Clients
Cork School of Music
- Project - Cork School of Music
- Main Contractor - John Sisk & Son
- Architect - Murray O'Laoire Architect
- Sub-Contract Value - €350,000
Project Outline
Cork School of Music is the first educational PPP project in Ireland. With a build cost of approximately €60million the facility will cater for 400 full time and 2000 part time students over 5 floors. The building consists of specialist tuition areas, rehearsal halls, live recording studios, drama suites and lecture rooms. One of the key factors within the design remit was the control of sound throughout the building and careful attention was given to selecting the correct building materials to provide this necessary requirement.
Scope of Works
Powershield designed, supplied and installed Powershield Acoustic doorsets throughout the building including the tuition rooms, rehearsal halls, recording studios, drama suites and lecture rooms. The doors were designed and tested to provide sound reduction of 45dB.
The Works
All doors were designed by Senior Draughtsman Peter Hourican in association with the University of Ulster. Oliver Hetherington, Consultant in Acoustics for UUJ, has been instrumental in the development of design and testing of the Powershield Acoustic range. For this project the attention to the acoustic properties had to run in tandem with the aesthetic qualities of the door and frame, particularly since doors were being installed in main public access areas. The first door supplied and installed was tested by the University of Ulster prior to despatch to site to ensure that the acoustic performance was going to be achieved. After fitting on site it was again independently tested by the client together with all the other building components in the tuition room. The complete room structure was deemed a success.
Powershield continued manufacture of all the doors and frames using both automated equipment and highly skilled fabrication labour. The doors were then aesthetically finished with a polyester powder coating to a colour selected by the architect. Finally, all hardware was installed in the factory to ensure a completed product arrived on site for installation.
Perfect installation is essential for acoustic doors since the slightest gap can significantly reduce the performance of the door. A 5mm gap, for example, at the bottom of the door can result in a door capable of reducing sound transmission by 45dB being reduced to a reduction of 25dB. Our directly employed site labour have considerable experience in the correct fitting of Powershield products and this accuracy and attention to detail was employed during the fitting of door in Cork.
