The Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) engine manufacturing center was developed to enable in-house engine production for the first time in a generation. Located at the i54 Business Park near Wolverhampton, UK, the project demonstrates how large-scale industrial buildings can achieve efficient environmental performance.
Drawing on decades of experience in industrial building design, Arup Associates' architects and engineers reinterpreted the traditional factory form to create a functional, flexible, and sustainable facility. The €1 billion (£900 million), 185,000 square meter building achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. The facility can accommodate up to 1,400 staff and produce 450,000 engines annually.
The form
Bold forms articulate a clear plan, designed for flexibility, with north-lit machine and assembly halls flanked by supporting office and ancillary buildings. Combined with a large-span structure, this approach allowed the design team to create a building ten percent smaller than originally envisaged, optimizing production performance through design.
Simple, repeating, and discretely expressed facade modules, with careful attention to proportion, reveals, and junction details, generate a powerful architectural impression. Engineering services are exposed, becoming part of the visual expression. Continuous strips of glass along the ground floor create a “floating” effect and provide views connecting workers with adjacent landscaped surroundings, humanizing the scale of the spaces.
Design strategies
The layout promotes efficient operational adjacencies and flexibility, facilitating an effective manufacturing flow and easy staff access to support facilities. The design emphasizes natural light in machine and assembly halls, creating transparency between production and office areas, which fosters communication and collaboration among staff.
Material innovations
The steel frame achieves a roof tonnage of only 28 kg/m² over 30 meter spans. The facade features Euroclad Europanel insulated panels with the Colorcoat Renew SC ‘solar collector’ system, forming a double-skinned envelope that reduces CO₂ emissions by one tonne per 5 m² of collector area. These pre-heat ventilation air, significantly reducing daytime heating demands by allowing air intake at 16-38°C, potentially eliminating conventional heating needs. Services are installed using a modular, prefabricated approach to minimize work at height.
A structural frame by Tata Steel makes up the building's backbone, complemented by the Colorcoat Renew SC system that integrates with Euroclad Europanel vertical joint insulated panels. Glazing is provided by Schüco curtain walling systems, while the interior features Paroc cladding. The rooftop photovoltaic array, consisting of Tata panels, integrates with the saw-tooth roof profile, transforming it into an energy-generating asset. This design includes north-facing skylights for natural illumination in production areas, along with continuous ground-level glazing that enhances visual connections throughout the space.
Carbon footprint
The photovoltaic installation achieves over 2,000 tonnes of annual carbon savings with an 8.5-year payback period. The solar collector system adds one tonne of savings for every five square meters. Natural daylighting decreases the need for artificial lighting, enhancing well-being. An advanced energy management system monitors usage for efficiency improvements. With 21,000 PV panels providing up to 5.8 MW of power—meeting 30% of energy needs—the facility reduces its carbon footprint by over 2,400 tonnes annually.
