{"id":15800,"date":"2019-09-16T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T08:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/?p=15800"},"modified":"2022-12-05T18:35:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:35:40","slug":"wartsilas-new-flagship-is-a-forerunner-in-responsible-energy-and-marine-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/insight\/news\/wartsilas-new-flagship-is-a-forerunner-in-responsible-energy-and-marine-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4’s new flagship is a forerunner in responsible energy and marine industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4n<\/p>\n

W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4’s new flagship is a forerunner in responsible energy and marine industry<\/h1>\n

The construction of W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4\u2019s new research, product development and production centre in the Vaskiluoto district of Vaasa began in August. Smart Technology Hub is an historically sizeable venture for the entire project organisation, and Sweco is responsible for the primary architectural design and project management duties.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4\u2019s first premises in Vaasa were completed 100\u202fyears ago. Over time, more space has been required throughout the city, which has led to significant fragmentation of the production chain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are already using the entire area between J\u00e4rvikatu and Onkilahti, and there is no room for further expansions,\u201d says\u00a0Tommy Grannas<\/strong>, W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4 Finland Oy\u2019s property manager. \u201cThe Vaskiluoto complex will bring the entire production and product development chain under one roof, which is why are referring to the facility as the Smart Technology Hub, instead of factory and office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vaskiluoto\u2019s location near the port is ideal in many ways. There is plenty of cooling water available for the processes, and a railway line, power line and district heating pipe also run through the area. The synergies achieved are also important. \u201cIn addition to efficient production, Vaskiluoto will facilitate collaboration with energy and logistics partners already operating in the area,\u201d Grannas says.<\/p>\n

W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4 is one of the largest employers in Vaasa, but the project is significant on a wider scale. \u201cThanks to our project, the local energy cluster, which consists of some 160 companies as well as us, will have more confidence to make investments,\u201d Grannas says. \u201cThe cluster is responsible for 80% of the exports in the region, its turnover is 5\u202fbillion\u202feuros and it employs more than 12,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A unique large-scale project valued at 200\u202fmillion\u202feuros<\/h2>\n

Sweco serves as construction consultant in the 200-million-euro project, carrying the responsibility for design tendering and steering, as well as project management, amongst other areas. The excavation work began in early September, and the construction phase will continue for the next 1.5\u20132\u202fyears<\/p>\n

\u201cThe schedule and budget goals for the project are unprecedented,\u201d confirms\u00a0Joel Johansson<\/strong>, regional project manager at Sweco. Of the two new buildings, the production facility named Hub is 33\u202fmetres tall, more than 200\u202fmetres long and nearly 900,000\u202fcubic\u202fmetres in volume. A footbridge links the structure to the office complex, which provides access to both buildings. \u201cThe entire project organisation has humbly confessed that they haven\u2019t been faced with a project of this scale before!\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is the largest in W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4\u2019s history and being unique means that there are no suitable benchmarks. In fact, the swift and smooth official process and zoning was a positive surprise to everyone involved. The Hub was granted a building permit in late June, while the office building received its permit in August. \u201cWith support from the City of Vaasa, we managed to secure the requisite town plan amendments and agreements in less than a year,\u201d Grannas says.<\/p>\n

The architects designed a multipurpose landmark<\/h2>\n

A wide range of laboratory, product development and testing premises have been designed for the Smart Technology Hub. Sweco is responsible for project\u2019s primary and architectural design. The project kicked off with proposal planning, and this will also cover interior and yard design.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for the architecture to support the W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4 brand and the company\u2019s vision of serving as a pioneer in smart marine transport and energy solutions,\u201d says Architect\u00a0Anita H\u00f6tt\u00f6nen<\/strong>, the principal designer for the project. The Hub was inspired by floating blocks of ice, and the facade was spiced up with coloured and partially-illuminated vertical slats. The most significant challenge was to consolidate the many different functions into the same building. \u201cIn cooperation with the W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4 staff, we have been able to ensure efficient internal logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foremost challenge in the architectural design of the office complex was to ensure that it would blend in with the old protected factory buildings of Suomen Sokeri to the north. \u201cContrary to the norm, the tree species for the wide green area within the office building plot were determined in the building permit phase, at request of the residents,\u201d H\u00f6tt\u00f6nen says. \u201cThe residents provided us with valuable insights at various phases of the design process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grannas is confident that the Smart Technology Hub will become a new landmark for Vaasa. \u201cWe obviously expect the premises to be impressive, but the most important thing is what goes on inside the buildings. We need to be able to modify the use of both buildings flexibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ambitious information modelling to ensure the sustainability of the buildings<\/h2>\n

Sustainable development is being considered with regard to the full lifecycle of the Smart Technology Hub. Sweco\u2019s BIM Coordinator Juuso Erkkil\u00e4<\/strong> ensures that the various information models are combined during the design phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambitious goal is to incorporate models related to the users\u2019 production processes as well,\u201d Johansson says. To that effect, a \u2018digital twin\u2019 will be created of the building to support the optimisation of the maintenance and use of the facilities.<\/p>\n

Sustainable solutions have also been sought with regard to architectural design. \u201cWe are aiming to consolidate all functions into compact premises to use space more efficiently, and ensure short distances and smooth logistical operations,\u201d H\u00f6tt\u00f6nen says. The company is also seeking to ensure energy efficiency through the selection of an appropriate roof material. \u201cThe roof can\u2019t be black, since that would cause staggering cooling costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to this, all construction materials of the Smart Technology Hub are certified, the waste energy from engine test runs will be recovered, and solar panels will be installed on the roof.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The construction of W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4\u2019s new research, product development and production centre in the Vaskiluoto district of Vaasa began in August. Smart Technology Hub is an historically sizeable venture for the entire project organisation, and Sweco is responsible for the primary architectural design and project management duties. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":22437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"W\u00e4rtsil\u00e4's flagship is a forerunner in responsible energy","_seopress_titles_desc":" Sweco is responsible for the primary architectural design and project management duties.\u00a0","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15800"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38659,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15800\/revisions\/38659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}