THE NEW BROWNFIELD WAREHOUSE FOR SAVILLS IN ARLUNO SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR SUSTAINABLE LOGISTICS

At Arluno, GSE Italia has regenerated an area of more than 70,000 square metres, formerly used as a quarry. The site, fully remediated and restored, has been returned to the local community and now actively contributes to the regional economy through a logistics warehouse developed for Savills, which will be operated by Havi, a leading international logistics company serving major clients in the food and healthcare sectors.

GSE Italia and Confluence: a brownfield-driven collaboration
The development phases preceding the construction project, including remediation and site safety works, were coordinated by Confluence S.r.l., the GSE Group’s consulting company and strategic partner, which supports clients throughout every stage of property development, from site identification through project coordination and administrative processes.

In this case, a highly strategic location was selected due to its proximity to the A4 motorway interchange southwest of Milan, where the project contributes to strengthening Arluno’s position as one of the key logistics hubs in Northern Italy, generating significant economic activity within the food distribution sector.

Technological and sustainable innovation
GSE Italia was responsible for the executive design and construction of a warehouse of approximately 29,000 m², featuring a mezzanine of approximately 1,000 m², a gross floor area of more than 32,000 m², and approximately 3,000 m² of office space spread across three levels.

Given the building’s intended use, the operational core of the project is represented by its refrigerated areas, which cover more than 15,000 m², including five “box-in-box” cold storage chambers capable of maintaining temperatures ranging from -20°C to +7°C, requiring the installation of dedicated thermo loading bays.

The floor slab was specifically engineered and designed for the project and, in order to prevent ice formation and condensation issues, a forced ventilation system combined with an igloo void system was installed to ensure proper air circulation between the main structure and the internal sandwich panels.

To guarantee optimal climate control within the five refrigerated areas while minimizing the project’s environmental impact, GSE selected a system capable of delivering the highest ratio between performance and energy consumption. The facility is equipped with three refrigeration plants featuring a heat recovery system that uses CO2 as a natural refrigerant with an extremely low Global Warming Potential (GWP).

The project’s sustainable approach will enable it to pursue LEED Gold certification. Among the measures adopted to reduce the building’s environmental footprint, low-carbon concrete was used for both the foundations and the industrial floor slab in order to reduce the embodied carbon footprint of construction materials.