LIB: You have more than 25 years of experience at the head of SVAM, developing all kinds of architectural and urban planning projects. What do you like most about your work and your sector today?

Santiago: Perhaps the diversity of my work is what I am most passionate about, I am very lucky to work in something I like, and when you like your job, then you stop working. You spend a day with your team working on the design of a large Logistics Centre, another week; you spend it developing an international competition, another morning; early in the morning you board a plane to Africa and spend the week working on the projects we are currently developing in Gabon, another day; you spend it in Lisbon visiting possible locations for new projects, another day; you are involved in a citizen participation process exposing a New General Plan, the next day; you are immersed in a succession of video conferences, in which you simultaneously meet with multidisciplinary teams located in different countries, and all of this takes place in English. Another time; the challenge is to present your project to the client. Overcoming professional obstacles and solving complex problems is what I like most about my job. And without a doubt, what contributes most to my personal growth is the feeling that I am part of something bigger than myself, I belong to SVAM, an exceptional team of professionals, and together we manage to excel in our work.

LIB: At SVAM you cover projects ranging from residential and commercial to industrial and logistics. What percentage of your projects belong to industrial and logistics construction? Any outstanding projects that you are currently working on?

Santiago: Approximately half of our projects currently focus on the logistics sector, a percentage that fluctuates depending on market conditions. We are now experiencing a slight contraction, so we have adapted by diversifying our client portfolio and expanding our geographical reach, thus ensuring our continued presence. Since our founding in 1997, we have positioned ourselves in Spain as a benchmark team in the design of industrial and logistics projects. During the 2008 crisis, we expanded into Asia and Africa. Subsequently, with the explosion of e-commerce in Spain from 2017, we have experienced a significant increase in the national demand for logistics projects, reaching to complete more than 50 between 2020 and 2021.

Some of the logistics projects underway that we could highlight are the Bridgestone Logistics Centre in Burgos, with a capacity to house 800,000 tyres, and a surface area of 44,500 m2c. Now, we are also developing one of the largest logistics projects in Spain, “Panattoni Park Miranda de Ebro”, a complex consisting of two large “big box” type buildings with a total of 133,000 m2c, here the challenge posed by the client is to design a project that achieves BREEAM Excellent certification, the first phase of 64,000 m2c is already under construction. In addition, we are busy with other more conventional logistics projects, which are in different phases.

LIB: How do you approach the start of a logistics project?

Santiago: There are various formats of logistics promotion, and consequently the itinerary followed by the first steps of the projects is adapted to the type of promotion. Sometimes they are “tailor-made” projects, and other times they are “speculative” projects. In both cases, the beginning of the project consists of studying the feasibility of implementing the project in a specific location. To do this, we start by designing several alternatives, which we call “test fit” or “layout”, this is a phase that requires a lot of creativity and a capacity for rapid response; once we have this preliminary project suitable for the client’s objectives, we begin the analysis of the feasibility in all its aspects (urban planning, technical, legal, environmental, etc.). In our case we specialise in technical feasibility studies (TDD), we provide a distinctive feature based on the integration of the urban planning team in the preparation of the “due diligence”, in addition to the experience in the development of all phases of a logistics project, we add the knowledge of urban planning, the regulatory framework and the processing throughout the national territory, this particularity is something that our clients appreciate. We develop TDDs with a holistic approach, detecting risks and seeking solutions. The proof of our good work is that we have carried out more than 300 TDDs to date, and in most cases, our clients repeat.