MehulFactories don't have to be huge, ominous gray buildings pouring smoke into the sky—this is an image of a late 19th-century factory, and it's hardly the norm in modern-day design. Companies around the world are focused on integrating "concerns for the inhabitants, surroundings, sustainability, and the overall corporeal imagery" into their buildings, says Diane Lewis, a practicing architect and professor in Cooper Union's architecture school. Cutting-edge industrial buildings no longer stick to one idea or design strategy, Lewis says, and our list proves just that. Here is a collection of the world's most innovative and interesting factories.
1) Bang & Olufsen
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| Bang & Olufsen |
Background: After building their first product in an attic in 1925, Peter Bang & Svend Olufsen built their first factory in Struer, Denmark two years later. Though the buildings have seen many renovations and expansions, most notably after being burned down by the Germans in World War II, the factory and headquarters remain there today. The most recent addition is the new headquarters building designed by Jan Søndergaard of KHR Architects and completed in 1998.
Why It's Unique: The headquarters building is intended to mimic Bang & Olufsen's products in terms of contrasts between lightness and heaviness, translucency and transparency. It also houses world's largest private electro-acoustic measurement facility, which includes a mock living room in which audio tests are performed.
2) Fiberline Factory
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Location: Middelfart, Denmark
Background: The Danish landscape is well-known for being mostly flat with a few hills. The architects of this factory, then focused on design that fit in well with its surrounding environment. Fiberline, a Denmark-based fiberglass company, commissioned Jan Søndergaard of the KHR architecture firm to design the project in 2005. Like many traditional factories, the building runs along a major highway and contains both production facilities and headquarters in the same structure.
Why It's Unique: In order to fit in with its surroundings, the building was conceived as an "artificial hillside" and was designed with the influence of its surroundings. The three bands on the outside are cuts in the opening that serve as skylights to provide the building with natural light, and they appear to resemble the bridge in the background. The eastern façade of the building has a translucent fiberglass covering, made by Fiberline to give their factory more identity
3) Mahle Metal Leve Tech Center
Location: Jundiai, Sao Paolo, Brazil
Background: This metal car part manufacturer is located in a rather peculiar place for an industrial building—the rainforest. Commissioned to design the building in 2006, Brazilian architects Roberto Loeb e Associados completed the building in 2008.
Why It's Unique: Located in the Atlantic rainforest reserve, the architects designed the building to maintain the landscape's original topography, and to be environmentally friendly by using natural lighting. Perhaps most intriguing however, are the large reflective pools on the roof that help maintain air humidity, decrease the heat inside the building, and to provide large water reserves in case of a fire
4) Rioglass Solar Production Plant
Location: Lena, Spain
Background: Architects from the D. Villanueva Arquitectos firm were brought out to the Atlantic side of Spain to design and construct the factory for this solar panel manufacturer. The goal was to create something unconventional that still had the same cost as a traditional factory.
Why It's Unique: The Rioglass plant is traditional in that it uses concrete paneling, but it has a modified "skyline" in which it replaces the usual sandwich panel (cement and stone wafers stuffed with insulation) with glass. The glass panels are made with steel frames manufactured at the workshop in order to save costs, and the glass itself is made from silk printed tempered glass, with colors chosen to coincide with the colors of the landscape in which the factory resides
5) Serta International Center
Location: Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Background: The mattress company's factory made a rare U.S. appearance in the World Architecture Festival for factory design, finding a place on the award shortlist in 2009. Designed by the architecture firm Epstein, the building houses 65,000 square feet of office, wholesale show room, and presentation areas along with a 25,000 square foot research & development center.
Why It's Unique: In planning and designing the building, Epstein focused their priorities on the mental and physical health of Serta's workers. This factored into the decision to build the plant next to a natural wetlands system, as well as the incorporation of natural light, natural ventilation, outdoor workspaces, and plenty of views of the wetlands for workers. In order, to maintain these features equally throughout the building, it is constructed horizontally, rather than vertically.
6) Volkswagen Transparent Factory
Location: Dresden, Gernmany
Background: This factory is made almost entirely of glass, hence it's German name "Gläserne Manufaktur," which literally translates as "factory made of glass." The factory, completed in 2001 by German architecture firm Henn Architekten, is the final location in the assembly of Volkswagen cars, and it's main focus is the company's luxury sedan line, the Phaeton.
Why It's Unique: This glass factory is designed to make the production process transparent to everyone. This was accomplished by making the walls inside the factory with glass, and by making it visitor-friendly, with no smokestacks, loud noises or toxic byproducts. Glaserne Manufaktur can accommodate up to 250 tourists per day, and also plays host to various exhibitions and events.
7) Audi R8
Background: The Danish landscape is well-known for being mostly flat with a few hills. The architects of this factory, then focused on design that fit in well with its surrounding environment. Fiberline, a Denmark-based fiberglass company, commissioned Jan Søndergaard of the KHR architecture firm to design the project in 2005. Like many traditional factories, the building runs along a major highway and contains both production facilities and headquarters in the same structure.
Why It's Unique: In order to fit in with its surroundings, the building was conceived as an "artificial hillside" and was designed with the influence of its surroundings. The three bands on the outside are cuts in the opening that serve as skylights to provide the building with natural light, and they appear to resemble the bridge in the background. The eastern façade of the building has a translucent fiberglass covering, made by Fiberline to give their factory more identity
3) Mahle Metal Leve Tech Center
Background: This metal car part manufacturer is located in a rather peculiar place for an industrial building—the rainforest. Commissioned to design the building in 2006, Brazilian architects Roberto Loeb e Associados completed the building in 2008.
Why It's Unique: Located in the Atlantic rainforest reserve, the architects designed the building to maintain the landscape's original topography, and to be environmentally friendly by using natural lighting. Perhaps most intriguing however, are the large reflective pools on the roof that help maintain air humidity, decrease the heat inside the building, and to provide large water reserves in case of a fire
4) Rioglass Solar Production Plant
Background: Architects from the D. Villanueva Arquitectos firm were brought out to the Atlantic side of Spain to design and construct the factory for this solar panel manufacturer. The goal was to create something unconventional that still had the same cost as a traditional factory.
Why It's Unique: The Rioglass plant is traditional in that it uses concrete paneling, but it has a modified "skyline" in which it replaces the usual sandwich panel (cement and stone wafers stuffed with insulation) with glass. The glass panels are made with steel frames manufactured at the workshop in order to save costs, and the glass itself is made from silk printed tempered glass, with colors chosen to coincide with the colors of the landscape in which the factory resides
5) Serta International Center
Background: The mattress company's factory made a rare U.S. appearance in the World Architecture Festival for factory design, finding a place on the award shortlist in 2009. Designed by the architecture firm Epstein, the building houses 65,000 square feet of office, wholesale show room, and presentation areas along with a 25,000 square foot research & development center.
Why It's Unique: In planning and designing the building, Epstein focused their priorities on the mental and physical health of Serta's workers. This factored into the decision to build the plant next to a natural wetlands system, as well as the incorporation of natural light, natural ventilation, outdoor workspaces, and plenty of views of the wetlands for workers. In order, to maintain these features equally throughout the building, it is constructed horizontally, rather than vertically.
6) Volkswagen Transparent Factory
Location: Dresden, Gernmany
Background: This factory is made almost entirely of glass, hence it's German name "Gläserne Manufaktur," which literally translates as "factory made of glass." The factory, completed in 2001 by German architecture firm Henn Architekten, is the final location in the assembly of Volkswagen cars, and it's main focus is the company's luxury sedan line, the Phaeton.
Why It's Unique: This glass factory is designed to make the production process transparent to everyone. This was accomplished by making the walls inside the factory with glass, and by making it visitor-friendly, with no smokestacks, loud noises or toxic byproducts. Glaserne Manufaktur can accommodate up to 250 tourists per day, and also plays host to various exhibitions and events.
7) Audi R8
Location: Necarksulm, Germany
Background: This factory dates all the way back to 1873 when it was established as a knitting machinery factory. A few years later they started producing penny-farthings, and slowly moved in the direction of car manufacturing thereafter. In 1969, the owners of the factory, NSU Motorenwerke AG, were purchased by Volkswagen and merged with Auto Union to form Audi, who runs the factory today. Though only half the size of Audi's main factory and headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, the factory is the location for manufacturing
Why It's Unique: Unlike most high-volume body shops, where all pieces are assembled and welded by robots, welding for the R8 is done by humans. Robots are used to line the parts up, and the human workers fuse them together. In total, it takes 120 Audi employees one week to produce a single R8. Fortunately, these guys are good multi-taskers—the Neckarsulm factory produces around 28 R8's per day
Background: This factory dates all the way back to 1873 when it was established as a knitting machinery factory. A few years later they started producing penny-farthings, and slowly moved in the direction of car manufacturing thereafter. In 1969, the owners of the factory, NSU Motorenwerke AG, were purchased by Volkswagen and merged with Auto Union to form Audi, who runs the factory today. Though only half the size of Audi's main factory and headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, the factory is the location for manufacturing
Why It's Unique: Unlike most high-volume body shops, where all pieces are assembled and welded by robots, welding for the R8 is done by humans. Robots are used to line the parts up, and the human workers fuse them together. In total, it takes 120 Audi employees one week to produce a single R8. Fortunately, these guys are good multi-taskers—the Neckarsulm factory produces around 28 R8's per day
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