Combining Retrofitting and Adaptation

This building has served the community in various ways throughout its life. Originally designed as a courthouse until the mid-2000s, it also functioned as the village library before eventually closing. Now empty, the building contributes to the village's vacancy rather than positively impacting the community. Since it has remained unoccupied, the building has fallen into a state of disrepair. To reverse these trends, ACT proposed reactivating the building to become a valuable resource for Ballyforan once again. By addressing the need for remote working facilities, a student study zone, and meeting and presentation spaces, a flexible spatial strategy will be applied, and the building's fabric will be upgraded to showcase the benefits of deep energy retrofitting.

The building has water leaking through the courtroom roof but is structurally sound. Deep energy upgrades will be needed to bring it up to a comfortable, energy-efficient standard. The goal is for the building to produce more energy than it consumes, becoming a net-positive energy producer and generating funds for the community.

Keeping in line with the building's multi-purpose community function, it is proposed that it be developed to adjust to different functional configurations. To do this successfully, the transition between spatial arrangements needs to be quick and easy. Original elements, such as the courtroom dock, will be retained and incorporated into the design to tell the story of the building. Bespoke shelves will be added to support changing configurations and to store books for a community library, replicating the building's former function.

The current arrangement of the plan is similar to when the building was originally constructed, designed to meet the needs of a courthouse. To meet the new functional requirements and bring the building up to modern standards, upgrades and repairs to the building's fabric, as well as a rearrangement of the layout, have been proposed.