Article source: v2com 

The project – a Maritime Energy Research and National Ocean Testing Facility – located beside the Lower Harbour in Cork, Ireland, involves a tall element housing research spaces and a lower tank hall containing testing facilities. Conceived as a stone outcrop on the edge of the water, subject to the action of wind and sea, the plan form is driven by the size and relationship of the four testing tanks, used alternately still or agitated with paddle mechanisms and profiled floorplates to simulate wave action, coastal erosion, ocean floor modelling.

Image Courtesy © Christian Richters

• Architects: McCullough Mulvin Architects
• Project: Beaufort Maritime and Energy Research Laboratory
• Location: Lower Harbour, Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland
• Photography: Christian Richters, Ros Kavanagh, Magnaparte
• Collaborators: JJ Rhattigan & Co. – Main Contractor
• Project manager: Valerie Mulvin
• Client: University College Cork
• Budget: €11.2 million
• Area: 5,350 sqm
• Project end date: June 2015

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