It is difficult to believe that you have a building with no HVAC system. I doubt that they are finished with the design.
What about the heat for the building? Ireland is a cold damp country and modern buildings have heating systems.
The last reference listed above is a building in Cambridge and is not that far away from Ireland. The Cambridge building also has an atrium and natural ventilation from windows. But the Cambridge building also has a complete HVAC system and has a Platinum LEED rating from the USGBC.
"Steam provided by the power plant next door is also used for the four heat exchangers, which supply hot water to the fancoil and AHUs. Two small heat exchangers are used to produce domestic hot water.
The building uses four-pipe fancoil units with limited duct distribution serving interior zones, conference rooms, and perimeter zones. Separate fancoils are used for perimeters and the interior. A grand total of 560 fancoil units serve the Genzyme Center, and these units are automatically shut off when windows or doors are opened for natural ventilation.
Two 100% outside makeup air units located on the roof distribute ventilation air down through the building via two shafts, then a horizontal distribution is located at each floor to supply the ventilation air to the fancoil units. The two AHUs are 20,000 cfm each and can either be run in a pure heating or cooling mode to meet a temperature setpoint. They can also run in a humidity control mode, where the air is sub-cooled to remove the humidity and then reheated to the temperature setpoint. Heat wheels are located in each of the air handlers to recover energy from the exhaust air stream.
CO2 sensors are located throughout the building on a number of different floors, and if any of those sensors register above 1,000 ppm, the air handlers are signaled to bring in additional fresh air. “The supply air fan is on a variable-speed drive, and normally it’s controlled to meet a static pressure setpoint in the air distribution ductwork. If CO2 levels are high, it will speed up to provide more fresh air, to try and bring them down,” said Lou Capozzi, supervisor of facilities engineering at the Genzyme Center.
A large atrium space is located in the middle of the building, and radiant heating and trench heaters provide warmth for the atrium floor area in the winter. Trench heaters are a European product that are located in the floor and have a small fan that provides forced convection. “The trench heaters are for comfort as well as to keep the condensation off the glass,” said McGough.
Given the size of the ground floor and its architecture, which includes water features, stairs, bathrooms, etc., it was not possible to obtain adequate capacity from the radiant floor heating system. The perimeter trench heaters supplement the radiant system, while providing the added benefit of blanketing the glass windows with heat."
