The Irish Building & Design Awards 2017 were held recently and as always they recognise the top projects in the country over the previous year or so. One of the awards was for Architectural Project of the Year and there were some excellent candidates put forward in this category.
However, the cream always rises to the top and it was no surprise to hear MCA Architects name called out when the winner was announced.
The project that MCA won the award for was the eye-catching LIDL Headquarters in Tallaght, Co Dublin. The externally stoic and internally spacious open plan concept building in Tallaght veers away from the retailer’s traditional cellular office regional Head quarter buildings.
Bright, spacious and communal, the open plan HQ, which is paper-free, has a staff canteen, gym, coffee stations on each of the four floors, communal work spaces and a terrace garden – which enjoys spectacular views of Tallaght and the mountains that overlook it.
In 2011, Discount supermarket chain Lidl were granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanála to build its new Irish headquarters.
The planning board upheld an earlier decision by South Dublin County Council to approve planning permission for the 21,000sq m site on the Main Street in Tallaght, but with a number of conditions.
Permission was granted for a period of five years from the date of the order, as opposed to the 10-year period initially requested.
Two years later and following the tender process, John Sisk & Sons was named as the main contractor on the project and Gerry Murphy & Andrew Howley of MCA Architects continued as design team leaders. JV Tierney and Barret Mahony Consulting engineers provided M&E and civil structural design respectively.
Providing architecture to both the national and international market, MCA Architects offers top quality craftsmanship in Architectural design, interiors, master planning and project management services.
The company has a long held reputation for excellence and is involved in a wide range of projects, principally in the areas of healthcare, commercial office, media and technology, residential, educational, and leisure sectors.
The contract for the new build (approx. 8,000 sq m) headquarters for Lidl Ireland comprised of a 4-storey over basement building, a fully fitted out with offices, meeting rooms, fully serviced Comms Room and all associated facilities. This Sustainable design has an A2 BER rating and achieved BREEAM excellent with the use of an active twin wall unitised façade. Linked to 4 weather stations the blinds continually respond to the external conditions maintaining a tangible link with the outside for the employees.
The site is located within high density retail and commercial and residential area of Tallaght. There is also an active Lidl store located adjacent to the site
MCA Associate & lead designer Andrew Howley explained to Building Ireland that the design was an innovative and first-time move for Lidl, steered by its Irish team.
Construction work on the HQ building started in March 2014 after South Dublin County Council granted permission for the significant development in 2013.
“following numerous mixed use development designs for the site in Tallaght Lidl finally made the decision to move their headquarters to the site in Tallaght , we were then commissioned to take the design through to completion” said Andrew.
“The consultation stage began and an open plan was suggested, which was away from the norm for other LIDL headquarters around Europe. It was a whole new approach for them. Lidl recognised the opportunity to take down the walls in recognition of their hyper mobile Generation Y work force. Through a stakeholder engagement process they stove to understand their work force and workplace from a psychological and sociological perspective.”
“Through analysis it was discovered that 75% of staff were at their desks at any one time, deciding on a resulting hot desking approach the question was how do you positively leverage this 25% of space. The building has been designed to encourage and facilitate more extensive collaboration among the teams that are offering support to 183 stores in Ireland.
“This in an owner occupier building designed around collisions and engagement. With a “top & tail” approach to the design of social spaces, movement through the building is forced and guaranteed moving between ground floor work café and level 3 terrace café via the atrium and open collaboration zones.
Started in 2014 and completed in 2016 Andrew noted “the basement was probably the first dug out in the country since 2007. ”
“This was a massive transformation for Lidl and the building has been a great catalyst for change. It was an exciting project to be involved in and we were delighted to win the award. It means a lot for the company and it is recognition of the work that we are doing.”
Andrew revealed that there are many advantages to having such a structure in the local community. “The influx of 320 staff means a boost for the local economy as many of the team will shop in local businesses and use various amenities in the area.”
Alucraft Ltd is one of Ireland’s leading manufacturer and supplier of architectural glazing systems and they were appointed the glazing and cladding contractor for the new build. The work carried out by them included the design, supply and fitting of a fully ventilated and BMS controlled skinny twin-wall unitized façade, Alucobond rainscreen cladding, Raico roof glazing, smoke and natural ventilation systems.
Having completed over 400,000 square metres of fitted out office space for Irelands leading businesses the works top tech companies, from IPUT to William Fry, Facebook Yahoo and Twitter & Accenture to name a few. MCA’s client base in both the public and private sector is second to none. A large segment of their business lies in the Healthcare sector where they have completed some 150,000 square metres for the clients such as the HSE and Mater private Hospital. At present they are on site with the NPRO Cork and Galway (National Plan for Radiation and for the Oncology). Over the last 2 years MCA have excelled also in the Leisure sector with involvement with a number of large hotel projects, recently lodging an application for a 400 bed Hotel and 200 bed apart hotel in Townsend street in Dublin. Providing due diligence services for over half a million square metres since being established in 1988 by Michael Collins, this experience gained in particular has provided MCA with a unique understanding of many building types, their design, fit out and commercial acquisition.
“We have been involved in some exciting projects over the years and we continue to be very busy with a lot more new build projects on the drawing board. There are 50 people employed here, all of who bring a wealth of experience to the team and we are looking forward to driving the company forward in the future and hopefully picking up more awards, but making sure the clients are happy first!”
Contact Details:
MCA Architects
4 Hanover Wharf
Asgard Road
D02HX39
Tel: +353 (0)1 6760916
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.mca.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, July 2017, Vol 3 No 6
