Alex Miller leads the Bristol Architecture team at Ridge. He has been a design advisor on EV battery projects for clients including Agratas, Britishvolt, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW. In the latest article in our series on the UK’s battery ecosystem, he explains how to keep a design moving forwards when the brief is constantly evolving
What’s the hardest thing about designing a gigafactory?
There are lots of technical challenges, but the key thing is that the process we’re designing the building around is still evolving. There’s a very limited precedent for these facilities, and battery technology is developing extremely rapidly.
At the same time, speed to market is critical, as is cost due to the upfront capital required. Typically, there would be a trade-off between flexibility, cost and speed, but we have to achieve all three.
How do you design around a process that isn’t fixed?
With a factory, the aim is always a clean, linear process, with appropriate adjacencies, so it operates as efficiently as possible. Any unnecessary logistics movement comes at an operational cost, so it’s really important to understand the different flows of materials, waste streams and people.
We test these with “Day in the life of” studies for different user groups, including arrival and departure sequences, locations for place of work and breaks, as well as how they interact with others.
We follow the same logic with materials and waste streams, considering material buffers and plant logistics.
Essentially, what we’re doing is distilling the building into a simple, elegant diagram, continually refining it, so it doesn’t become more complex as elements are added. You don’t want to paint yourself into a corner, or have to go back to first principles every time there’s a process change. We always want to design the most logical, efficient process, even after construction has started. That’s hard to do if you’ve created a complex and constrained structure and building system.
How do you reconcile that uncertainty when you’re up against a tight deadline and a strict budget?
We have to find a way to keep the programme moving forwards, before everything is locked down. We produce weekly, sometimes daily iterations, working closely with the client and the whole design team to define the requirements, determine which elements are fixed and which need more flexibility. We make reasonable assumptions and then fix it as the design maturity develops. All the different disciplines produce 3D models and we align them progressively to resolve any clashes.
Designs start off quite loose-fit, and as the client and design team understanding becomes more mature, we squeeze the building around the process as tightly as possible. That’s more cost-effective, because you’re not paying for unnecessary steelwork or building services. This is especially important for such large-scale industrial facilities which are highly serviced.
The perimeter of a gigafactory will be kilometres in length, and around 60% of the floor area is a clean or dry room environment.
The fire strategy is equally important, as an onerous strategy will cause a constraint within the process, and add cost and complexity. Insurers may demand sprinkler systems and compartmentation, but process engineers prefer an open production line. Clients don’t want to put sprinklers over equipment that’s worth millions of pounds, so we work to compartmentalise elements and break the risk down into smaller values.
What does that look like physically – what design strategies do you use?
We try to keep the grid really logical throughout. The roof is typically a truss structure or portal frame with sufficient strength to support hanging services, so you don’t have to add posts or frames each time you add a pipe or a wall.
We try to keep the people and the process separate as far as possible, both for health and safety and so that the office and amenity areas don’t become a future constraint. We also want to attract top talent and retain highly skilled labour, so we focus on the areas where people will experience the building – lobbies, reception areas, offices and break-out spaces. We design in natural daylight and high-quality materials where possible, to ensure it will be a pleasurable place to work and collaborate with colleagues.
Design for these facilities cannot be pretentious, it’s about how we help our clients develop a building that’s exceptionally fit for purpose and optimised operationally. We’re not trying to create something with an architectural ego – we take a deep briefing from the client to understand their objectives, and make sure we’re really solving their problems. The result has to be a state-of-the-art facility fit for the industry of the future.
Alex Miller leads the Bristol Architecture team at Ridge.
Contact him on: AMiller@ridge.co.uk
