Bio Medical Engineering Science Building

Galway, Ireland
Education
6,000 m2
2004

We were appointed by the Department of Education & Science’s 9 stages to provide Civil and Structural engineering services on the new National University of Ireland, Galway Orbsen Building. The new €15.6 million Orbsen Building provides 6,000m2 of space for biomedical engineering, science students and staff. Essential facilities, with diverse physical abilities, for students, and staff, are incorporated into the structure including a 150-seater full production restaurant and kitchen, the Environmental Change Institute, the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Science, a completely separate chemical drainage system, an animal house, a vector care facility, a steel formed plant room, analytical laboratories, ranging from Class 100,000 to class 1 cabinets, and an electron microscope (housed in a separate structure on the ground floor). An enclosed footbridge, which spans over the adjacent road, facilitates interaction with the Arts & Commerce Building and the heart of the campus. A flat podium slab covers the restaurant, which, subsequently, forms a link with the adjacent existing IT building. The structure rests on a suspended RC ground slab, which is nestled on 600 short socketed CFA piles. Our Structural and Civil team specified the use of ancon shear dowels in one of the three expansion joints to eliminate the requirement for a double row of columns. To maintain flexibility of space in the upper floors, long span pre-cast slabs were used. As the design progressed and more funding became available, additional functions were added to the project. An additional floor was added post tender and subsequently a substantial re-design of part of the structure was required.

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Kevin Rudden

Chairman
[email protected]