“…this project represented the largest single UK investment in scientific research for many years…”

Rutherford Appleton Laboratories at Harwell required a new building to house their third generation Diamond Light Source Synchrotron, which creates radiation by accelerating electrons to a speed approaching the speed of light, and then keeps them orbiting in a vacuum tube.

Particular wavelengths of interest for an experiment are filtered out and passed down a beamline, before spreading out from the synchrotron like a Catherine wheel firework in an area known as the Experimental Hall. The foundations required a 500kg floor load to cause no more than 1 micron of deflection at 2 metres distance; no more than 10 microns movement over a 10 metre base length in 24 hours; and longer term limits on movement over the same distance of between 100 and 250 microns per year depending upon location.

Operation of the Synchrotron requires accuracies well beyond those normally experienced in construction, leading to exceptionally tight design and operational constraints on foundation deflection, building movement and vibration. Satisfying these presented a considerable challenge to the design team, especially as it was necessary to interact with non-specialists to explain how certain criteria simply were not feasible. Numerical modelling and full scale trials on site were used to produce scientific evidence to underpin the design. Through liaison with the client, suitable compromises were reached. In this way a highly complex brief was transformed into an attractive, fully functioning and highly satisfactory end result.

“…a functional building, which despite its size and the complex facilities requirements, was completed ahead of time…”

The Asia Airfreight Terminal (AAT) Expansion, Terminal 2 (known as T2), was designed as a multi-level cargo terminal, located in the reclamation area of the southern part of the Hong Kong International Airport.

Terminal 2 comprises a13-level pallet container handling system and a 17-level automated storage and retrieval system, with overall dimensions of 165m x 17m x 45m high and 90m x 21m x 30m high respectively. Housing the material handling system was the key requirement, necessitating basic, easy to construct buildings suitable for the rapid instillation of equipment as building work proceeds. Reinforced concrete framing providing 15m x 21m bays was adopted with a 20 month construction period. The use of 174 bored piles of different capacities keyed into the varying bearing capacity over the site accelerated the foundation works. The result is a functional building, which despite its size and the complex facilities requirements, was completed ahead of time and within budget.

“…although driven principally by functional requirements, the resulting complex shows how the limitations of a restricted site, tight programme and cost constraint can be reconciled with solutions that add interest to the industrial landscape…”

The British Gypsum site at East Leake has been a busy operational site for over 100 years. The new Bag Plaster Plant comprises four principal elements of structure: The Mill Building, The Homogeniser, Conveyor Gantries and the Warehouse extension. As the Mill and Homogeniser were constructed over an older area of gypsum mine, previously worked using Pillar and Stall methods, voids in an unworked gypsum seam presented major foundation design challenges. The 60m x 30m x 35m high Mill Building houses both heavy process equipment and sensitive load cells and control equipment. The Homogeniser, with its eye catching octagonal dome, provides an economic solution to the provision of an essentially circular structure.

Although driven principally by functional requirements, the resulting complex shows how the limitations of a restricted site, tight programme and cost constraint can be reconciled with solutions that add interest to the industrial landscape.