Darma Community Centre
Darma Community Centre is an intimate shared community centre linking the recently completed voluntary residential developments of ‘Llan Elo’ and ‘Tihilly’ in Tullamore. The building forms the backdrop to the community activities not just the two new developments but also the greater established residential. The positioning of the building compliments both developments and adds greatly to the security of the developments and the sense of space.
This centre is a 200sq.m. single storey structure, located to the rear of Clontarf Road, Tullamore backing onto adjacent Residential, Health and Sports facilities. The development forms part of a close knit complex of voluntary elderly housing, voluntary community and emergency housing and shared voluntary community centre facilities.
The centre includes meeting and community rooms a medical room for Doctors visits an office for administration and security purposes a kitchen for use by the residents and for catering for small functions and meetings and toilet and bathroom facilities.
The centre not only provides community services for both housing associations but already has enhanced the sense of community to the greater area of Clontarf Road which up until now had no centre or focus to the area.
The layout of the building gives each group separate access to the building but shared facilities and all areas of the building are accessible. The quality of the build is very good and the finishes are durable and maintenance free internally and externally.
The building is finished in brick and render on one side to compliment the Tihilly development and in Forticrete on the other side to compliment the Llann Elo development. The central location of the building between both developments also gives a focus to the community and it is very much a “centre” with the developments.
This building like both Tihilly and Llan Elo is provided with underfloor heating powered by an air to water heat pump. The large and smaller community rooms are separated by an acoustic operable wall which allows the rooms to be opened up to cater for large groups.
Considerable reductions in CO2 emissions have been achieved with the provision of an air to water heat pump system for heating.