Diageo Brewhouse No. 4

Diageo is one of Ireland’s leading manufacturing companies with a long and proud tradition of commercial success and community involvement. Through its iconic brands, Guinness, Bushmills and Smithwick’s, Diageo can trace its roots in Ireland back over 300 years.

Based in the historic St James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin 8, Diageo Ireland produces premium alcohol beverages which are enjoyed throughout the world. It is at St James’s Gate where Guinness, the world’s most popular stout, has been brewed for more than 250 years.

Diageo knows that sustainability and investment are key to long-term success and, with this in mind, has made a €168 million investment in the St James’s Gate Brewery which will consolidate all brewing by Diageo in Ireland at Victoria Quay, St James’s Gate.

RKD Architects was appointed architects, project managers and design team lead for the delivery of the new brew house and fermentation block at St. James’s Gate. Completed in summer 2014, it is one of the most technologically advanced, environmentally sustainable breweries in the world. This is one of the largest construction projects to take place in Dublin in recent years, and has created 1,000 construction jobs.

The Brewhouse development comprises the construction of a new brewing facility on part of Diageo’s landholding in Dublin 8. Diageo’s vision is to create a modern brewery to meet the highest standards in terms of technology, efficiency and environmental management. The building takes the form of a main two storey block which houses the brewing tanks and vessels, an extensive ground floor process area, together with upper mezzanine areas giving access to the higher sections of the large brewing vessels. This element of the building rises to a height of about 14m to parapet level.

Flanking this main block to the east and west are a series of support functions. On the east side is the raw materials handling area consisting of a canopy and enclosure for a drive through grain truck facility to offload incoming grain into grain silos building which extends to about 25m in height. Also on the east side a block of single storey stores are provided, served by a delivery yard area. On the west side a second canopy is provided to shelter trucks serving the Delivery and Dispatch area. Also on this side are a series of large silver finish tank structures the highest being a series of four Spent Grain Tanks which rise to over 25m.

The South (front) of the building, facing the Fermentation Plant across the main road within the brewery ‘Cooke’s Lane’, takes the form of a high quality double height glazed entrance hall, including a feature staircase and lift.

The north front of the building, facing towards Victoria Quay, consists of the plain gable end of the Brewhouse building, but enlivened by a glazed gallery extending partway along the north face, to incorporate a ‘Guinness’ sign within the gallery space.

The building is finished in exceptionally high quality materials for an industrial building, consisting of a combination of white stone cladding to the higher elements of the Brewhouse visible from areas external to the brewery.

Matt finished dark grey flat metal cladding panels are proposed to the grain tower element, to produce a striking contrast with the rest of the building.

A significant Diageo project goal was to seek green building certification for the Brewhouse and pursue the highest level of certification. The RKD-led project team successfully worked to deliver the first non-domestic A1 BER rated building in Ireland and achieve LEED PLATINUM and BREEAM OUTSTANDING.

The major environmental features of the Brewhouse combine the building services systems with the process energy strategy and systems. It uses a Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP) to deliver power and thermal heat to the process and building services systems.

The Brewhouse energy usage and demand were designed, modelled and adjusted in order to ensure a carbon negative building. This has been best achieved through the promotion of energy use reduction by utilising the process water and innovative hydronics (water as heat transfer medium in heating and cooling). The energy profile has been delivered by the use of the following design features –

• Installation of energy recovery system in the new Brewhouse which reduces the requirement for steam heating in the brewing process to the wort building operation, maximises the thermal energy recovered and minimises vapour losses from the Brewhouse and atmosphere
• Installation of variable speed drives on the majority of process drives
• Installation of a hybrid refrigeration system aiming to use 0° instead of -4°Improvisation of improved metering throughout the brewing process
• Optimum building orientation design
• Solar shading, and the use of high specification fabric achieving U-values significantly better than the current Irish Building Regulations
• Zero thermal bridging, air tightness, designed to achieve an air permeability of 3.5 m²/hour/m²
• Automatic lighting controls complete with high efficiency lighting and occupancy sensors throughout the building and spaces
• HVAC systems that mostly condition through mechanical ventilation with selected fan specific power levels which ensures only a small portion of the building is air conditioned
• HVAC plant has been specification and procurement based on low energy usage, fan speeds and high efficiency.

The resulting carbon emissions from the Building Energy Rating certificate are -12.6kg CO2/m²/annum, thus the building meets the criteria for a Carbon Neutral Building.

The Brewhouse investment provides a blueprint for all future Diageo projects to ensure sustainable design, construction and operations can be implemented on all sites, regardless of location where all opportunities can be exploited and restraints can be overcome with careful thought and execution.