No stranger to winning awards, Techrete is delighted to be a finalist in the ‘Specialist Contract Over €1m’ category of the 2022 Irish Construction Excellence Awards for its role in the successful delivery of Central Quad, TUD (Technical University Dublin).
Established in 1985, Techrete is a leader in the design, manufacture and installation of architectural precast cladding in Ireland and the UK. The Balbriggan, Co. Dublin-headquartered company was contracted by John Sisk and FCC to design and manufacture the façade of the Central Quad off-site, and to install 611 brick-faced and ribbed, reconstructed stone panels spanning 9,439 m2.
Central Quad is a multi-purpose university facility at the heart of the new Grangegorman campus in Dublin. The facility accommodates 10 schools from the College of Sciences & Health, College of Engineering & Built Environment, College of Arts & Tourism, alongside General Learning, Distributed Learning Commons, Staff Accommodation and Building Support.
The Irish Construction Excellence (ICE) Awards are the original and premier recognition of performance excellence for the contracting sector in Ireland, and provide an opportunity for the industry to showcase and reward best practice across the full range of construction disciplines and project categories.
“We are delighted to be nominated for an Irish Construction Excellence Award. It’s an achievement in itself to be shortlisted given the tough competition we’re up against,” says Techrete Preconstruction Manager Darren Brown.
“We were very pleased with how the project turned out and, more importantly, so was the client, TUD. Central Quad is so crisp and a wonderful advertisement for architectural precast and modern methods of construction. There was a great collaboration between ourselves, the main contractor, Sisk, FCC, and the architect, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.
“It was a real team effort.”
Design began on the project in October 2017 and manufacturing took place between August 2018 and May 2019. Installation commenced in May 2019 and was fully completed just months later in August 2019. Four-hundred-and-ten panels were fitted with punch windows at Techrete’s facility in Balbriggan, approximately 50% of which were brick-facing, with the remaining 50% of window panels consisting of reconstructed stone with a ribbed finish.
Two-hundred-and-one brick-facing and reconstructed stone panels included flat wall panels and mullions. At ground floor, sculpted, three-sided mullions surround and encase structural columns, creating a solid, sturdy base for the elevation above.
The façade of the building is ordered in three distinct parts – base, middle and crown. The versatility of the precast concrete enables this arrangement to be expressed without deviating from the material and textual quality of the architectural language.
The middle of the building is composed of a regular grid of slender precast picture frames. Within these sit an alternating fenestration pattern providing visual variation and dynamism. The crown of the façade is formed from the top two floors of the building. Precast panels here are twice as deep, creating generous window reveals which cast dramatic shadows and add depth to the grain of the building.
Precast panels on the outer perimeter of the quad are infilled with sand-faced brick. The textured irregular buff brickwork introduces a human scale and visual warmth to the striking urban form. In contrast, the panels which face the courtyard have a fluted concrete infill, formed with an intricate mould pattern in a darker, more granulated reconstituted stone. This responds to the formal collegiate nature of the main landscape space whilst the verticality of the pattern picks up on the stature of the double height colonnade.
A combination of steel moulds and rubber mats were used to form the panels. Bespoke rubber moulds were used to achieve the ribbing effect on two elevations. On those elevations there were two mixes within the panels – a white reconstructed stone and a grey granite-based reconstructed stone mix. Both mixes were treated with an acid etched finish to lightly expose the aggregates.
Two further elevations present a combination of light acid etched, white reconstructed stone and an inlay of Mystique buff brick, half of which also incorporated punch windows, fitted off-site at Techrete’s factory.
The choice of precast concrete enabled a short construction programme. The panels were installed and the building weather-tight within a matter of months. The regularity of the built form created potential for the façade to be dismantled and reused in the circular economy when it comes to the end of its design life.
Techrete’s reconstructed stone panels are 20% less carbon intensive than the current standard panel as outlined in its third-party verified EPD (Environmental Product Declaration). The Central Quad has therefore benefitted from a more sustainable and low carbon façade than would have been achieved with any other architectural precast concrete cladding on the market today.
The enhanced sustainability of this façade has been enabled through several years of planning in Techrete for low environmental impact. Installations of photovoltaic arrays, the use of reinforcement made from 100% recycled steel and the stringent limits on the amount of cement Techrete use in all its mixes, are but a few of their sustainability lead planning initiatives. Techrete have a strategy in place to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
As part of a collaborative effort with the Central Quad design team, the panels were designed for multiple uses. This repetition minimised the number of timber moulds required to cast all 611 panels.
The smooth and timely installation of Techrete’s precast panels to the structure was key in terms of the overall success of a project. Served by two gantry cranes, Techrete’s 14,000m2 storage yard in Balbriggan stored the panels until they were programmed to be transported to site for installation by its dedicated site teams.
The reinforced concrete frame was divided into three segments, and Techrete was programmed to phase out its works over the three blocks, while the main frame progressed ahead of it.
At times, the installation teams caught up with the RC frame ahead of programme, prompting Techrete to change its erection course. This flexibility allowed the contractor to capitalise on these gains to benefit the programme even further.
Techrete’s key challenge onsite was the five protected trees that are dotted around the site, some in close proximity to the building, including an immense Copper Beech tree, which is situated in the tight courtyard.
To ensure the trees were protected and timings weren’t affected, a 3D Tekla model with the exact location of the trees was created and a boundary around each tree was outlined to protect them and their vast root systems. To manage logistics and facilitate the installation of the façade around the tree boundaries, a crawler crane was deployed to work underneath the two tower cranes.
Techrete is one of the largest architectural precast cladding companies in Ireland and the UK, employing 350 staff between its Balbriggan HQ and factory / office in Brigg, North Lincolnshire and office in Leicester. Key personnel include Managing Director Mark O’Dea and Chairman Marcus Sweeney. The company has been associated with many high-profile projects over the years, including the V&A Dundee Museum, the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and the ESB HQ in Dublin.
Recently, it was among the winners at the 2022 Irish Concrete Society Awards which celebrate technical excellence in concrete design and execution. Techrete was successful in the ‘International’ category for its work on the Paul Marshall Building at the London School of Economics. Techrete was engaged in the design, manufacture and installation of 1,170 precast concrete panels, which covered 12,124 m2 of the façade of this iconic project.
Techrete is known for its quality and consistency on the most complex of projects, and Grangegorman Central Quad was no exception. The company is ISO 9001 and IS EN 206 certified for its Quality Management System and Quality and Consistency of Concrete Production in addition to three further ISO standards for Health and Safety, Environmental Management and Energy Management.
Techrete (Head Office)
Stephenstown Industrial Park,
Balbriggan,
Co. Dublin,
K32 W665
Telephone: +353 1 690 1700
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.techrete.com
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September 2022, Vol 8 No 9
