The Irish Times

"The Green Building was seen as a bit of a freak and very much on the periphery when we designed it 14 years ago," says Bernard Kilna, associate director of Murray O'Laoire Architects who will be giving a talk at the conference on the lessons learned from the Green Building. The structure was designed on small Apple Macs (at the cutting-edge then) and was a three-year labour of love with plenty of tweaking and gauging. There was much expertise involved including input from Owen Lewis, of the Energy Research Group at UCD, and Tim Cooper, a conservation engineer, then at Trinity. On the eco agenda at the Green Building was energy generation, through solar panels and wind turbines. Heating comes from a ground heat source tapped by boring 150m into the ground, longer than the Spire. Many materials are recycled: lights were made from television screens, and railings created from bicycles. There are high levels of insulation, with double- and triple glazed windows and a central atrium helps to cool the building when it's warm through a mechanised vent, which opens at the top. There are no baths, or car-parking spaces, just room for bicycles.