Some of the costliest mistakes in a factory project happen before an architect is usually hired: buying land that cannot take the building, the traffic or the power you need. We check the site before you commit, then turn the answer into a masterplan, programme and cost estimate you can base an investment decision on.
For a multinational online retailer, we studied a 41,000 m² site in Taichung for a 112,200 m² logistics centre. We reviewed the regional logistics market and benchmarked five comparable facilities nearby. We tested the site against zoning, floor-area bonuses, building regulations and logistics requirements, and assessed the permit route, utilities, ground conditions, traffic access and the main entrance. The client received a masterplan, schematic design, programme and cost estimate to base its investment decision on. Read our guide to land due diligence.
GS Technology Park in Changzhou is a 126,000 m² built-to-let park on a 93,000 m² site, at a floor area ratio of 2.0, for makers of renewable energy systems and electric vehicle parts. The masterplan sets out ten factory buildings in 2,000, 4,000 and 8,000 m² modules, mostly two storeys with 10 m clear height and floor loads of 2,000 kg/m² on the ground floor. It adds a high-rise building with freely divisible units for light assembly, and an office and R&D centre beside a willow-lined pond. People and lorries use separate routes, and every available roof is planned for solar panels.
Our built factories started the same way. We masterplanned T-HAM’s processing plant in Pingtung before designing it, re-masterplanned the site of its new slaughterhouse, and masterplanned the Shan Tea complex on a 5-hectare mountaintop in Yunnan, with Phase 1 nearing completion. Beyond industry, we have masterplanned a 6.8-hectare countryside work-and-leisure campus in Dahu for a software company with more than 100 staff, and the 500 mu (about 33 ha) Yinxing Lake Cultural Park in Nanjing.
A study is worth most when it changes a decision. Many masterplans are never built as drawn: the client changes site, phases the work, or finds that the numbers do not add up. That is the study doing its job. It is far cheaper to find out on paper than after the land is bought.
As Shihlien Chemical’s in-house design managers, Richard and Stephen Wang dealt directly with local design institutes, the planning bureau, the land management bureau and city and provincial government offices. On projects in China today, we work with the licensed design institute best suited to execute each project: sometimes a local institute that knows the local authorities, sometimes one we know well, which works to our standards and collaborates with us through the necessary rounds of review and revision. That experience shapes what we check first on any site.
Long-term clients
The site address or land number, what you want to build and roughly how big, and your timeline. If you are comparing several sites, send them all.
On the Taichung study, the client received a masterplan, schematic design, programme and cost estimate. We agree the deliverables with you at the start.
Our land due diligence studies are currently offered for sites in Taiwan. We masterplan in both: GS Technology Park is in Changzhou, and the Shan Tea complex is in Yunnan.
Yes. T-HAM and Shan Tea both went from our masterplan to our building design and construction supervision.
Looking at a site? Send us the land number (地號) or address and what you want to build, and we will tell you what to check first.