main contractors Balfour Beatty and JJ Rhatigan (the latter are also the main contractor on the TCD School of Business project). IN2 was also involved in the recently completed 755-bed Crowne Plaza / Holiday Inn Express at Terminal 4, Heathrow Airport.
A Cyber Essentials approved provider, IN2 recently established its own academy within its Dublin office in conjunction with DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology) and UU (University of Ulster).
“We realise that investing in our young graduate engineers is not only the future of the practice, but more importantly the future of the construction industry,” Tim says.
With increased industry pressures (staff shortages, increased regulations etc), there is no longer the time afforded to training of young engineering staff. Staff shortages means that the mentoring arrangement that should exist between senior engineering graduate engineers is not properly implemented.
Young engineers are forced into pressure situations without the required knowledge or skills in their armoury, damaging confidence and hampering career progression. IN2 prides itself on the quality of its young staff. The training academy will help shape their careers within a structured training environment.
The IN2 Academy aims to provide up to eight graduate engineers each year with all the necessary engineering skills for a modern construction industry. It will be a Centre of Excellence for under and post graduate students promoting Applied Learning for the Built Environment in an active engineering consultancy. The Academy’s students will avail of industry expertise and experience in enhancing their foundation knowledge in a structured manner to ensure a pathway to eventual Chartered Engineer status.
IN2 Engineering Design
Partnership (Dublin Office)
Unit B,
Mount Pleasant Business Centre,
Upper Mount Pleasant Avenue,
Dublin D06 XD70
Telephone: +353 (0)1 4960900
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.in2.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, September 2018, Vol 4 No 8
