Copenhagen, Denmark
Bjarke Ingels Group has completed a new 7,000-square-meter furniture factory for Vestre, a Norwegian furniture manufacturer in the heart of a Norwegian forest.
The factory structure has a plus shape thus the project is named The Plus.
The building comprises four wings for the company’s main production halls and logistic lines.
The four main halls incorporate a warehouse, color factory, wood factory, and assembly while featuring a large central courtyard with a spiral staircase that climbs to the roof of the building.
The Plus is designed as a new furniture factory, experience center, and a 300-acre public park located in the village of Magnor, at the geographical midpoint between Vestre’s headquarters in Oslo and the company’s existing steel factory in Torsby, Sweden.
Bjarke Ingels Group has created a colorful manufacturing village dedicated to the cleanest, carbon-neutral fabrication of urban furniture, allowing fresh and modern spaces for different manufacturing facilities and high-efficiency production of the future.
It is made of locally sourced timber, low-carbon concrete, and recycled steel.
The project is set to become the first industrial building to achieve the highest environmental BREEAM Outstanding rating.
According to the architects, the factory will generate 50 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than a conventional factory.
“The factory has an efficiency rating of A+ and the building will generate around 250,000 kWh of renewable energy per year,” says the office.
Moreover, Vestre will use 100 percent electric vehicles for transportation.
“The Plus will be the world’s most environmentally friendly furniture factory. Building The Plus is an important step in reaching this goal,” said Stefan Tjust, CEO of Vestre.
“By using cutting-edge technology and Scandinavian collaboration, we can produce faster and greener than ever. In that way we will ensure global competitiveness through our leadership in environmentally-conscious production,” Tjust adds.
Bjarke Ingels Group has designed an efficient and flexible layout that allows transparent workflow between the manufacturing units and an intuitive visitor experience.
Envisioned like a flowchart, the interior spaces are organized with the color of each machine overflowing to the floors.
“Exploring The Plus feels like moving through an archipelago of colorful islands where the experience and overview of the factory’s activities are unified,” BIG adds.
At the heart of the building, the studio designed two exhibition centers, Vestre Energy and Clean Water Center where the public can learn about energy, water, and circular design.
While a logistics office offers direct connections to all four production halls, it allows Vestre’s team to process logistical traffic with maximum efficiency.
The courtyard doubles as a “panopticon” for visitors and staff to fully experience the factory’s production processes.
Each wing has one alternating ceiling corner lifted to create inclined roofs that allow views into the production halls as well as the forest outside.
Along with the color and wood factory, the sloping roofs are extended to form a pathway for visitors and staff to hike up and down the building while observing the production processes inside.
All four production units were built with 21-meter free-spanning with Cross-Laminated Timber to create flexible column free-spaces.
From all four sides of the buildings, visitors and staff are invited to hike around the facility and end their walk on the green roof terrace.
On the rooftop, the firm places 900 photovoltaic panels and they are angled according to optimal solar efficiency while effective construction and materials methods are implemented, including rainwater collection systems, heat, and cooling systems, green roofs, electric vehicles, and much else that contribute to almost 90 percent lower energy demand than that of a conventional factory.
An ADA-accessible ramp will allow wheelchairs and strollers to enjoy the serpentine path and the experience of being surrounded by pine trees on all sides.
Visitors and kids are able to use the roof freely with yellow-colored railing and experience the surrounding with mesmerizing views.
“Proving that production can be sustainable and profitable even in a high-cost country like Norway, The Plus – a hybrid of a transparent and open production facility, a public park, and a literal green landmark for the manufacturing industry – exemplifies how advancements in fabrication and manufacturing can help shape both the factories of the future and the way we experience them,” adds BIG.
BIG selected all materials carefully to have a minimum environmental impact, while the facade was constructed from local timber, low-carbon concrete, and recycled reinforcement steel.
Every aspect of the design is derived from principles of renewable and clean energy to meet Vestre’s eco-friendly production, such as ensuring a minimum of 50 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions than comparable factories.
Project: The Plus
Architects: Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG
Lead Architects: Bjarke Ingels, David Zahle, Ole Elkjaer-Larsen
Project Leader: Viktoria Millentrup
Project Manager: Eva Seo-Andersen, Tommy Bjørnstrup
Design Team: Agnieszka Wardzinska, Ákos Márk Horváth, Ariana Szmedra, Cheng-Huang Lin, Claudia Bertolotti, Eduardo Javier Sosa Trevino, Eva Seo-Andersen, Ewa Zapiec, Filip Fot, Frederik Skou Jensen, Jenna Kaisa Hukkinen, Jonas Høgh Rask, Julia Novaes Tabet, Julien Bernard Jacques Picard, Julius Victor Schneevoigt, Ksenia Zhitomirskaya, Luca Pileri, Magni Waltersson, Nanna Gyldholm Møller, Neringa Jurkonyte, Ningnan Ye, Palita Tungjaroen, Rron Bexheti, Steen Kortbæk Svendsen, Thor Larsen-Lechuga, Tobias Hjortdal, Xingyue Huang, and Zuzanna Eugenia Montwill
BIG Engineering Team: Andrea Hektor, Andrew Robert Coward, Duncan Horswill, Andreas Bak, Edward Durie, Bjarke Koch-Ørvad, Cecilie Søs Brandt-Olsen, Jesper Kanstrup Petersen, Sui King Yu, Tristan Robert Harvey, Miles Treacy, and Kaoan Hengles De Lima
BIG Landscape Architects: Giulia Frittoli , Ulla Hornsyld, Ariana Ribas, Marcel Götz, Anne Katrine Sandstrøm, and Camille Inès Sophie Breuil
BIG Sustainability Team: Tore Banke, Alexander Matthias Jacobson, Frederic Lucien Engasser, and Katrine Juul
Client: Vestre AS
Photographers: Einar Aslaksen
