# High density industrial areas - any good examples?



## mjoks007 (Aug 23, 2008)

So, I was thinking the other day; why does industri need to be low density. We often talk about how high density an residential area should how (atleast i my country), concerning sun conditions, air, general space for playing and such. 

Its important for city life, but its even more important to spare green areas to getting built down. So why dont we talk more about high density industrial areas? You would rarely get the kind of conflicts residental areas get in the planning process.

With industrial areas, I dont only mean production but big size retail such as sales of cars (especially that!). 

I cant say I ever seen or heard about any projects or good examples of high density industri areas, which is strange as ALL of these types of areas are extremy low density, my impression atleast. Car sale areas alone use a lot of space the way they are arranged.

So my question to you is if there are any good examples of this kind of areas built with high density? I want all the information I can get; documents, pictures, theoretical backgrounds and such. Everything that is relevant!


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Hong Kong
East Kowloon's highrise industrial buildings are slowly being redeveloped into commercial towers.


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## Birchland (Oct 19, 2016)

*Autostadt Wolfsburg, Germany*








http://www.presseportal.de/pm/19185/2010133

*BASF Ludwigshafen, Germany*








http://www.standort-ludwigshafen.basf.de/group/corporate/site-ludwigshafen/en/news-and-media-relations/news-releases/P-09-156

 *Schweinehochhaus (pig highrise) in Berlin, Germany*








http://www.mz-web.de/koethen/schweinehochhaus-in-maasdorf-schweine-haben-bei-stall-braenden-schlechte-chancen-22559200


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## mjoks007 (Aug 23, 2008)

^^ Autostadt looks very interesting, you have any more information about that prosject? I see its much greenery there and ponds etc. Any information about the background of the project and general information would be great. Espeically information about the blue-green infrastructure would be of interest.


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## Birchland (Oct 19, 2016)

http://www.autostadt.de/en/explore-the-autostadt/car-towers/



> The Car Towers, a famous Autostadt landmark in Wolfsburg, are situated next to the Car Distribution Centre in the east corner of the Autostadt. The fully glazed, galvanised steel frame constructions offer a view into the interior of the two cylinders. The towers create a modern architectural contrast to the four chimneys of the Volkswagen power station and make up the heart of the Autostadt new car delivery system. Each of the fully automated, high-rise stacks has space for up to 400 vehicles. The new cars are rolled over from the neighbouring Volkswagen plant using a robotic-pallet system mounted on rails. The cars are loaded into and fetched from the towers using two “car shuttles” or lifts per tower, each servicing 180° of the silo.
> 
> New cars are prominently stored there for roughly 24 hours before being delivered to customers. A signal which is activated by the customer-service agent sets one of the car shuttles in motion. The shuttle then selects the correct vehicle and conveys it to the centre of the tower from where it is gently lowered to the ground floor. Thereafter the new car rolls through a tunnel into the Car Distribution Centre. Here, in the LastFinish area, number plates are mounted before the customer takes final charge of the vehicle. Each day, an average 500 Volkswagen and SEAT cars are delivered to new owners in the Autostadt.







I'll try to find some information on the park. There wasn't much on the official website.


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

I guess a better example would be the whole VW plant in Wolfsburg, of which the Autostadt is a part. It covers 6 km² and employs 57,000 people, which is a decent job density for industry.


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## isaidso (Mar 21, 2007)

*Chemical Valley: Sarnia, Ontario*

Canada's Chemical Valley is home to 50 industrial facilities in the oil and chemical industries.









Courtesy of warriorpublications









Courtesy of airmoorley


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## mjoks007 (Aug 23, 2008)

Chrissib said:


> I guess a better example would be the whole VW plant in Wolfsburg, of which the Autostadt is a part. It covers 6 km² and employs 57,000 people, which is a decent job density for industry.


Indeed, however, more relevant for me is the actual square metre density. The picture you show look like a rather regular industrial building density.


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## mhays (Sep 12, 2002)

Here are some major factors contributing to sprawled industrial complexes: 
--Potential for explosion
--Need for precise stability, with no vibration, meaning they can't be on an elevated level. 
--Need for easy maintenance and replacement, potentially requiring a large surrounding area. 

Warehousing and some other functions can be stacked in theory, but it's hard to build anything multi-story with high ceilings, few columns, and heavy load-bearing capacity. So you'd find an unhappy medium between more columns and thicker structure. And you spend a ton of space on ramps, room-sized freight elevators, etc. 

That said, a lot of users could be way more efficient with land. Some functions don't need to be spread out, whether they're simply lightweight and low-logistic in nature, or they're ancillary like offices, parking, etc.


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## mjoks007 (Aug 23, 2008)

mhays said:


> Here are some major factors contributing to sprawled industrial complexes:
> --Potential for explosion
> --Need for precise stability, with no vibration, meaning they can't be on an elevated level.
> --Need for easy maintenance and replacement, potentially requiring a large surrounding area.


Indeed, there are many reasons for it to be like this. Safety being the most obvious reason perhaps. For car selling areas and other kind of bulky goods, which are often clustered, I dont really see why it *have to be* like this though.

I simply want to see whether there are good examples of high density areas for any kind of industrial areas, including sales of bulky goods (tree materials and such). The example from autostadt shows that there are technically no problem to arrange cars in that way, but regular industrial areas it would demand collocation of companies.

E.g. building a high rise for cars, like the one in autostadt, having separate office departments, for different companies at the base of the building and the actuall cars arranged in a high rise to be space efficient.


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## Chrissib (Feb 9, 2008)

Could be helpful to look at car dealers in high-density but still car dominated cities, for example in Southern Europe. Barcelona is very dense but it still has a high car ownership rate.


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

I posted about that factory already before, but so what, it seems to me like a perfect fit for this thread and as it seems that people are strunggling to come up with some contemporary multilevel production facilities maybe this fills the gap.

*Manner factory (Vienna)*

Manner is a producer of hazelnut wafers and chocolate products. Its main production location is at its heart a factory from the late industrial revolution, located in a dense residential district, and the interesting thing is that it is not only still operating but that it is even currently being expanded by 30% at the expense of the rural factory in Perg which was closed down. To this end, a multi-level facility is being constructed right now in one of the historical courtyards. The new facility will be specialised on the core business, producing hazelnut wafers. After all, Manner claims to be the very inventor of "Neapolitan wafers". The hazelnut creme will be produced at the 5th floor, the wafers are being baked on the 4th floor, packing will be on the 3rd and 2nd floor, below is the palletising centre and at the "high parterre" is the delivery/logistic centre. The urban location also makes it easy to turn excess heat of the factory into money by access to the adjacent distributed heating network (1 MW for 600 households).

Features of the new facility:
Planned production output: 9000 t of hazelnut wafels per year (can be doubled if needed)
Total cost of expansion: 40 Mio €
Employees: 60 (Total numbers of employees at this location: 420)

Employee density (of entire factory after extension): 25 000 employees/km2



It is a bit hard to find good pictures of it but here you have the previous 3 locations of Manner. The factory in Perg which is being closed down and relocated into the courtyard of that white block in Vienna. I think that says it pretty much how much more compact the new facility will be.
The 3 locations are shown here: http://www.sparhamster.at/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/u3nbenannt2.jpg

Google maps caught the construction work very well. One can see the new multilevel structure in the courtyard of that central block. The block to the right and the logistics area to the left also belong to the factory. 










And here an actual picture from a year ago when it was topped out. It should be finished on the outside in the meanwhile I suppose but factories aren't the most fotographed thing you know:


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## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

The port of Rotterdam:


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## castermaild55 (Sep 8, 2005)

Kitakyushu,Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitakyushu







Yokkaichi, Mie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokkaichi,_Mie










kawasaki, kanagawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki,_Kanagawa
















mizushima,Okayama


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## castermaild55 (Sep 8, 2005)

eng subb kawasaki


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## weava (Sep 8, 2007)

West Bottoms, industrial neighborhood in Kansas City, MO Many 100 year old 5 to 8 story warehouses.


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## 009 (Nov 28, 2007)

Keihin industrial complex 京浜工業地帯夜景 by hiroshi ookura, on Flickr



Keihin industrial complex 京浜工業地帯夜景 by hiroshi ookura, on Flickr


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