We appreciate new visions

The ideas-man Klaus Kastbjeg and his company Unionkul are renowned for having a creative and innovative approach to abandoned industrial sites. Unionkul, for example, is one of the driving forces behind the future transformation of Papirøen, which you can read about elsewhere in this publication.

One of his newest ideas is a radical transformation of the old Tunnelfabrikken factory, which will be launched in collaboration with NREP and By & Havn. The huge hall in the Nordhavn area of Copenhagen was once used to manufacture elements that currently make up the Øresund Tunnel, and there are now, to put it mildly, quite a few unused square metres that can be worked with.

The vision is for the hall to house all sorts of cultural activities, and the first step was to engage the architects from Arcgency to design the aesthetic solutions and propose various possible uses. The question of price versus future earning opportunities, however, remained unanswered. At an early stage, Artelia Cost Management was tasked with pricing the various rough designs and technical building solutions in order to create an overall picture of the project’s economic potential.

Benchmarking via the cost database
As Rune points out, Tunnelfabrikken is not an off-the-shelf item, and has therefore required a different approach for the financial calculations. However, use has still been made of the cost database that the team has built up from historical figures for Artelia projects.

It made no sense to just use other projects where a hall was rebuilt as our basis. We had to delve much deeper into the data and look at the different functions and what they entail from a technical building perspective. After we divided the building into smaller categories, we could start our benchmarking, which would allow us to see the bigger picture, says Rune.

He adds that it was highly beneficial to be able to draw on a large network of specialists at Artelia to investigate the engineering aspects, which provided an insight into where adjustments could be made in order to minimise the expenses.

At the forefront with ABR18
Finally, Rune thinks that the project is a good example of how Artelia has prepared for the changing view of financial management found in ABR18(General conditions for consultancy services for building and construction works.)

In the past, you had to report the finances upon the completion of every phase. With ABR18, however, you have to update the budgets on an ongoing basis and keep a close eye on any changes. This practice certainly requires that we master the skills we have built up in our Cost Management team, concludes Rune.