Mountbatten Complex, University of Southampton

The original Mountbatten Clean Rooms were destroyed by fire in November 2005. This, however, gave the University of Southampton the opportunity to build a ‘world leading research facility’ designed to meet its needs and aspirations for the next 10 years. The new building has clean rooms and technical laboratories, which are highly vibration sensitive, together with offices and support spaces. Its aesthetics reflect the technical nature of its use and the aspiration to create a world leading facility, while it is also one of the gateway buildings to the Highfield Campus.

The project’s success has been recognized with the RIBA South regional award for 2009.

The vibration sensitive nature of the equipment used in the building and the significant weight of service plant at various levels suggested a concrete frame as a good way of getting mass, and hence damping, into the structure and of carrying the plant loads. A concrete flat slab design also proved beneficial for the vast number of services running on the underside of the laboratories and the numerous penetrations for both services and natural ventilation.

This flat slab approach also provided good speed of erection and a reduced floor height over other forms of concrete frame. Alternative construction forms considered were TermoDeck and a Thermocast steel frame with composite floors and recast double tees. Much of the concrete frame is also exposed and acts as a passive heat exchanger. Due to the large amount of exposed concrete, high quality finishes were an important part of negotiations with the concrete frame contractor.

Gifford’s engineering analysis team carried out a great deal of theoretical modelling to estimate the vibration characteristics of the new building and were also involved with elastic analysis of some of the highly stressed concrete areas, such as the feature stair in the atrium and the cantilevered office.

•  Structural engineering
•  Vibration analysis
•  Geotechnical and environmental engineering
•  CDM co-ordinator
•  Survey and demolition advice on fire damaged property
•  Public health drainage

RIBA Award (southern region).