Project development and documentation for the Laboratory Building for the University of Moreno (UNM), in the province of Buenos Aires. This building is located in the UNM Campus. The laboratory responds to the needs of the expected future growth of the University. This building contains the sub programmes of teaching laboratories, investigation laboratories, common spaces and exterior areas.
Since the construction of this building will take place on an advanced stage of the Master Plan, the project has to take into account the site conditions that have already been set for the UNM Campus: the infrastructure system and the ground floor base level of 1,31m high that it would share with an already constructed Classroom building.
The building works through a central lineal circulation that goes across the width of the floorplan. The useful program is located in both sides of the circulation. This circulatory setting responds to the local requirements and norm limitations of the emergency systems for laboratory buildings, considering two emergency exits per level.
The building is divided in tree levels of 500m² each, and the roof level where the air conditioning equipment will be located. In the ground floor, we have located the entrance of the building and the classrooms (teaching laboratories) since these are the areas that will host a larger amount of people and where there will be a greater circulatory flux. In the first and second floor, we have located the several investigation laboratories. Corresponding to the first floor there are the general and environmental chemistry, chromatography, spectroscopy and agro-electronics laboratories; and corresponding to the second floor there are the molecular and genomics biology, cellular culture, virology and immunology, non-viral microbiology and biomedicine laboratories. In these two levels, we have also located the drug and material storage area, laundry rooms, deposits and office areas.
Since several areas of the laboratory programme require a fire resistance of FR-90 or FR-180, we have chosen to build solid brick walls, which is an incombustible material. The outer walls will be built on terracotta blocks of 18x18x33cm.
Taking into account the considerable dimensions and weights of both the special lab equipment (located in the first and second floor) and the air conditioning equipment (located in the roof), we have chosen a reinforced concrete structure.