ArchitectureBjarke Ingels Group Completes the World’s Most Eco-Friendly Furniture FactoryNorway’s Vestre, a manufacturer of furniture with Scandinavian design, is taking sustainability to another level

By David Sokol

June 8, 2022

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An aerial view of The Plus, Vestre’s new factory poised to become the first industrial building to achieve BREEAM Outstanding certification.All images are courtesy of Einar Aslaksen/BIG

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Norway’s Vestre has some impressive sustainability bona fides. In the first half of the 2010s, it became the world’s first climate-neutral outdoor furniture manufacturer, and it cut its carbon dioxide emissions by approximately two fifths between 2014 and 2016 alone. The company offsets its remaining greenhouse gas emissions by supporting forests in Papua New Guinea, and it even plants a tree for every person who subscribes to its newsletter. Vestre shrunk its carbon footprint even further last Friday when it officially opened The Plus—Vestre’s new factory. The Plus is poised to become the first industrial building to achieve BREEAM Outstanding certification.

Inside of the all-new Vestre factory, a manufacturing centre that includes a visitor center.

Located in Magnor, Norway, The Plus combines manufacturing and a visitor center in a 75,000-square-foot building whose floor plan resembles a plus sign. The design team at Bjarke Ingels Group distinguished each branch of the cruciform by program, and the warehouse, lacquer application, timber processing, and assembly areas are all color-coded to make them easier to spot. The four wings converge at a logistics office, which can keep tabs on production, as well as the Vestre Energy and Clean Water Center, where visitors learn about resource conservation and circularity in design. This area centers on a circular public courtyard, where Vestre employees will rotate the company’s furniture offerings according to the season.

Visitors can also walk a 300-acre park whose hiking trails are integrated with the facility’s sloping roofs.

Visitors should turn out in abundance, as the site includes a 300-acre park whose hiking trails are integrated with the facility’s sloping roofs. Generous fenestration along the charred larch façades encourage gazing upon Vestre’s production processes, and a pedestrian’s or wheelchair occupant’s ascent culminates in green roofs planted from seeds collected nearby. “The radical transparency invites visitors and hikers to enjoy the whole process of creation while providing Vestre’s team with the thrill of working in the middle of the forest,” architect Bjarke Ingels said in a statement. The Plus rooftop also includes 900 photovoltaic panels that are expected to generate 250,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, rooftop rainwater collection, and a 46-foot tubular slide by which adventurous guests can return to the forest floor.

Visitors will be able to enjoy various elements within the building, including a spiral staircase leading to an open air rooftop.

The Plus was constructed in 18 months using locally sourced cross-laminated timber and glulam, low-carbon concrete, and recycled steel. In addition to PV panels, energy is supplied by hydropower, a geothermal system, and 17 heat-recovery ventilator. Calculated alongside other features like its fleet of electric vehicles, Vestre estimates that The Plus consumes 90% less energy than a conventional operation of the same size.

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