‘World’s Most Sustainable’ Furniture Factory To Open As A ‘Plus’ In A Forest

In collaboration with Vestre, a Norwegian urban furniture manufacturer, the architectural Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is setting out to build the “world’s most sustainable” furniture factory, located right in the heart of the forest. 

Designed to become a village where carbon-neutral fabrication and furniture are made, The Plus’ production facility will span 6,500 square meters (70,000 square feet), with an additional 300-acre park made available to the public for hiking and camping. 

Impressively, the firm said the building will be the first in the Nordic region to be awarded BREAM Outstanding, the highest possible environmental certification. 

As part of construction, all materials used will be carefully considered according to their environmental impact, with the project opting for local timber, low-carbon concrete, and recycled reinforcement steel.

The facility’s unique shape lends to a distinct layout, with four wings including the warehouse, color factory, wood factory, and assembly center connecting in the middle, with hopes of promoting an efficient and flexible workflow among the different units. 

When employees need a break, they can simply step out into the public courtyard at the central hub, where the company will display its latest outdoor furniture collections so customers can see how the products actually respond as the seasons change. 

Inside, The Plus will tap on cutting-edge technology to help run the building, employing smart robots, self-driving trucks, and a tablet that lets the person in charge manage the entire factory with just a few taps.

Even more intriguing, visitors and staff will be able to hike up the building’s sloping roofs, which are extended to form a pathway up and down the facility for an interesting vantage point to learn about how the different production processes work. 

On the same rooftop, 1,200 photovoltaic panels will be placed to capture solar energy, with the excess heat from the panels being used in tandem with an ice-water system that can cool and heat storage tanks, heat pumps, and energy wells—making up for 90% of a typical factory’s energy demand.

Like the idea of taking strolls atop a rooftop? Check out another of BIG’s projects with a similar concept in the Czech Republic.

[via New Atlas and Bjarke Ingels Group, images via Bjarke Ingels Group]