EMC Ireland/ Dell Data Centre and Offices Masterplan
EMC Ireland employ over 4,000 people in various locations of Cork City and County. They recognised the need for additional office space at their Ovens Campus to relocate a minimum of 1,200 existing and future staff currently located in off campus accommodation back to the main campus at Ovens. A large Data Centre Facility was also required to accommodate future business opportunities was also required.
Context and Collaboration
Scott Tallon Walker Architects were appointed by EMC in September 2014 to provide masterplanning and architectural design services to meet a fast-track project programme matching their business needs, prior to a merger with Dell. STW responded to the challenge, joined the existing multi-disciplinary project team from ARUP, and lead the client and neighbour workshops, masterplan strategy and a subsequently successful planning application and EIS within the 3-month deadline set at appointment stage. Following an appeal, the project received full planning permission in May 2015.
Campus Expansion
The entire EMC site at Ovens covers an area of approximately 17.5 hectares. The brief was to design a campus expansion to the east of their existing facility on a plot of 5 hectares for a new 18,000 sq m European HQ, an 8 MW Modular, 1,600m2 Data Centre with a client sales area, associated multi-storey carparking, all set within high quality landscaping. The proposed campus expansion is exemplar in design and reflects the high standards of technology that the company represents.
The Project Solution
The solution includes construction of a campus expansion on the site to meet with the projected office and Data Centre requirements of EMC. All buildings are technically orientated with offices of the future and a modular data centre to accommodate EMC’s future needs, with high specification and a sustainable design that are appealing for future employees. By fitting the site master plan into the overall EMC Ovens site, linkages are solved, and the movement of end-users through the site and buildings is optimised through the existing building to the new buildings.
The Data Centre
The Data Centre has separate site security. The building has been designed with low energy consumption and energy efficiency a key priority. The building’s white space capacity is maximised within available site power constraints, with standard requirements of a tier rating (Uptime Institute Reliability) of III with power at tier IV, subject to site constraints. An administration building will cater for client reception, security entrance, administration staff and loading bay. The Data Centre is to be modular and capable of a phased construction, with engineering solutions for the building expressed architecturally with a clear and comprehensive solution.
The Office Building
The office building has been designed to accommodate a minimum of 1,440 staff, capable of construction in two phases – Phase 1 for 1,200 staff and Phase 2 for a further 240 staff. The office building is to be designed for LEED Gold standard, and is flexible for possible change in spatial planning requirements. Linkage is to be provided between the existing CB1 building and the proposed new office building.
The building accommodates speciality areas such as executive suites, training rooms, restaurant, wellness centre, security centre as well as standard meeting room and welfare facilities for staff. Parking spaces are provided for 2,000 additional car parking and bicycle parking within multi-storey solutions. Wide span structural bays are adopted, and the design facilitates fast track construction once the decision to proceed is given
