Factories That Blend Functionality and Design

Salpi Factory

This prosciutto factory features a sustainable design that uses solar energy to power itself. The green roof that helps with the building's thermal insulation, also cuts roof maintenance expenses and reduces possible sound pollution coming out of the plant; these properties are heightened in the partially buried portion of the project, as it's surrounded by a thicker layer of vegetation and soil.

The glass facade acts as a showcase of the product, as it allows the visitors to look at the prosciutto legs as they hang to dry in climate-controlled rooms. In other areas of the building, the glass facade reflects its natural surroundings owing to mirror finishes and the large pools in the middle of the patio which are there to collect rain water.

The project's green design solutions allowed it to opt for a LEED certificate.

Machine in a Box

This building designed for Nissan was to host a top-of-the-line 5 axing milling machine; the client asked for the outside of the building to reflect the high-technology operating on the inside while adhering to an austere budget. The materials and constructive methods used to build this giant "box" were chosen to reflect the spirit of the machine working on the inside, a simple yet complex artifact that looks ethereal as it carves full sized car models out of clay; these characteristics were then conceptualized and translated into design. The box was made using pre-fab industrial elements which give a high-tech element to the project; the texture of the facade made with semi-translucid glass and steel pieces add to the ethereal aspect of the project as it gives out a subtle luminescence when the lights are on, especially at night.

Aimer Fashion Factory

This factory which hosts one of China's biggest lingerie brands is meant to represent the company holistically, taking every aspect of what the brand represents into consideration: from how it shows itself to the public, to the operations taking place inside it, to their employees' well-being, it was all carefully researched and designed to show exactly how the company wished to be recognized by the public.

To plan the program and its configuration, the architects conducted an extensive study of the relationships within spaces and between spaces and employees; the combined data was used to create the most efficient and employee-friendly organization possible; since the factory includes sleeping accommodations for 600 people, it was imperative to make the factory feel welcoming and comfortable for them. To do so, they used the concept of "danwei", differentiating working areas from living areas.

The Farm of 38° 30°

This boutique dairy factory takes its name from the coordinates of its location: Valley of Art 38°30°. The factory doubles as a degustation center for visitors and showroom; the visitors can take a look at the production process while they're there. The program follows a linear shape, linked to the order of the processes that take place inside the factory, and encircles the public areas of the project.

The slope of the roof was designed as a temperature control method that takes into consideration the different temperature needs of the different areas of the dairy factory. The lower sides of the building host temperature sensitive areas such as the cool storage room; the smaller volume allows an efficient cooling process, thus saving energy. The facade's vertical screens offer more or less natural illumination and translucency, depending on the area's needs.

Berluti Manufactore

The goal with this luxury shoe factory was to make a weightless-looking building that would stray away from a traditional industrial aesthetic; industrial looking objects such as visible ventilation chimneys, control booths or protruding machinery were deliberately erased from the design, rendering them invisible. The aim was to make it look and feel like a small workshop instead of a big factory; this vision comes from the brand's signature identity, which also permeates to other aspects of the design such as the prominence of untreated cedar wood on the facade that gives the project a more intimate and artisanal feeling while remaining sophisticated. On the inside, the wooden elements are made of beech instead as a nod to shoe trees, which are made of that kind of wood.

Bombay Sapphire Distillery

This production facility is a part of a masterplan designed to gift vitality to the bank of the River Test and its surroundings, which include a series of formerly derelict buildings- some of them historical.

The pre-existent building in which the factory housed itself was formerly a water-powered paper mill; since the river was the binding element of the masterplan, it was decided that the project would have to dialogue with it in some way. The crystal structures annexed to the existing building manage to link the project to the river bank in a visual and practical way, as both structures are connected to the building and aid the ventilation of residual fumes and heat product of the distillation process. Each one of the glass structures hosts a variety of exotic plants that benefit from the different degrees of heat they get from the inside: one of them harbors mediterranean plants, the other tropical vegetation.