Clare County Hall

Clare County Council's new Headquarters provide 8,600m2 of offices and Council Chamber, configured around a public atrium that accommodates the interface with the departments. The atrium is also essential to the natural ventilation strategy, utilizing stack effect and wind pressure differentials for space cooling purposes. The building was conceived to provide naturally ventilated workspaces with optimal daylight and minimal glare, delivered through a finely tuned envelope that responds to orientation, minimizing unwanted heat gain. Solar collectors provide 55% of the hot water and a woodchip boiler provides water for the heating system. Light level and presence detectors optimize the use of lighting. Raw finishes such as fairfaced RC ceilings were specified to make use of thermal mass. The project attempts to reinterpret the rough character of the unique Burren landscape, the weighty architecture of dolmens and sharp irregular limestone with intermittent splashes of green vegetation.