The Naughton Institute is a joint venture of Trinity College Dublin (founded 1505) and the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) aimed at accommodating investigators with a low vibration, highly-flexible facility.

The building houses dry laboratories and offices for 10 principal investigators and additional collaborators, as well as a clean room, lecture halls and a science-focused visual arts gallery. A specially-designed basement contains 15 low vibration laboratories. The site is the last parcel left near the original campus and near the scientific community of Trinity College Dublin.

The special basement structure of the Naughton Institute is critical to the low-vibration standards of the facility. There are overhead commuter trains to the south and heavy truck traffic to the north, both contributing EMI and vibration to the site. As the building sits on boulder clay – ‘Dublin’ means ‘dark mud’ – the 1 m thick mat foundation provides one level of isolation, and 1.2 m diameter sleeved piles with direct bearing on bedrock and plinths on pneumatic springs provide additional isolation at selected instruments.

The basement is organized into noisy corridors serving a series of isolated low-vibration labs. The noisy corridors are home to pumps, chillers and dedicated AHU’s. The low vibration labs have a double wall design, with access flooring and fabric ceiling. An active EMI cancellation system was used to offset the field of the passing train. The 2,800 SF cleanroom is located on the top floor with air handling units on the floor above for easy maintenance while levels 2, 3 and 4 have dry labs and offices for 10 principal investigators.