Global design firm HKS, has announced the launch of its new Mission Critical practice for EMEA, building on the success of the company’s US Mission Critical studio. William Ringer, who has over 10 years’ experience in the field, has been appointed to lead the new practice area.

The initial focus of the new studio will be to support existing clients with expansion into the UK, Europe and the Middle East, before building up its own client base. Established in 2016, the US Mission Critical team has responded to the need for data centre facilities within various industries beyond enterprise and institutions. Working with a broad clientele to deliver state-of-the-art facilities has allowed the practice to foster a reputation as a trusted partner, designing secure facilities with flexibility, functionality and efficiency in mind.

The team is able to support with a variety of project types, from free-standing buildings to co-location sites and data centres incorporated within an organisation’s existing facilities. Clients range from Enterprise, Colocation, Hyperscale, Institutional and US Department of Energy projects.

In his role as Studio Practice Leader, Ringer brings experience of leading more than 25 mission critical projects in 10 countries, including the UAE, Israel, China, Netherlands and the UK. He has experience across the project lifecycle, from the master planning stage, through to construction phasing and improving operational logistics. 

Ringer will be based in HKS’ London office, which will enable collaboration with the rest of the London studio, for example, working with the Master Planning team to unlock maximum value from land allocated to data centres, or working with the Venues team on the integration of data centres at large sports venues. 

William Ringer, Studio Practice Leader, Mission Critical, said: “Data centres are a modern-day utility and critical in the everyday functioning of organisations around the world. To date, their design has focussed on the machines they house – we aim to look more holistically and focus too on the humans that work within them. We’re also taking environmental considerations seriously. It’s no secret that data centres use a huge amount of energy but we are looking at how renewable sources can be used and how we best position data centres to utilise this energy.”

Francis Gallagher, Managing Director EMEA, said: “We welcome William to the HKS EMEA team, and look forwrad to exploring new opportunities in the Mission Critical space. HKS provides a broad range of practice areas – from hotels to hospitals, schools to sports stadiums, and now data centres – we’re trusted by clients to design essential infrastructure as well as tourist and leisure spaces. While diverse, we see our practice areas as complementary to one another – hospitals, schools and sports stadiums all require data centres, and we can support with the design of these, to ensure they are fully integrated with the main buildings.”