ABSTRACT
A J Quirke Pharmacists Ltd. in Clonmel, Ireland has been a family pharmacy since 1927. Three generations of the Quirke family have worked there, and some were even born and raised in the apartment above the shop. The owners contacted architect and certified PH designer Paul McNally of the PassivHaus Architecture Company, saying they wanted to do an environmentally responsible retrofit and asking him what goal he thought they should aim for. The pharmacy is on Clonmel's main street in the old part of this 600-year-old town, which meant an archaeologist had to be on board from the beginning. It was soon discovered that the old walls at the back of the building were ruins of Ireland's second Quaker meeting house, and those had to remain intact. Business at A J Quirke's Pharmacy is substantially up since the refurbishment, and customers' reactions to the new building have been uniformly appreciative.
