Volvo, the auto manufacturer based in Gothenburg, Sweden, hired the design-build team of Yates-Kahn to design their first North American Manufacturing Facilities. This campus of six major buildings, located in Ridgeville, South Carolina, will produce 100,000 new S60 models for worldwide distribution.

The facility includes the Body Assembly and Robotic Welding Shop, Finish Operations Shop, Utility Building, Fluids Building and Guardhouses-- all of which are designed with responsible, sustainable practices as a high priority. Kahn’s extensive experience in designing highly technical, heavily regulated, environmentally sensitive and complex conditions for major automotive clients made Kahn the logical choice to lead the design portion of this flagship facility. As Volvo’s master architect, Kahn also provided the architectural design features of the paint shop, as well as the mechanical/ electrical design for the paint shop utilities and waste water building.

The high-tech, functional aesthetic draws from the Scandinavian design philosophies of form-follows-function, using the collaborative workplace model to promote quality, productivity and elimination of waste.

The “Lean” Master Planning, Programming, Design and Construction Implementation utilizes a collaborative Design-Build Approach to bring the production process on-line in an amazingly short period of time.