TecNano is a proposed new academic building that combines a variety of lab spaces containing co-working environments. The intent is to support a highly interactive and collaborative research experience within the biotech lab building.

Tecnológico de Monterrey is a multi-campus private university in Monterrey, Mexico. The university has grown to 36 campuses throughout Mexico, with the Monterrey campus serving as its flagship institution.

HH Angus was engaged to provide ICAT (information, communications and automation technology) design services for a proposed new building, the TecNano Academic Building. The IT design scope included a main data centre with a subsidiary data centre dedicated to Multiomics. The IT design was based on a stacked central riser, with main and redundant facility entrances from the street and from the rear, connecting to the campus backbone.  Wi-Fi would be available throughout the building, with lab benches and overhead carriers providing wired data connections.

The building design required an innovative solution to locating the IT backbone. We designed a riser in the exterior channel up the north side of the building to facilitate the open-air atrium as well as a stacked riser.

The security scope included access control, CCTV, duress alarms, and a central guard station with CCTV monitoring. The facility was designed with medium to high security measures, and featured dual factor credentials for specific lab entrances. There was one clean room with anteroom, and several isolation and pressurized anteroom labs, all requiring interlock and high-speed overhead doors.

Physical security also presented challenges. Intended to be welcoming, safe and secure, the facility was designed to be open to the campus on the North side and to act as a gateway to the campus from the street on the South side. We provided glass high-speed entrance portals for entrance circulation. The solution also had to function well in Monterrey’s extreme environment. Working with the architect, we provided a safe, secure, and high-speed portal that would be protected from the elements by the atrium ceiling high overhead.

The AV systems included a public auditorium with distance learning and lecture capture, video conferencing-enabled faculty boardroom, as well as AV-enabled student meeting, study, and huddle spaces. Digital signage in IP-65 enclosures provided wayfinding at the entrance for the facility and campus

The TecNano Academic Building laboratory types included:

Nanophotonics

Molecular Simulation

Metallomics

Advanced Optical Microscopy

Nanostructure Synthesis

Micro and Nanofabrication

Multiscale Manufacturing

Materials Characterization

Synthetic Biology

High Throughput Bioprocesses

Microrobotics

Tissue Engineering and Bioprinting.