B&W delivers MEP design for autistic school

Al Karamah School will be the first institution dedicated solely to serving local pupils with autism in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

The school has been designed to provide an engaging learning environment, while ensuring pupils feel safe and secure. This includes special classroom ‘hubs’, a multi-purpose hall and dining room, and a large oasis-style garden.

Black & White were appointed to provide employer’s requirements and technical advisory services for the MEP services.

The existing school housed a range of MEP systems, that in some areas had been there since day one of the original building. The school was inherited with operational power, but all other MEP systems appeared to have been decommissioned.

In order to meet the client’s requirements of a fit for purpose and fully compliant school, within the constraints of a tight programme, we were collaboratively able to come up with innovative and proactive engineering solutions to rectify the MEP systems and deliver the project on time and within the client’s budget.

Dan Williams, our Project Leader comments: ‘One of the main challenges we faced, was authority compliance. Given that the existing school was over 20 years old, many of the MEP systems were non-compliant with local authorities. We were able to overcome this obstacle and engineer a fully functioning, compliant school.’

The project was a fast track project, meaning that design and installation often had to overlap. The team were able to ensure that the engineering was right first time, which ensured a smooth delivery.

The school officially opened on Wednesday 6th February 2019.