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The new building for the Institutes of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Münster (OCBC) is a seven-floor rectangular, block-shaped building on which some 65% of the available area will be used for laboratories. The building was designed by Arup in collaboration with the architect Andreas Heupel and developed together with the Westphalian Wilhelms University (WWU).
Due to the required technical features and the large amount of specialist equipment needed, a traditional slab-beam construction was not suitable for this laboratory complex. Against this background, we designed a reinforced concrete flat slab construction, with a structure founded on a ground-bearing raft. As it was not possible to incorporate a basement level for some parts of the building because of the degree of spatial efficiency required, we compensated the resulting different foundation levels by founding these parts of the building on piles.
Alongside the traditional design services for structural engineering, building physics and acoustic design, we also carried out the energy saving certification for the building in accordance with EnEV 2009, the German Energy Saving Ordinance. The new building will in fact surpass the requirements by 30 per cent.
