Techrete move Irish operations to new site in Balbriggan

Techrete have recently completed their move to their new state-of-the-art production facility and head office on a 15 acre site in Balbriggan, North County Dublin. The company have invested €20m in the new development.

The new production and office facility uses many innovative precast concepts leading to a complex of buildings that visually create a benchmark for industrial buildings and were built with remarkable speed and to budget.

The emphasis throughout has been to create a high quality building but at reasonable cost using the principles of repetition and simplicity of detail and construction.

The new 10,000m² factory has been constructed using a precast concrete frame, clad with industrial precast sandwich panels in contrasting colours of grey and white, with an exposed aggregate finish. The architects studied several buildings in Europe to design a cladding system with panel proportions that were economical and visually attractive using two contrasting colours. The simplicity of the sandwich panels meant that erection rates were as high as 250m² per day and the panels provide an envelope that is highly insulated, robust to impact, fire resistant and has excellent sound attenuation.

Other features in the building include the recycling of grey water from the roof and hard standing areas, recycling of all waste concrete and an effluent treatment plant to control the PH and solid contents of all effluent.

The office building and canteen are fully precast buildings with a highly polished concrete surface to the outside.

The architect introduced a number of simple fins to the outer face of the office block which exploit the inherent strength of the wall panels and make for interesting work spaces internally as well as creating an attractive appearance to the new Balbriggan Ring Road.

Of particular interest are the floor units of the office which were cast with embedded coils to provide heating and cooling for the building. The power source is Geothermal and by using high quality finishes the internal elements are exposed as self finished elements not requiring any internal lining or false ceiling. The precast structure and floors were designed without the requirement for a structural screed and all external walls are load-bearing sandwich panels.

The construction of the 1,000m² office commenced in March 2008 and the office was occupied at the end of September 2008.