Establishing large industry buildings worldwide

12.05.2023

Companies experience a growing need for establishing industrial facilities across geographies to keep pace with the rapidly evolving market demands and to keep growing their business. But what is the best approach to developing large industrial buildings considering the increasing market complexity, new environmental building regulations and macroeconomic trends influencing how we design and certify our large buildings today?

An increased need for regional presence, the rise of e-commerce and a collateral need for more warehouses, increasing demand for data storage due to growing digitalisation and industrial buildings trending greener are just a few of the changes that create opportunities for companies looking to expand their industrial building portfolio. But the fast-developing market also requires building owners, investors and developers to address the growing number of influential factors related to their projects. 

Getting it right by understanding all perspectives

The stakeholders are many, and so are the technical questions when you consider building a production or industrial facility. 

How do I get the required permit from local authorities and utilities? How do I avoid expensive delays in the building process and during commissioning? What are the optimal site location and ecological mitigation measures? How do I ensure alignment with our corporate requirements? And how do I minimise and document the building’s environmental footprint both during construction and operation?

In COWI, we are currently helping our customers establish production facilities in Europe, North and South America and Asia. And we can safely say that no two projects are identical. Hence, the answers will depend on your specific project and context. So naturally, that is where we begin – with you.

From idea to project completion

To understand all perspectives, we follow our customers on their entire journey from idea to project completion, and we strive to be a long-term partner for sustainable growth. That means knowing our customers’ values, visions and challenges in each of their projects and being able to combine this knowledge with our vast experience to create the best solutions together. It also means being able to integrate customer demands for building designs and ensuring that these demands are met in all other aspects of the project. 

“By building long-term partnerships with our customers and through our many years of experience, we aim at delivering a solid and uniform design, constructed with high-quality standards for every new production facility built, regardless of the geographical location of the project. This proficiency in the field allows for tailored solutions that cater to our customers’ specific needs, ensuring consistency and reliability in the construction process,” says Nicolai Linde, Vice President of Industry and Data Centres at COWI.

Making it easy for the customer

Projects for industrial buildings span different areas and industries, such as pharma facilities, data hosting centres, manufacturing facilities and warehouses. In COWI, we offer a full range of services in all engineering disciplines for complex industrial projects integrated with architectural design works.

From working with our customers each step of the way in realising their strategic projects all over the world – from the LEGO Group factories in Vietnam and North America to the world’s most sustainable data centre located in Norway – we know the value of a smooth and seamless collaboration.

“To bring value as consultants, we need to make it easy for our customers to work with us. In addition to investing in being close to the customers and understanding their mindset, we offer an agile set-up with one point of entry across architects and engineers, and we partner up with local providers and consultants who possess the necessary in-depth knowledge about local requirements,” says Uffe Jensen, Senior Project Director in Industry and Data Centres at COWI.

At the forefront of sustainability and digitalisation

Being a trusted partner for our customers also means coming up with new, innovative solutions. Bringing our competencies in the digitalisation of design processes into play is one part of this story. Our commitment to sustainability is another. It resonates well with our customers, who are on the same journey. 

“We experience a strong demand from our customers for solid, long-term sustainable technical solutions. That requires co-creating with our customers, as we need to think of new types of solutions and partnerships across sectors, for example, by using excess heat from production facilities for district heating. It is not only about meeting requirements. It is about going the extra mile to contribute to a sustainable development,” Nicolai Linde concludes.