Vestre’s The Plus factory won the Sustainability Award of the Year in the Scandinavian Design Awards at last month’s Stockholm Furniture Fair.
The 75,000sqft factory in Magnor, Norway, near the Swedish border, is the only furniture factory to achieve the BREEAM Outstanding environmental certification. The plant cost £27.7m, including £4.9m to achieve the standard.
‘A role model for sustainability. A great dedication and determination in achieving ambitious sustainability objectives, while engaging over 100 partners in a multi-disciplinary collaboration, has resulted in the development of a variety of innovative solutions and the establishment of the most sustainable furniture factory in the world. There has been a strong focus on creating an attractive and beautiful building that is open to visitors and engages the local community. By setting high sustainability objectives and taking full responsibility for the entire value chain, Vestre serves as a role model for climate transition, with sustainability and business going hand in hand,’ says the awards jury.
The street furniture manufacturer built The Plus because it needed a factory with more space for assembling furniture and its own premises for woodworking and polyester powder coating – The Wood Factory and The Color Factory at The Plus. It replaces its 10-year old factory in Torsby, Sweden which will now focus on the production of steel and aluminum components. The four production areas – The Wood Factory, The Color Factory, the assembly department and the warehouse – are arrayed around a central courtyard that forms the very heart of the building. The geometry provides an open and efficient workflow, while allowing all
four wings of the factory to be in direct contact with the forest that surrounds it. At the centre of the building lies the experience centre, which provides 360-degree views of the whole production process.
Because the junction between the four wings needs to accommodate all production-related traffic smoothly and efficiently, it has been designed in the shape of an indoor roundabout. This leaves space for an open-air central courtyard where Vestre can showcase its furniture collections. A colourful staircase leads visitors and employees up to the experience centre and office.
By raising one corner of each wing of the factory, the architects created a view from the roof that alternates between the forest canopy and the production halls. The view from the roof shows how the factory’s propeller-like wings form a reciprocal system that creates not only a logistical hub but a structural nexus. The four wings will have a 21m, free-spanning gluelam frame construction. A 3m-wide braced service corridor houses the technical infrastructure and provides structural stability for each wing. Ducts in the factory floor allow power, compressed air and ventilation to be routed to the relevant machinery, ensuring that as much of this infrastructure as possible is hidden away.
To add a sense of playfulness to the factory, each machine is coated in one of Vestre’s RAL colours, which spill out over the floor to create an archipelago of colours that link back to the central roundabout. Since each factory wing has its own colour code, this mapping of the machinery provides an orientation system in an otherwise completely symmetrical space. With this visual reference, it is easy to identify, trace and explain the workflow. Vestre wants to create a new perception of what manufacturing looks like and, as part of that, the colours are intended to be particularly appealing to children.
The building’s facade material is charred larch timber cladding. The aim is to make the tree almost maintenancefree and it is also fire and fungal retardant. ‘Everything is possible for Our Lord and a mechanic,’ was Johs Vestre’s motto when he established his first engineering workshop in a former German barracks in Haugesund in 1947. ‘We will now prove that it is possible to achieve profitable and environmentally friendly manufacturing in a high-cost country like Norway.
The Plus is the largest single investment in the furniture industry that Norway has seen for decades. And if Vestre can, so can others. We believe this project will inspire others to initiate similar projects. The Plus will have a huge symbolic impact and extensive ripple effects,’ says the company.
The Plus generates 55% less greenhouse gas emissions than a conventional factory. These substantial cuts in emission levels are possible because The Plus has a building shell that meets Passivehaus standards and
a load-bearing structure that is constructed from solid wood, as well as low-carbon concrete and recycled reinforcing steel. In addition, a combination of fossil-free and emission-free machines were used during construction.
In theory, less than 1% of all new non-domestic buildings achieve the extremely high BREEAM Outstanding classification, although in practice it is even more difficult. There are currently no industrial projects in the Nordic region that are close to qualifying as Outstanding. Through this project, Vestre is aiming to show that industrial In theory, less than 1% of all new non-domestic buildings achieve the extremely high BREEAM Outstanding classification, although in practice it is even more difficult. There are currently no industrial projects in the Nordic region that are close to qualifying as Outstanding. Through this project, Vestre is aiming to show that industrial projects can also be global innovators in the environmental field.
The Plus qualifies for the highest energy efficiency rating A. The building scores maximum points for energy efficiency and Passivehaus standard, under BREEAM Ene 1 and Ene 23. The factory has an exceptional insulation rating, windows with minimal energy loss and an advanced energy supply system combining solar power, heat exchangers and a series of geothermal wells. It has a supplied energy requirement of 13 kWh per sqm and meets FutureBuilt’s near-zero energy definition of 30 kWh per sqm by a large margin. In practice, the building will not need any heating until the outdoor temperature falls below 5degC.
The factory will generate around 250,000kWh of renewable energy per year, from more than 1,200 solar panels installed on the roof and in the area around the factory. In addition, it uses surplus heat from production to heat the building. The surplus heat system is connected to an ice-water plant for cooling, as well as heat and cold storage tanks, heat pumps and geothermal wells that provide storage support. Together, this means the building’s energy requirement is 90% lower than that of a similar conventional factory.
Vestre was one of the first companies to order the world’s first fully electric truck, the Tesla Semi. Through 100% emission-free transport between the Magnor and Torsby factories diesel consumption is cut by more than 55,000litres a year, equivalent to 71,000kg of carbon dioxide.
Over 90% of the water used in production is recycled. Originally, an industrial development was planned for the Magnor site, which would have seen the felling of about 75acres of planted pine forest. The Plus occupies just 5% of the site and Vestre is working with the local council to draw up a plan to preserve the area’s natural environment and gradually develop a greater diversity of flora and fauna, including covering the roof with vegetation that corresponds as closely as possible to that currently growing at the site and allowing the forest to grow wild, without the introduction of nonnative species or – as today – forest management and clearing activities.
Vestre’s products come with a lifetime warranty against rust and a 15-year guarantee on their surface coating and woodwork. But the company is not stopping there. Vestre’s vision is to not make a single product that cannot live forever. This is possible through correct use and maintenance and a scheme whereby worn-out furniture can, after many years of use, be returned to the factory for restoration and reuse. The Plus has a
dedicated circular production line, which has been set up to handle such tasks in an efficient and energy-saving way. As a result, the factory will continually produce circular products – some for the first time, while others will be at the factory for the second or third time.
This kind of circular furniture production enables the company to dramatically reduce its energy consumption.
Visit: www.theplus.no