Selfbuild EXTENSIONS RENOVATIONS NEW HOMES INTERIORS GARDENS
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AUTUMN 2020 £3.75 / €3.99
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P ROJ ECTS IN: . F ER MANAG H .WICKLOW . AN TRIM .C ORK . S LIGO AN D M O RE ...
Dream it . Do it . Live it
PLAN YOUR BUILD YOUR 32 PAGE GUIDE TO EVERY THING YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START
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EDITOR'S LETTER
Astrid Madsen - Editor astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie
lot of changes are happening here at Selfbuild – some we’ve planned such as this magazine redesign, replete with a brand new Selfbuild Guide section to help you navigate through the process of building or extending your dream home in Ireland (turn to page 100). Others we’ve had less control over and, as everyone has, we’ve been busy adapting to the new normal of Covid-19. Some exciting news to follow. And above all, we want to hear from you! Feedback
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on the redesign is most welcome, but also do get in touch to let us know how you are adapting on site with Covid-19, to share any design or construction details about your project, or just to see your home featured in the magazine. We are here to share information, advice and inspiration from selfbuilders across the island of Ireland, showcasing how it’s done – warts and all.
In this first instalment we look at Planning Your Build, covering everything you need to know before you even start designing the house.
Stay safe and happy building!
Selfbuild Guide
COVER PHOTO Paul Lindsay MARKETING Calum Lennon calum.lennon@selfbuild.ie SUBSCRIPTIONS Becca.Wilgar becca.wilgar@selfbuild.ie BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Niamh Whelan niamh.whelan@selfbuild.ie EDITOR Astrid Madsen astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie
99 Selfbuild Guide
ADVERTISING SALES David Corry david.corry@selfbuild.ie
Maria Varela maria.varela@selfbuild.ie
100 Overview of the self-build process.
ACCOUNTS Karen Kelly karen.kelly@selfbuild.ie
102 Can you build on the site?
SALES DIRECTOR Mark Duffin mark.duffin@selfbuild.ie MANAGING DIRECTOR Brian Corry brian.corry@selfbuild.ie
DESIGN Myles McCann myles.mccann@selfbuild.ie
Nicola Delacour-Dunne nicola.delacour@selfbuild.ie
CHAIRMAN Clive Corry clive.corry@selfbuild.ie
Shannon Quinn shannon.quinn@selfbuild.ie
Lisa Killen lisa.killen@selfbuild.ie
DISTRIBUTION EM News Distribution Ltd
The publishers cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions nor for the accuracy of information reproduced. Where opinions may be given, these are personal and based upon the best information to hand. At all times readers are advised to seek the appropriate professional advice. Copyright: all rights reserved.
4 / S E L F B U ILD / AU T U M N 2020
110 What can you build for your budget? 120 How will you manage the project? 128 PROJECT: Building the dream
CONTENTS
Projects Learn from other self-builders all over the island of Ireland who have built new or renovated their home.
18 At the movies
Building your own home has a lot of upsides. One is to have the luxury of adding a home cinema, as this self-build in Co Fermanagh showcases.
28 Part of the landscape
Co Wicklow is well known for being a difficult place to get planning permission; estate agent David Dobbs and his wife Alex managed to integrate their house into the landscape with a sprawling design.
50 62 The multigeneration house
This newly built Co Antrim brick house fuses an apartment complex for a grandparent and a fully functioning family home; three generations live under the one roof yet everyone has the space and privacy they need.
Advice 83 Ask the expert
Get to grips with specifying your heating system and find out if it's still possible to build a house for under 150k.
84 Cheap Irish Homes
Top house hunting tips from RTE co-hosts Maggie Molloy and Kieran McCathy.
86 Budget: Staircases
One of the most expensive items to budget for; here’s where you can save on costs.
66 Standing out to blend in
90 Miscommunication
Top tips on how to avoid one of the most common self-build pitfalls, from a self-builder in Co Down.
92 Seed saving
How you can play your part saving the planet and its biodiversity.
94 The hardest working space in the home The bedroom has to pack a punch to make sure you get a good night’s sleep.
SELFBUILD: THE ALL-IRELAND All articles equally cover the 32 counties; when we refer to the Republic of Ireland the abbreviation is ROI. For Northern Ireland it’s NI.
66 38 15% discount
This new build project in Co Cork was influenced by its forest setting thanks to a clever use of cladding alternating dark green corrugated metal with timber laths.
Anthony Cash’s extension and renovation project in Co Antrim was partially financed by a little known VAT rebate for homes left unoccupied for two years or more. It also boasts a unique black brick external finish and polished concrete floors.
72 A keeper
50 The puzzle house
Chris and Serena Gillick took a very hands on approach to their Co Meath self-build – Chris built the frame himself, with the help of a friend, from timber lengths he cut to size and assembled on site. We also delve into whether this DIY approach is realistic for most self-builders.
Martin and Saoirse O’Dwyer struggled to get planning permission to extend their home in Co Sligo but manged to get their design over the line with a barrel roof addition. The next step was to figure out how to build it!
The story behind how a lighthouse keeper’s house in Co Cork has been given a complete facelift, from increasing the level of insulation to installing a heat pump with underfloor heating.
76 Timber warrior
AUT U M N 2020 / S EL F BU IL D / 5
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NEWS . ANALYSIS . PRODUCTS . REVIEWS
Trustmark publishes covid rules
Andy Broughan with her fiancé Adam
Build it for Andy A town in County Laois has come together to build a family home for a local rugby player with a life threatening illness. ndrea Broughan, who used to play with the PortDara Falcons, has been busy designing her family home and picking colours from her hospital bed in Dublin convalescing from two cerebral strokes. The community around her has pulled together to help her fiancé Adam and two young children, Evan and Elena, build a family home that will be accessible to Andy's needs. Local businesses have donated materials such as slates, insulated plasterboard, blocks and cement, roof
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coverings and tiles, while local tradesmen donated their time to tile and run services in the house. The family is aiming to raise €40,000 through the gofundme page on Facebook @builditforandy with over €30,000 donated since it was set up in March. According the organisers that will cover 20 per cent of the cost of building the house, fully furnished, as 80 per cent has been donated in labour or in materials. At the time of going to print the plasterers were working both inside and out, with the windows and doors ready to be fitted next.
Mixed messages from employers and unions have led to a lack of clarity over covid safety rules on site. For homeowners, the ‘Work Safe. Safe Work’ campaign, developed by TrustMark with the UK Department for Business (BEIS), has been endorsed by the Construction Leadership Council. They say the new campaign will help builders and homeowners adapt to ‘new normal’ with communication at the core of the campaign. However for larger building sites it seems the guidance isn’t providing as much clarity as the union Unite would like. They argue face masks are not appropriate PPE when a two metre distance cannot be maintained.
Self-build demand strong, says survey Half (49 per cent) of self-builders say they have increased their budget as a result of the coronavirus, with only 9 per cent saying their budget had significantly decreased. That is according to a survey Selfbuild conducted during the month of June 2020 which received 1,107 responses. The results show that 96 per cent of self-builders were happy for work to take place in their properties, even with social distancing, and that 97 per cent would continue with their new builds this year. Nine out of ten agreed that lockdown created time for them to conduct further detailed research into their project.
AUT U M N 2020 / S EL F BU IL D / 7
THE UPDATE
Coronavirus planning delays COVID-19 measures are adding at least six weeks to planning decisions in ROI with the Minister for Housing, Planning & Local Government introducing measures to pause the progress of planning applications. his order took effect from 29th March and was due to end on the 20th April but has been extended by an additional 19 days, up to and including 9th May 2020. This means that planners have 14 weeks, as opposed to the normal eight weeks, to process planning applications. In NI there are no set timeframes, as the Chief Planner of the Department for Infrastructure said it is important that Councils provide the “best service possible in these challenging times” and to “work pro-actively with applicants” and “where necessary agree extended periods for making decisions.” A number of local Councils have issued statements, confirming that they will be continuing to progress applications. The Chief Planner advised that councils should “maintain decision making” and to “take an innovative approach, using all options available, to continue the planning service”.
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Open window policy Active sound control technology could allow you to keep your windows open and not be bothered by the noise of traffic.
Bedroom design on page 94 8 / S E L F B U ILD / AU T U M N 2020
The Guardian reports scientists have installed noise cancelling speakers throughout a room to cancel out traffic noise. The system was almost as effective as closing the window, said the researchers, the equivalent of halving perceived noise levels, and could enter production in five to 10 years. The research was developed by universities in Singapore, Japan and the UK; it was originally reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
NEWS
Back to business for retailers FROM virtual consultations to appointment-only showroom visits, the self-build industry has adapted to the new normal of COVID-19. At the height of the coronavirus lockdown, the majority of self-builders were either planning the next stage of their project, working with materials they had on site or doing landscaping. That’s according to a poll we ran on the SelfBuilders & Home Improvers Ireland Facebook group. The reason self-builders have had to cut back on their efforts was due to many businesses temporarily closing their doors. And even though most remained open for phone consultations and quotations, deliveries and pickup of materials were suspended in most cases. Now that restrictions have lifted, here’s a bird’s eye view of how companies are adapting on the ground.
Bathroom retailers.
Sonas is operating under normal conditions with their showroom open, offering a next day nationwide delivery service. Field sales teams are mostly operating remotely with retailers only facilitating essential business meetings.
Building materials.
Insulation supplier Xtratherm has launched remote support services along with their external online learning for self-builders, architects, and specifiers. The team has launched a new One to One Self Build Consultancy as part of their Xi Platinum Service – online, by phone or at Stand G12, Self Build Live Dublin 2020. They will look at your plans, do the calcs, and complete a DEAP Energy calculation for you as guidance. Then in your time, by phone or online, discuss ways of achieving an affordable A-rated home that suits you. Roadstone, meanwhile, has accelerated its digital offering having launched an online
seminar platform in April and an interactive online showroom for paving and walling products which can be viewed on the product pages. Bricks and mortar shops are open and relevant safety precautions have been taken regarding social distancing, hand sanitisers, safety screens and signage.
Gas.
As a provider of essential services, Flogas ROI and Flogas NI are operating as normal through their customer support centres in Drogheda and Belfast for LPG, natural gas and electricity. You can still get their offer of 1,200 litres free LPG when switching from oil to gas. Flogas local representatives will first respond to your enquiry by phone and will then arrange a site visit, where possible, in compliance with current social distancing guidelines.
Glazing.
If you are looking for roof lights, know that Velux is still manufacturing to ensure they have plenty of stock to make deliveries; you can contact their customer service by phone or email. Eco Window Concepts Ltd., suppliers of Internorm and Solarlux, are also now open with all three showrooms (Dublin, Cork, Carlow) open for visits but viewing is by appointment only. The showroom is sanitised after every visitor and hand sanitiser, gloves and contact tracing records are provided.
Heating and hot water.
Pipelife products are now available for pickup but you will have to stay in your car and an employee will come out
to you; other coronavirus specific procedures include employees having to wear face masks, sanitisation stations around the factory, etc. Meanwhile Grant Engineering has put various measures in place in terms of distancing, sanitation and temperature checks on arrival at the premises, to protect the safety of staff and customers and to ensure production levels remain at routine level. Grant’s technical team are all back in the office and on hand to provide technical support to customers and installers where needed. In addition, the technical team is continuing to provide their free of charge home heating design service for those working on selfbuild and retrofit projects.
Insurance and warranties.
The team at Self Build Zone is working from home but operating as normal, with their surveying network still in operation for those who purchase/have purchased from them. It’s worth remembering that site insurance covers you for the whole build, including new and existing structures as well as tools, whether or not you or your trades are on site.
Ventilation.
The BEAM sales team is no longer working remotely, but is back on the road again, meeting customers on site, adhering to all social distancing rules. Installation and distribution teams likewise; the office is open for customers to call and collect materials with social distancing rules, and is open remotely for enquiries, quotations, specifying systems and talking through proposals by phone or video calls where possible. Stores have continued to dispatch orders and materials daily with little disruption. AUTU M N 2020 / S EL F BU IL D / 9
THE UPDATE
Escapism FOR those looking to take self-isolation to a new level, know that it is possible to buy an entire island off the coast of Ireland. Currently on the market is the 62 acre West Calf Island, West Cork, price undisclosed. The island is home to several derelict farmhouses and outbuildings which would provide a good basis for a planning application to upgrade or rebuild them. There are no utility connections but the island has historically been lived on.
Garden tops house hunters' priority list ccording to a survey by UK housebuilder Redrow, those with children under the age of 10, or who are currently expecting a child, are most likely to have changed their priorities when house hunting (53 per cent vs UK average of 24 per cent), followed by those who have been working from home due to Covid-19, either part-time or full time, or who have been placed on furlough (39 per cent). The majority of the 2,000 respondents (60 per cent) stated that having access to private outdoor space, such as a garden, terrace area or balcony, will be the most important factor when choosing their next home. Two in five will be looking for a home with a large kitchen with ample space for food preparation, while over a quarter (29 per cent) will be after excellent levels of energy efficiency. More time spent indoors also saw DIY projects boom – with nearly two in five (38 per cent) people trying their hand at home improvements during the lockdown.
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Construction activity resumes Tourism facilities may be favoured by the planners so the listing on privateislandsonline.com suggests: “There is a fresh water lake traditionally used for livestock on the Island so perhaps Alpacas might add the necessary spice.” Recently taken off the same website was 157 acre Horse Island, West Cork, which had a thriving copper industry in the 19th Century. The island now boasts a 4,500 sqft two storey stone residence, an entire village with six houses, a tennis court, gym and a helipad. Plus farm facilities. Three diesel generators and an aquifer supply the services. The asking price was $7.5 million and it sold for €5.5 million. Available on the website too is 30 acre Shore Island for just shy of one million dollars; it is on the Shannon Estuary and has the shell of and old house. Fresh water has been piped to the island.
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Construction activity has picked up in June after the coronavirus related drop in building. The Ulster Bank construction index was at 51.9 in June 2020, up from 19.9 the previous month. The index tracks changes in construction activity, with anything under 50 indicating a fall. The housing sector recorded the most gain at 55.8 as compared to 21.4 in May. The price of goods, meanwhile, continued to rise. Simon Barry, chief economist with Ulster Bank, told RTÉ a shortage of inputs and delays from some UK suppliers were part of the problem. Within the home, renovators and DIYers were busier than ever during lockdown. In order of searches on the internet, in the UK people were building pizza ovens, pergolas, decking, sheds, desks, and putting up wallpaper. All of these searches more than doubled as a result of Covid-19, according to research by The Hairpin Leg Company. Research from clearitwaste.co.uk, meanwhile, shows that the lily family of house plants is one of the most toxic if ingested despite their low maintenance and air purifying qualities.
NEWS
Design briefs are changing as covid hits self-builders’ psyche County Kerry architectural designer Niall Healy MCIAT MCABE reflects on how design briefs are changing as a result of the pandemic, and what the new normal means for design. s the lockdown experience has required us to reimagine the place we call home, perhaps we can learn some lessons and appreciate that, in the words of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, perhaps less is more. Think of the reduction in our carbon footprint alone if we collectively reduced commuting miles by 20 or 40 per cent by working from home one or two days per week, as for many, work is what you do, not where you go. The increase in the number of people working from home will probably be one of the biggest cultural changes to come out of the pandemic. But creating a dedicated space for
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the home office is not as straightforward as it might seem, especially in an existing house. From a wellbeing point of view, it is important to have a workspace that can be completely abandoned and out of sight at the end of a working day. My own home office is at the end of the garden and it has, from time to time, become the spare guest room, the gym and the occasional karaoke club with friends on a Sunday afternoon. In fact, adapting spaces and repurposing them for other functions, such as an exercise class, is taking on greater importance than it might have had in the past. Our relationship to spaces can encourage habit; during the
Finding a (re)purpose
pandemic in our home we have installed a curtain track to easily transform a utility space into a calm sanctuary. The result is a haven conducive to mindfulness practice. Good design always took into account these requirements; but for households that spent most of their time away from home, a different layout and design would have been created than one suited to a stay-at-home family. Design is never a one size fits all exercise, but as our relationship with our homes becomes more intimate, we need to get them to work harder than ever before.
LOCKDOWN PROJECT
During the lockdown wedding designer Peter Kelly of Co Cork designed and built a Cayman Island summer shack at the bottom of his garden with daughter Jessie Mai; a little oasis to read a book, have a cocktail, paint or take a zoom call. He reflects on his experience: “The best part of it is the memories of building it with my daughter. Showing her how to create something out of things that others may have thrown away; for example we repurposed an old chest of drawers into a bar and coffee table.”
AUTU M N 2020 / S EL F BU IL D / 11
THE UPDATE
Promise of serviced sites and better grants The new ROI Programme for Government (PfG) promises to deliver serviced sites to selfbuilders at cost price and introduces a retrofit strategy which is expected to extend grants for energy upgrades in existing homes. ith news of government formation came the confirmation that the PfG had been adopted. Of most interest to self-builders is the rolling out of the serviced sites scheme, whereby self-builders will be able to buy a plot, at cost price, with utilities all set up, from their local authority. The sites will be ‘clustered’ or grouped together, in townlands, so it won’t be a question of getting a one-off plot in the middle of the countryside. According to Fine Gael’s Martin Heydon, the Rural Serviced Sites scheme will target 700 towns and villages with populations of less than 2,000, to boost growth outside the main cities, as set out in Project Ireland 2040. The serviced sites will only be sold to owner occupiers, i.e. self-builders, and is similar to mainland UK’s Right to Build, a policy measure that excludes NI.
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Retrofit scheme As Selfbuild went to print Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien said the Retrofit Taskforce report would be published in the third quarter of 2020 to inform the future design of retrofit schemes. The PfG tantalising states the government will “offer grants to owners of private properties” – possibly increasing the amounts available under the current grant system and/or increasing the type of works that are grant eligible. Could we see triple glazed windows fall under this new regime? The PfG also vows to get heat pumps in every home that is eligible (built before 2011 and with good insulation and airtightness standards), and pilot schemes are expected to start in 2021. Green TD Francis Noel Duffy tells Selfbuild it remains unclear whether the deep retrofit scheme, which closed in 2019, will be brought back and rolled out nationally. It offered grant support of up to 50 per cent for homeowners who wanted to upgrade their home to a Building Energy Rating of A and replace fossil fuel
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heating with a renewable system. There was a significant demand for the scheme, despite the initial slow uptake. The PfG also endorses what it calls “smart finance” which seems to have a lot to do with loan guarantees from banks and credit unions. An Post is going to become a finance partner as well. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has in fact been looking at the ‘pay as you go’ model for many years but nothing has come of it as of yet; and yes, maybe now is finally the time. This would allow you to get an energy upgrade done on your home at minimal upfront cost, paying it back through your energy bills. Interesting too is that the government, in a bid to get as many homes as possible up to a high insulation and airtightness standard along with adequate ventilation and low carbon
heating, will develop “standard designs” for “all property types”. It will also support “using pre-assembled materials”, whether that means plug and play technology or structural off-site construction methods, on an island where blockwork construction is close to people’s hearts and wallets, remains to be seen. The PfG also supports a large scale retrofit scheme, with energy upgrades to be partially or fully funded by government, but these measures appear to only apply to social housing. Houses will be grouped together (again, ‘clustered’) to benefit from economies of scale.
NEWS
Housing market stabilises in ROI ccording to Daft’s June Housing Market Report, sale prices for ROI homes was 3.3 per cent lower in 2020 as compared to June 2019 with an average sale price of €254,000. Meanwhile the Property Regulator and the sector's leading representative organisations have published a Joint Sector Protocol for Property Services Providers safety document. The recommendation is to conduct viewings and auctions online where possible. If an in-person viewing does take place, detailed Covid-19 signage must be displayed and hand sanitation facilities must be widely available. HSE guidelines in relation to social distancing must also be followed.
Stamp duty cut for NI The UK government’s Plan for Jobs published in July has announced a cut in stamp duty but NI is missing out on £5,000 energy grants ringfenced for English homeowners.
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Stamp duty, which is the tax levied on property (house or land) transactions, currently does not apply to transactions below £125,000 and the change will increase the threshold to £500,000, temporarily until 31st March 2021. The government expects the average stamp duty bill will fall by £4,500 and nearly nine out of ten people buying a main home this year, will pay no stamp duty at all. The move comes as UK property transactions fell 50 per cent in May with house prices falling for the first time in eight years. House building alone supports nearly three quarter of a million jobs. Another announcement had to do with the Green Homes Grant which the government expects will save households up to £300 a year on their bills and will cover at least two thirds of the cost of upgrading the energy efficiency of up to 650,000 homes. The grant amount is up to £5,000 per household, available from September but only in England.
Source: Daft.ie Housing Market Report, June 2020
Dublin average price range €304,406 to €570,311 depending on the area. AUTU AUTUM MNN 2020 2020 // SSEL ELFFBU BUIL ILDD //13 13
THE UPDATE
Rugged and ready A project in Sheep’s Head, Co Cork, awaiting planning permission in an Area of Outstanding Beauty, showcases how a design tailored to the site, needs and epoch we live in, can respond to the planner’s expectations of 21st Century design. he site consists of two ruined cottages which, with others, once formed part of a traditional clachan cluster of dwellings typical of the 18th and 19th centuries. “The design carefully avoids many recent examples where the renovation and refurbishment of existing ruins is taken to a point too far where the existing original character is overcome and consumed within the body of the new proposal making the original all but invisible,” says architect David Leech. “Within the existing walls of the east ruin a delicate new glass and frame structure is inserted internally to provide conditioning and comfort without concealing the patina of the aged stone walls behind. The old field stones so carefully stacked to form the massive stone wall are kept visible through an insulating glass which provides the required U-value.” From this inhabited shell a new (glass) house extends out, screened by a shallow colonnade of rainwater downpipes, falling towards the coastline. The living spaces are
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directional, following the topography and the view.
Technology as building material
The house is completely self-sustaining, requiring no connection to existing public infrastructure, electricity or otherwise. A glass photovoltaic (PV) roof reflects the sky and the ever-changing weather. Aluminum patent glazing bars are fitted with PV glass sheets as a rainscreen over a single ply pitched roof. These evoke vernacular roofing materials and the DIY nature of greenhouses. 58 polychromatic powder coated aluminum downpipes both act as a façade and as a sustainable way to distribute surface water run-off directly into the ground without the need for heavier infrastructure. The shallow colonnade they form is detailed to give the impossible impression of holding the weight of the roof above whilst also acting as a screening device to provide privacy to the glazed curtain walling behind.
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Projects AUTUMN 2020
RENOVATIONS . EXTENSIONS
NEW BUILDS
18 28
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A planner-friendly design that makes the most of the views
A house in the countryside for entertaining
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See your home featured in Selfbuild magazine by emailing info@selfbuild.ie More photos of these projects available on selfbuild.ie
A house that stands out to blend in
Home renovation project partly funded by a little known VAT rebate.
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Building a barrel roof is easier than it looks! AUTU M N 2020 / S EL F BU IL D / 17