ULC took over the tasks of the mechanical and electro-technical installations and in October 2015 started to look at the original plans. Meanwhile, the roof was placed, all technical drawings were completed and even a few air ducts were installed. In the first instance, the Utrecht Installer went to work with the available resources, but after a short period it turned out that the design of the predecessor was not sufficient. For the sake of clarity: this concerned a UAV-GC project, in which ULC was responsible for the design. The project team was confronted with architectural limitations and technical shortcomings. In total, the team consisted of thirty people.

Project manager Roland Henkes decided to have new designs and drawings made for both the mechanical and electro-technical installations. The execution started in August 2016 and the innovation centre was successfully completed on the 14th of July 2017.

An important period for Royal Cosun is the beet campaign every year. For those who are not at home in the beet trade; this is the period that the beets are harvested from the land and are processed directly in the two sugar factories of Royal Cosun. In this period they are active 24/7. The beet campaign starts every year in September and lasts four to five months. In this period, the innovation centre is insanely busy and Royal Cosun could never imagine moving during this period. This was an extra incentive for ULC to do everything possible to achieve the planned delivery date in order to have the 2017 beet campaign (a year later) start in harmony.

The challenge of ‘working with what we have’ has been overcome. This is mainly due to the construction restrictions. For example, a lot of puzzling needed to happen with the existing technology room. This was actually anything but spacious. With a problem-solving attitude, the ULC team set to work and eventually everything came back on track. In addition to the technique that will allow the building to function as desired, approximately 30 laboratories have been realized and a total of 6800 m² has been provided with technology. In addition to a HCS installation, data installation, (fire) safety installation, air ducts, water discharge systems and control systems, a number of cooling and freezing cells, specific gases and gas detection were specifically taken into account in this project and a demi water generation was chosen. But that’s not all.

A Dutch climate facade, among other things, has been installed on the sun-exposed facades. This is a kind of second facade in the form of indoor sun protection, creating a cavity. The air in this cavity is heated by the sun. By sucking this warm air at the top of the cavity, the temperature in the building does not rise; without the Dutch climate facade this would be the case and then the building must be continuously cooled. Removing heat in the summer is the biggest gain.

This once again makes clear that it is not without risk to enter a partnership. In the original order of the partnership between Hurks and Imtech, the maintenance for the next fifteen years was also incorporated. ULC will provide the technical management and maintenance of the building until the end of 2018. How this will develop further is not yet known.