Gulf Construction Online - Aurecon to work on Sharjah library

UAE Focus

The ‘House of Wisdom’ ... unveiled in April.

Aurecon to work on Sharjah library

01 June 2019

Leading engineering and infrastructure advisory Aurecon said it has been awarded a contract by Sharjah to provide engineering services for an iconic library and culture centre within the emirate.

The ‘House of Wisdom’ was unveiled in April by HH Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, as part of the celebrations held to mark Sharjah’s status as the Unesco World Book Capital 2019.

The project, which is being developed by Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), has been designed by Fosters + Partners, an award-winning British architectural design and engineering firm.

The House of Wisdom is located on the Sharjah International Airport Road, 10 km from the city centre, and will feature more than 100,000 books.

Scheduled for a public opening in 2020, the two-storey building will be the newest addition to Sharjah’s numerous public facilities where books and knowledge can be openly accessed by people of all age groups and nationalities.

Aurecon said the House of Wisdom welcomes the community of Sharjah and the world into a space which is conceptualised as a social hub for learning, supported by innovation and technology. The design intent of the facility was to create a harmonious learning space through human centric approach. The building will feature a large ‘floating roof’, cantilevering on all sides over a transparent rectilinear volume.

In pursuit of this, the double-height transparent façade creates a grand space to bring the community together, welcoming in the natural beauty and daylight of the surrounding landscape into the library.

The ‘floating roof’ is supported by four cores, thus creating a large column-free floorplate for a diverse suite of comfortable spaces that the community will use for exhibitions such as the Sharjah International Book Fair, publishing fairs and children’s reading events, it added.

The MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) design was led by Matt Kennedy, Aurecon’s principal mechanical engineer Design Academy scholar.

On the upcoming project, Kennedy said: “Designing the building services engineering systems for the House of Wisdom required innovative ideas developed across disciplines and in close co-ordination with the architectural team.”

“For instance, to realise the vision of lightness with the large cantilevering floating roof on top of a fully-glazed façade, the building services plant were hidden from view in submerged rooftop plantrooms to maintain the clean lines of the roof design,” explained Kennedy.

Complementing the façade is the stunning cantilevered ‘floating roof’, which extends 15 m out over the façade to ensure the building is shaded during the peak of Sharjah’s day, while aluminium screens with differing densities filter the low evening sun, he stated.

“The roof provides a peaceful and conducive learning space within the library while minimising the building’s environmental footprint by reducing demand on the mechanical and electrical systems needed to keep the building cool,” he explained.

To bring this vision to life, Aurecon was engaged to provide engineering services for structural, MEP, geotechnical, utilities, transport planning, roads, facades, BMU (building management unit), vertical transportation, security, AV, ICT and communications, fire/life safety, waste management and acoustics.