Situated on the outskirts of Ballymena town, the ecos – millennium environmental centre is a 150 acre, £10 million development jointly funded by the Ballymena Borough Council and the Millennium Commission. The aim of the centre is to promote the principles of sustainability through interpretation and providing examples of various approaches used on site.

There are a range of facilities being provided, but they are all based on the two main elements of a public park designed to encourage biodiversity, and an interpretive facility occupying a building designed for energy efficiency and obtaining two thirds of its energy from renewable sources produced on site.

The site consists largely of semi-improved wet grassland subject to regular flooding and providing rough grazing. As a result of past management, it has a reduced diversity of wildlife with a preponderance of rushes to the exclusion of other species. Improvement of the site for biodiversity has already begun and is involving a range of approaches:

• Improving the grassland management through introducing a grazing and mowing regime

• Planting approximately 17 acres of native woodland in conjunction with the Woodland Trust and using seedlings grown from seed collected within a 15 mile radius of the site.

• Creating a lake to improve habitat diversity and improve visual amenity.

• Increasing marginal vegetation by planting reed beds on one side of the lake using reeds available elsewhere on site to seed the bed.

These actions will improve the biodiversity of the site gradually as the management actions take effect and as newly created habitats develop.

The 3,000m2 landmark building has been designed as a thermally massive concrete structure with high levels of insulation, and incorporates a central tower of steel clad with copper (see illustration). Throughout the design process, materials and design have been examined to try to achieve the best sustainable result taking into account scheme purpose and budget considerations. PVC elimination where possible, under-floor heating, and a sewerage treatment reed bed plant to treat waste water are some of the sustainable approaches taken.

In addition, approximately two thirds of the energy required by the facility will be produced by a combination of willow coppice fuelled combined heat and power production, a 30kw wind turbine, over 100m2 of photovoltaic cells, and 20 solar water heating panels.

The important factor in all of the above systems is that they are all significant energy producers for the facility and will be monitored to provide data on energy production by renewable energy technologies at a usable scale in the Northern Ireland situation.

It will be equally important that the management regime reflects sustainable principles, and these will impact on all aspects of the ongoing management. This will range from sales materials stocked in the shop outlet, through the menu selection for the café, to the administrative systems and waste policies implemented on a day-to-day basis.

Facilities being Provided

• Within the park a series of walks is being created through the improvement of an existing public path and creation of new paths, which will give a range of walks between 1km and 5km. Some of the paths will be combined cycle and pedestrian paths linking the Ballykeel estate to  the town centre and connecting with developing cycle routes

• In association with the paths, a series of sculptural icons is being constructed to relate aspects of the park to the interpretive centre. These will be designed to incorporate a play element and will combine with a separate play area to encourage use of the entire park area by children.

•     A small 17 site touring caravan site is being incorporated in the scheme to provide a facility not currently available in the area and directly on route to the north coast.

•     As part of the sustainable approach to the development, an organic market garden production area has been incorporated since the inception of the scheme. This will be operated by a local community company and will provide opportunities for employment and training, as well as tying in with the interpretive aspects of the development.

•    The interpretive centre, with its associated café and shop, is the major user of the main building and utilises participation and involvement as a means to stimulate interest and hence learning. The facility aims to encourage asking the right kind of questions rather than providing definitive answers.

•   Associated with the interpretation function is an education room providing facilities for school and other group use. The centre will provide a very useful venue for school groups, and information will be targeted toward the curriculum and provided in an appropriate form for different key stages.

•   A 120 seater conference theatre has also been incorporated to provide all the facilities needed for conferences or lectures and, because of the surrounding facilities, is likely to prove a popular venue for environmental and other conferences.

The Northern Ireland Environmental Information Centre

•   In addition to the facilities above, the building will also be home to the Northern Ireland  Environmental Information Centre. The need for this facility has been recognised for a number of years but funding has not been available. Now the premises have been incorporated in this building and the centre will be operated by an independent charitable trust with the remit to make a wide range of environmental information on Northern Ireland available to the public in a "one stop shop" facility.

The above article briefly describes the ecos - millennium environmental centre facilities and approach. For the design team certainly one of the most important lessons has been that there are no right answers. However there are a range of options for every problem and ultimately the solution chosen in any particular situation will depend on a combination of purpose, available options and budget. The ecos - millennium environmental centre will not provide easy answers to questions about sustainable development, but it will stimulate thought and hopefully progress the debate about a sustainable approach to life in the new millennium.

Contact: Mr Billy Reid, Project Officer, ecos,
Ballymena Borough Council,
80 Galgorm Road, Ballymena BT42, 1AB;
Tel: 01266-660300; Fax: 01266-660400;
E-mail: townclerk@ballymena.gov.uk