Hubben
In February 2018, Uppsala Science Park’s new creative meeting space – Hubben – was inaugurated. Together with other contractors, Assemblin is able to confirm that the high demands have been met and that the project has been nominated for Sweden’s Building of the Year 2018.
In addition to office space, the 17,000 m2 building houses advanced laboratories. Assemblin has, among other things, installed the lighting, power, entry systems, alarm systems and fire alarms for Hubben.
Johan Hellman, project manager at Assemblin El in Västerås, is clearly pleased with Assemblin’s own efforts and the excellent cooperation with the other players:
“It’s been fun to coordinate all the installations into a successful whole to create a very successful building. In technical terms, the challenge has been to keep all the systems together. The developer made demands based on a functional mindset, and that too has been stimulating.”
Digitally oriented installations
Hubben is an example of how installations in Swedish office buildings are becoming ever more sophisticated. The developer, Vasakronan, chose to prepare the installations to cope with the transition to fully digital communication and control.
Almost all the lighting is already coordinated in a single control system. That allows for both local control and control for the entire property by means of various scenarios. An extensive sun protection system and alarm management are automatically controlled via KNX. And a separate PLC system handles alarms covering Region Uppsala’s operations and laboratories.
Hubben houses a very large data installation, for which Assemblin has laid 300,000 metres of cable and mounted 7,000 sockets. All tenants are supplied with cables with the high classification of category 7.
Ten-metre-long switchgear
Hubben has a very large switchgear, ten metres long, with a separate section for Region Uppsala. The region required its own back-up power so that the freezers that contain sensitive laboratory samples are never left without power. The biggest challenge for the electrical installers from Assemblin was the location of the extensive switchgear.
“The switchgear room is located in a basement. It was a considerable challenge to get the large installation down there in one piece,” says Johan Hellman.
Cooling system and laboratory solutions
Assemblin also played an important role in ensuring the operation of the switchgear.
“We’re responsible for the cooling system in the switchgear and server rooms. If those rooms get too hot, important functions can be knocked out,” says Tore Styrman, Branch Manager Stockholm at Assemblin VS.
Assemblin has also developed a gas and clean water facility for the laboratory – central installations to safeguard the laboratory’s operations.
Nominated for Building of the Year
The atrium was Assemblin’s major challenge in the project. The architect was very keen that it should project just the right image and that no installations should be visible in the open spaces in the centre of the building.
“If you visit Uppsala Science Park, make sure you visit Hubben’s atrium! It’s really cool and we’ve put in a lot of time to get it right,” says Kjell Karlsson from Byggstyrning in Uppsala, who has been the design manager for Hubben.
He is delighted that the project was such a success that it was nominated for Sweden’s Building of the Year 2018:
“We’ve had an incredibly good production phase and a good workplace atmosphere. The coordination between contractors and designers has been a huge success. Our client Vasakronan works with a model that illustrates the nature of the workplace climate – and we’ve received great marks!”
