The National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester won the BIM Project Application Award for a building at the British Construction Industry Awards last night.
Built by BAM Construct, with Balfour Beatty acting as the mechanical and electrical contractor, the intensively serviced 7,600 sq m building contains laboratories, offices and seminar rooms for 200 researchers, and two highly controlled clean rooms.
Speaking to BIM+, Tony Grindrod, construction director at BAM Construct, said: “The exceptional quality of the Institute is a credit to the team that designed and built it. The potential for graphene’s impact on our everyday lives is immense and at BAM we are delighted to have led the construction of a state-of-the-art centre where cutting-edge research will take place here in Manchester.”
The Graphene Institute was up against a shortlist that contained David Miller Architects for its work on Mayfield School, Skanska’s South Essex College Thurrock Campus, IBSECAD and contractor ISG’s implementation of BIM for the fit-out phase of the 5 Broadgate building for UBS, and the Etihad Stadium south stand expansion by FK Group.
A fully federated model helped in the task of fitting a huge amount of plant and pipework into a relatively small building
At the Graphene Institute, a fully federated model helped in the task of fitting a huge amount of plant and pipework into a relatively small building. The detailed BIM model allowed the team to maximise the usable research space in the building and cope with the complexity of multiple gas flows, extraction systems and ventilations units.
Designed by architect Jestico + Whiles, with consulting engineer Ramboll working as the acoustic, fire, environmental, civil and structural engineer and CH2M Hill as services engineer, the building was also named as the Major Building Project of the Year (over £50m), in a successful night for the team.
Julian Dickens, associate director at Jestico + Whiles, told BIM+: “Great architecture needs great clients and on the National Graphene Institute we were lucky enough to work with a truly inspiring client in Sir Kostya Novoselov and his team.
“This award is testament to the innovative and collaborative approach taken by Jestico + Whiles, BAM, Balfour Beatty, CH2M Hill, Ramboll, EC Harris and the University of Manchester.”
Last year the award was won by Skanska for its work on 66 Queen Square in Bristol.
Crossrail was also a winner on the night taking home the BIM Project Application Award for a civil engineering project. It triumphed in a shortlist made up of Grimshaw’s Heathrow Terminal 2 Concourse B – T2B; Mott MacDonald for the Northern Hub and Electrification Alliance Phase 4; Aecom for the A5 – M1 Link aka the Dunstable Northern Bypass; BAM Nuttall’s RNLI St Davids Lifeboat Station; Rhead Group’s BIM Bank, a sector wide common data environment for the transmission supply chain; and Costain’s A556 BIM trailblazer project.
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National Graphene Institute technical study
The exceptional quality of the Institute is a credit to the team that designed and built it. We are delighted to have led the construction of a state-of-the-art centre where cutting-edge research will take place here in Manchester.– Tony Grindrod, BAM Construct
