News releases 2014

Atkins wins contract to develop IMX International Trade and Exhibition Centre - 29 May 2014

Atkins, one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies, has won a contract as masterplanner to develop the IMX International Trade and Exhibition Centre, located within the new Hongqiao Central Business District (CBD) in Shanghai. The investment value for this project is approximately 4.8billion RMB.

The contract will also see Atkins develop its iconic architectural designs for the IMX exhibition centre and supporting commercial development covering approximately 150,000 square metres. All buildings within the Atkins masterplan have been designed to meet or exceed China's three-star Green Building Standard. As the highest Chinese standard for sustainability, this achievement demonstrates the country's commitment to future proofing cities.

The IMX masterplan is a part of the prestigious Hongqiao CBD which integrates businesses with the world class Hongqiao Transportation Interchange. This large scale integrated development is a Shanghai government-led initiative to directly connect Shanghai businesses with large scale transport hubs and is already considered a 'pilot' model for green CBD's across China.   

Steven Smit, Atkins' architecture design director in Shanghai, said: "The opportunity to work with King Wai on this forward-looking project in a prestigious Shanghai location significantly benefits the Atkins portfolio. Our team has been able to interpret the client's unique vision for their IMX brand with significant flair.

"With this development our client aims to enter the burgeoning e-commerce sector in China, which makes this project particularly exciting. The Atkins-designed interactive exhibition showroom serves as a platform to access a wide range of online goods. This innovative merchandise model will help drive our client's business growth," added Steven.

The project is in partnership with King Wai Group Company Limited, an investment enterprise of Hong Kong King Wai Group Company Limited on the Mainland of China, with construction due to commence in the second half of 2014.

Ends

For more information:

Christina Zhuang
Communications manager, Asia Pacific 		christina.zhuang@atkinsglobal.com
+852 2972 1558 
Jane Sheils
Group PR manager 		jane.sheils@atkinsglobal.com
+44 1372 752350 

Follow Atkins' news on Twitter

Notes to editors:

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies*, employing some 17,400 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Our people's breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world's most complex and time critical projects.

*14th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2013) and the third largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe (Svensk Teknik och Design 2013).

Recent projects

Atkins is working across urban regeneration, masterplanning, national energy programmes, major transport schemes, water and environment projects - applying smart design solutions on projects including:

  • Doha Central Planning Office - helping to co-ordinate Qatar's National 2030 Vision for world class transport infrastructure, which will bring major benefits to the economy;
  • The London 2012 Games infrastructure transformation - as technical advisor to London's boroughs as the Olympic Park moves into its legacy configuration as a follow-on role to our work as the Games' official engineering and design provider;
  • UAE's peaceful nuclear new build programme - providing technical assurance to lenders backing the United Arab Emirates' most ambitious energy infrastructure projects;
  • North Sea and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms - extending the operational life of critical oil and gas platforms to allow cost-efficient and safe recovery of fuel sources from mature fields;
  • SSE offshore wind alliance - provision of expert engineering and design support for the UK's biggest offshore wind alliance with Scottish and Southern Energy;
  • Crossrail - designing the Central London twin tunnels and station architecture for Europe's biggest civil engineering scheme which will see tunnels passing beneath 470 listed buildings and critical infrastructure;
  • Etihad Railway - providing multidisciplinary design expertise on the 1,200 km Etihad Rail network which will revolutionise passenger and freight transport in the UAE;
  • Denmark ERTMS - providing multidisiplinary signalling expertise on the first countrywide installation of an ERTMS train control and management system in Denmark;
  • Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge - lead consultant on this integral part of the new Hong Kong link road scheme which will significantly boost land connectivity in the region;
  • Lowestoft Sixth Form College - design of the ultralow energy consumption Lowestoft College in the UK which aims to reduce operational energy use by more than 60% compared to previous designs;
  • UK National Composites Centre - providing technical expertise to bring the latest lightweight carbon fibre materials to all engineering sectors, helping to develop innovative applications and reduce costs and carbon;
  • US Environmental Protection Agency - providing technical assessment and analysis of national water-related resources and ecological systems in North America;
  • Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) superfast broadband - providing technical, commercial and procurement support to help deliver superfast broadband to one of Europe's most remote regions.
distributed by