Art House

The matchstick men of LS Lowry, pop art of David Hockney and abstract colour schemes of Bridget Riley will be central to a collection of over 1000 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures showcasing art and crafts from 1900 to the present. MIMA is also the centrepiece of regeneration plans for the town.

The construction and servicing of mima is a work of art in itself. The creation of the crisp, clean lines and blank canvas gallery spaces demanded by architect EEA has meant some intricate co-ordination behind the scenes.

Sculpting the services

Haden Young undertook the installation of m&e services to a design by consultant Buro Happold. When starting on site in February 2005 as planned, much of the build was completed. "This enabled us to get a fairly healthy start," stressed mechanical project engineer Steven Bell.

The m&e services slot seamlessly into the architecture; virtually invisible but flexible enough to cater for the variety of artwork to be displayed. "The architect was looking for clean lines throughout, so we have had to hide everything," confirms Haden Young project manager Stuart Baker. This was achieved through the use of "fat walls".

Used as the main distribution routes within the gallery areas, the "fat walls" consist of a full-height space around half a metre-deep sandwiched between the exhibition walls. "It's like a rabbit warren. Basically there are false walls with access doors so you can walk behind the gallery," Baker explains. "So in future if you want to add an individual light fitting for a painting, for example, you can go into the fat wall and wire everything from there."

In addition to distribution routes, the fat walls contain all the control gear local to areas, including the distribution boards and lighting dimming racks. This enables closer control of particular zones. To prevent any damage to services during hanging of artwork on the walls, detailed risk assessments and method statements have been included in the operations and maintenance manuals.

The spaces to be serviced in the three-storey building vary from the full-height main gallery to smaller gallery areas, education suites, an auditorium, cafe, art storage spaces and conservation studios. The type of servicing needed in each area also varies with the role of the space, hence although all are served from the three-storey plantroom hugging the rear of the building, individual systems are separate and not interchangeable.

Bell explains: "Essentially we've got six ahus serving six different systems. All of the exhibition spaces where the sculptures and paintings are going to be housed will be served by two ahus; there's a separate auditorium, which is served off one dedicated unit; then the back of house areas are picked up off another unit and admin areas are served off another system."

Close control of temperature and humidity is needed in the gallery areas to protect the artwork displayed. Services here had to be designed and installed with flexibility in mind as there are plans to change exhibitions four times a year. "We have to maintain a level of control whereby the client can change it on a seasonal basis or if they want to bring in sculptures made of clay one week, then the next week bring in papyrus, for example; obviously the conditions needed are going to be different so the services have got to be able to change and adapt."

The main gallery is serviced by an air displacement system supplied from under a wood sprung floor. Other areas such as the community art areas are more loosely controlled and the atrium benefits from natural ventilation via thermostatically controlled windows and louvres. The atrium and community art areas on the upper levels have underfloor heating throughout; again on individual systems. "Underfloor heating is not installed in the galleries because the response time is slower; the air system allows a much more responsive system, which is important in these areas," explains Bell.

Getting the required services to provide the control needed has meant detailed co-ordination and close working with others such as the ductwork contractor - ceiling void space available for the services, as ever, was tight. "The co-ordination has been to the millimetre required, so we've overcome quite a battle to shoehorn in the quantity of services that we've got," stresses Baker.

In the lower levels, holes were precut in the structural beams for service routes in the voids to Haden Young's instruction. In some upper levels, in particular the auditorium, this was not possible, making rather more detailed co-ordination necessary around the structural beams - a task complicated by the differing levels of beams. "Haden Young does have m&e responsibility, so at the end the day if we had a clash we resolved it," stresses Baker. Any queries were made in writing, but normally resolved verbally, explains Baker: "There are no gambles taken, however we've built this relationship where you can just go and ask the question."

Installation of the services was essentially from the ground floor upwards. "We worked our way up and did a clean sweep of the floors where we could. If there were problems that arose we moved onto the next system while these were resolved," explains Baker. Most work at ceiling level was carried out from cherry pickers. A goods lift allowed the transportation of a cherry picker for work on the upper floors.

"We based our m&e programme on the main contractor's programme initially, taking the essential bits from that programme to produce our own," he adds.

With handover scheduled in the next few weeks, the first paintings will soon be hanging from the galleries, bringing the final touches to Middlesbrough's latest work of art.