EMPA Research Campus, Dübendorf

The expansion of the Empa research campus in Dübendorf comprises a laboratory building, a multifunctional building, and a parking garage. The laboratory building, with a floor plan of approximately 33.5 m × 51.5 m, has four full floors, one basement level, and a technical superstructure. The structural system is designed as a solid construction with cast-in-place concrete walls, flat slabs, and prefabricated high-performance concrete columns. The dimensioning of the floor slabs was governed by very stringent structural dynamics requirements to enable laboratory experiments to be conducted without disruptive influences. The foundation is executed as a combined pile-raft foundation.

The multifunctional building, with a floor plan of approximately 20.0 × 44.5 m, and the parking garage, with a floor plan of approximately 43.0 × 79.5 m, also comprise several floors. The shared basement level of both buildings and the upper floors of the multifunctional building are constructed using solid construction methods. The primary structural system of the parking garage consists of prefabricated concrete columns and prefabricated concrete beams. The secondary structural system of the slabs comprises ribbed timber panels and a structurally integrated reinforced concrete topping. Both buildings are founded on a monolithic base slab using shallow foundations.