The project is the fourth stage of development of Royal Canal Park district in Dublin. The assumption of the design is to raise multi-use housing estate, which contains five blocks with total number of 435 apartments. The estate will provide about 4200 m² of retail space and recreational area. Besides mentioned, residents will also be provided with such places as pharmacy, health clinic, gym, public squares, office spaces and 255 parking spots.

Our team was responsible for preparation of detailed design and workshop project of five mentioned apartment blocks. The highest blocks – block A and block D – have 12 floors, the lowest ones – block E and block C have 6 floors, whilst block B consists of 7 floors. All of the blocks are specified with an unique plan structure and differ in their arrangement of the storeys. Blocks A, E and D have been arranged with green terraces on intermediate levels, whereas on blocks C and B the roofs of those buildings were used for terraces.

In each of the blocks the combination of reinforced concrete and precast construction was used. In all of the buildings, ground floor was designed of in-situ concrete and all of the following levels were precast construction. Only blocks D and block A were exceptional, where there is reinforced concrete structure designed up to third level, due to location of gym, office space and health clinic. The precast structure is comprised of a column-beam frame in the line of the facades and solid interior panels. In addition, in block A and block D a cantilever precast balconies were designed. The balconies were jointed to the building structure using a special connection system to minimalize thermal bridge and to  meet fire resistance conditions. Peripheral beams on the slabs level support the facade and also stand as a support element for cantilever steel balconies. To fulfill this connection, the special connectors delivered by the balconies manufacturer were cast in the precast elements. The connectors were quite challenging in production aspect, as well as for construction site team, due to very specific accuracy requirements and assembly tolerance.

Due to the size of a project and its complexity, a whole design was run using BIM technology. The interprofessional cooperation was carried out with the usage of Asite platform and CDE software such as Trimble Connect and BIM Collab. It was crucial to resolve any errors in the 3D model by ongoing coordination to prevent any collisions and problems which could have been met on construction site.

The level of design complexity was also raised in accordance with the fact of staircores not being covered with any finishing material. As a consequence, the investor requested a high quality surface finish of any visible concrete element, and also that any connector would not be visible.

The entire project was a challenge for all of the professions that took part in the design, what was caused of the size of the project and the number of elements involved. Our team not only had to confront a difficult work in model and drawings, but also provide an effortful coordination work. The project was very demanding not only for our design office, but also for production company and assembly team.

In total, for this project we have prepared:

• 1910 precast walls
• 932 precast columns
• 930 precast beams
• 3160 slabs, consisting hollowcores, prestressed slabs and reinforced slabs
• 190 precast stair flights

This project is also our candidate for Tekla BIM Awards 2022.