Kai’s Industrial Experience From China

Before moving to Australia and joining the Inertia team in 2017, Kai built his career in China working for China Light Industry International Engineering for over a decade as a Senior Structural Engineer & Drafter and Project Design Manager, where he developed an impressive track record of industrial projects.

Home to 1.4 billion people, China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse and the global leader in beer production, so it is no surprise that many of the industrial developments Kai was a part of were far more impressive in size and complexity than the ones we see in Australia.

We caught up with Kai to hear about some of his favourite past industrial developments including China’s largest malting and brewing tower and a beer brewing plant for the largest beverage company in the world.

Beer Brewing Plant for China Resource Snow Breweries LTD

As Senior Structural Engineer, Kai worked on the 56,000m2 industrial building for the largest brewery company in China. A major part of Kai’s work on this project as Senior Structural Engineer was the underground utility tunnels and retaining walls, including working with hydraulic and landscape professionals to optimize the infrastructure design plan. A testament to Kai and his team’s excellent work over 8 months on site, this project was awarded the Excellent Engineering and Design Award in China Light Industry of 2015.

Malting and Brewing Plant for Tsingtao

Across 120,000 m² and standing 109 meters high and 30 meters wide, this malting and brewing tower is the largest in China still to this date. As Senior Structural Engineer, Kai liaised with other project consultants and completed the structural design drawing, structural models and construction documentation. This project led the way for the adoption of prestressed reinforced concrete and was again awarded the Excellent Engineering and Design Award in 2013.

Beer Brewing Plant for Anheuser-Busch InBev

Built for the largest beverage company in the world, this enormous beer brewing plant spread across 110,000 m² and required coordination with Anheuser-Busch InBev’s inhouse engineers to meet their global uniform design standard as well as national standards. Kai and the project team delivered a highly efficient design which led to them continuing several more similar projects for the client across China.

Learnings from The Manufacturing World Leader

Kai says that the key to working on this very fast-paced industry was to reflect and document the outcomes of each design they completed so that each new project is more efficient and cost-effective than the last. “By combining our learnings from all of our past projects, we were able to create a ‘template’ which allowed us to come up with a new design very quickly and efficiently. This process was paramount to our success in the Chinese market and is why we developed long working relationships with our clients and collaborators.”

Since recently increasing our own engineering capabilities for industrial developments, Kai has once again been focusing on projects within this sector, such as the industrial office development on Campbell Avenue, and the 7-building industrial centre on Bellwood Street. As we take on more and more complex work in this sector, we are glad to have Kai as part of the team to provide a unique perspective to efficient industrial design.