Sydney, Scherfede, 7 November 2022 – Lödige Industries has completed a fully autonomous car park for the new luxury high-rise "The Lennox" in Sydney’s Parramatta District. The system is the very first of its kind in the southern hemisphere using Lödige Industries robotic ‘CUBILE’ technology. The building's nine-level basement combines three levels of conventional parking with six additional levels for the automated parking system, with capacity for 327 vehicles. Thanks to efficient use of space, the automated parking levels required less than 15m excavation, which, given the sedimentary rock in the area, allowed for significant cost savings in the excavation and reduced building impact. In addition to the reduced footprint below the surface, the facility relieves pressure on the urban living space of its popular neighbouring shopping and restaurant district by ensuring residents can make use of a sufficient number of parking spaces inside the building at all times.
Completed in November 2021, the 149-metre building is one of Australia's most modern skyscrapers. With a total of 46 floors and 6,300 square metres of space, "The Lennox" houses 414 apartments. The building contractor EQ Construction, developer Aoyuan International, and the architects, Marchese Partners, designed the building as a luxury property, which comes with a fitness studio, Zen Garden, community function room, indoor pool and a concierge service. The automated parking system by Lödige Industries supports this concept with its practical, time-saving, and convenient use. Residents will use a modern and intuitive smartphone app developed by Lödige Industries to retrieve their cars.
With a payload of up to 2.5 tonnes per vehicle, the system can handle all common cars and SUVs. Users only need to drop off their vehicle at one of a total of five transfer cabins. From this point everything is automatic. The transfer cabin’s gate closes, and the car is transported to the parking level, where it is moved by flat robots, the 'Lödige Shifter' onto a horizontal transfer vehicle and delivered to a free parking space. Here the robots once again lift the vehicle by its tyres and move it into the parking space. This enables the most efficient use of the space in the parking facility. Up to 60 percent more cars can be placed in the same space in comparison to conventional parking structures. In view of high property prices in the construction area, the space-saving system is an attractive alternative for developers due to its cost-effectiveness, while increasing user comfort at the same time.
Lödige Industries’ intelligent system software monitors and controls all storage processes. The software calculates the most efficient parking positions as well as access and departure routes for the cars. Approximately 90 vehicles can be parked or retrieved per hour. In consideration of the size of the system, very fast pick-up times of around 2 minutes can be achieved. Just as with drop-off, users simply need to pick up their vehicle from the transfer cabins. This avoids the search for parking spaces and the risk of accidents. In addition to the time savings, the parking system creates a modern and practical user experience that underlines the prestigious character of the high-rise building.
Lödige Industries started working on the site in 2020 and, despite the challenges posed by the Covid 19 pandemic, was able to complete the parking component of the project on schedule in August 2021. During planning and construction, the global specialist was able to draw on the experience of numerous projects worldwide, including Europe’s largest automated parking system with close to one thousand spaces. Australia is an important market for Lödige Industries and offers great potential in the area of automated parking systems as well as in air cargo terminals. Together with the Australian company, MecFab Enterprises, part of Lödige Industries since 2021, which specializes in plant engineering and maintenance at airports, the company has been strengthening its activities in Australia and Oceania for years and continues to expand its network there. Customers in Australia include Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne airports, which have been equipped with fully automated air freight handling systems, as well as DHL and Australia Post, which rely on the company's innovative lifting and conveying solutions.
“Sydney is one of the world’s most desirable places to live in. Aoyuan International has made a name for itself here with ultra-luxurious residential projects such as One30 Hyde Park, Esplanade Norwest, Woolooware Bay and now The Lennox Parramatta. World-leading architecture, innovative design and superior finishes are important in all our projects. For The Lennox we wanted both a modern functionality and timeless aesthetic combined with our customary meticulous quality and craftsmanship. The automated parking technology from Lödige Industries offers both the innovative functionality and luxurious user experience we were keen to create and the performance we needed to see.” says Adrian Liaw, President of Aoyuan International and Head of Development Australia.
“Building anywhere in the Sydney market, comes with its own challenges in terms of rock excavation and space limitations. For ‘The Lennox’ we wanted to offer residents the very best in terms of comfort and space as well as luxury living experience in the heart of Parramatta. To do that we needed an experienced partner that could deliver the ultimate user experience we wanted, with the space-saving solution that we needed. In Lödige Industries we found that partner. Their experience with close to 2 million vehicles parked in Europe’s largest automated parking system made us want to bring this technology to Sydney as well.”, said Bill Farrell from EQ Constructions.
"Efficiency and aesthetics do not have to be a contradiction and can complement each other very well. Our automated parking facility at ‘The Lennox’ proves this. While the state-of-the-art system provides as many parking positions as possible in a space-saving manner, it also contributes to the modern and sophisticated ambience of the new building by providing a convenient and modern user experience," says Nicholas Tripptree, Managing Director for Lödige Industries in Asia Pacific.
