Ridge designed the facility to be built underground and engineered a landscape scheme to minimise the impact on the environment. 14,000m³ of soil was excavated and redistributed on site, designed and planned to spare the local villages the traffic of an estimated 1,700 loads of 8-wheel HGV’s.
The subterranean building is a very simple structure and makes use of a matière pre-cast arch structure, used for tunnels and bridges.
Ridge worked with the manufacturer and successfully adapted the structure to provide the main envelope for the building. The solution won a Concrete Society award for Innovation.
