Approach

Since 1964 the office has designed production facilities where the process sets the premises. Raw-material flow, hygienic zones and capacity targets are mapped before any building form exists, and the floor plan follows from them. A layout derived from the process gives clear flow, short routes and room to grow. The facility runs the way it was meant to from its first day of operation.

What the process requires

In a seafood plant the product flow is linear and irreversible. Fish cannot be sent back. Hygienic zones, the cold chain and capacity reserves are design parameters from the first sketch. The zoning is settled before the walls are. The structure has to stand nightly washdown with water and chemicals for decades.

In a hatchery the fish lives in the building, and water is the critical factor. Biosecurity, RAS water treatment and separated production units determine the layout. Pumps, biofilters and oxygenation have to be serviceable while a live biological process continues around them. Lerøy Belsvik is one example, at 10,500 square metres for 14 million smolt a year.

Dairy is where the office learned hygienic production, through close to fifty years of plants for TINE, Norway’s national dairy group. Clean and unclean are separated by controlled pressure zones, dedicated staff routes and material airlocks. The CIP system shapes every room it touches. New capacity is usually added while the lines keep running, so sequencing and temporary arrangements are designed in from the start.

Process first, building as the consequence

Process and building in one hand. In land-based aquaculture and industrial food projects, the process contract and the building contract usually sit with different parties. The interface between them is where projects lose time and money. The building is designed around the line that will stand in it, and that interface stays in one hand. The office carries the project through permitting to an operating facility.

Designed for operation. A production facility is an investment expected to perform for forty to fifty years, and the design takes that horizon into account. Room heights and spans are given margin for new equipment set-ups. Technical routing stays accessible. Expansion is planned in so it can be built while production runs.

A facility designed this way works from its first day of operation. It also has room for the growth that follows.

How we work