The outer walls of this factory in an industrial park near Ho Chi Minh City are covered in layers of greenery that shade out rain and sunlight and help purify the air.
The plant was designed by the Swiss company Rollimarchini Architects and the global firm G8A Architects for the Swiss company Jakob Rope Systems, which specializes in the production of stainless steel wire.
The 30,000 square meter site is located in an industrial park about 50 km north of Vietnam’s largest city, in an area that has experienced significant commercial development over the past decades.
The construction of the plant means that large areas of the site have been covered with concrete, which prevents water runoff and could lead to higher temperatures and damage to existing local ecosystems.
G8A Architects and Rollimarchini Architects have come up with a greener alternative to the typical one-story factories that dominate the industrial park and its surroundings.
Instead of being horizontal and taking up too much land, the Jakob factory consists of two main vertical wings containing stacked concrete floor slabs.
The vertical location of the factory reduces the total area of ​​the building, making room for an attractive and functionally landscaped courtyard garden.
Manuel Der Hagopian, partner at G8A Architects, explained: “The client was willing to maintain a certain real state of the ground that would help cool the space and also give the local land a chance to survive.”
The arrangement of two- and three-story buildings around a courtyard refers to the organization of a typical Vietnamese village. The L-shaped design with a curved roof provides covered parking spaces next to the production area.
The production hall is ventilated by a light breeze from the porous facades of the traditional tropical buildings of the region. The architecture studio claims the factory “becomes the first project in Vietnam to offer a fully natural ventilated manufacturing facility.”
The work areas are surrounded by a façade with a horizontal geotextile pot that grows plants and filters sunlight and rainwater while providing a pleasing view of the greenery from the inside.
Greenery also “helps reduce the temperature of the atmosphere through evaporation, acting as air purifiers and binding dust particles,” the architecture studio added.
The planters are placed along the outer edge of the corridor that runs along the perimeter of the production hall. The customer company’s steel cables are used to support the façade elements, and mesh is used to create transparent balustrades when needed.
Conical concrete entrances dot the tree-lined walls, marking the main entrance to the exterior façade and the entrance to the staff dining area from the central courtyard.
The Jakob Factory project was nominated for Best Commercial Building at the 2022 Dezeen Awards, in addition to projects such as the addition of a giant greenhouse on top of a Belgian agricultural market.
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Published every Tuesday with a selection of the most important news. Plus periodic Dezeen service updates and breaking news.
Daily updates of the latest design and construction jobs posted on Dezeen Jobs. Plus rare news.
News about our Dezeen Awards program, including application deadlines and announcements. Plus periodic updates.
News from the Dezeen Events Guide, a list of the leading design events around the world. Plus periodic updates.
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