From the Construct Ireland archives

In 2005 Construct Ireland profiled the timber frame extension to Hannah and Martin Naughton’s Meath cottage. Five years later we’re returning to profile the upgrade of the original bungalow — a renovation that demonstrates how to detail dry lining without running the risk of mould growth

Hugh Dorrian, member of the Main Committee of the recently launched Building Limes Forum Ireland reveals lime is regaining ground as a key material not only in conservation projects, but in new build.

Can sustainability and social housing be married in one development? Construct Ireland investigates a ground breaking social housing project in West Cork.

RICHARD DOUTHWAITE proposes measures including energy upgrade of the housing stock  which could help to avoid economic meltdown, and JAY STUART outlines some energy saving measures which could be rolled out.

The rapidly growing public interest in sustainable building is finally starting to impact on property developers. Bill Quigley of Nutech Consultants describes an innovative 200 house development currently on site in Co. Cork where forward-thinking developers J & W Leahy Brothers have decided that the market is ready for low energy, low CO2 buildings.

An advocate of sustainable building long before it was fashionable, Bill Quigley of NuTech Renewables has subsequently seen the mainstreaming of sustainability at first hand, having input into substantial projects for Leahy Bros, MKN and GEDA Construction amongst others. In their latest project, NuTech are working with Wicklow County Council on a social housing scheme with impressively high energy performance targets to meet, as Quigley explains.

Green architect Minka McInerney profiles six unique green buildings including a cardboard school building, a globe-trotting recycled museum & the tallest timber building in the world

Lenny Antonelli visited a recently refurbished complex of social housing flats in Galway city that has combined excellence in urban regeneration with energy efficiency and major strides towards sustainability

With banks in America and the UK encountering major difficulties as previously booming economies head towards recession, a similar and perhaps even worse fate may be awaiting Irish banks. Worryingly, the situation is shaping up to be so bad, that the very future of the banks may be under threat, as Richard Douthwaite explains.

With over twenty years of design behind him, architect Martin Meyer has tackled plenty of big projects in his time, but his first home renovation challenge – to turn a dank 19th century red-brick house into a bright energy efficient home – was still eye-opening. Lenny Antonelli reports.