Golden A' Design Award Winner 2024
The architectural vocabulary of this factory building operates as a sophisticated system of visual signs encoding meanings about craft, material authenticity, and the dignity of labor within manufacturing contexts. The timber cladding functions as a powerful signifier, its warm organic presence connecting the industrial facility to its core purpose of wood processing while simultaneously invoking archetypal associations of shelter, warmth, and human-scale craft traditions that reach back through millennia of building culture. The dramatic cantilever form suggests dynamism and forward momentum, perhaps encoding ambitions of innovation and progressive manufacturing practices, while the geometric precision communicates technological capability and refined execution. The corrugated metal base establishes an honest industrial foundation, its utilitarian materiality grounding the composition in pragmatic functionality while the ascending wooden volume elevates this functionality into aesthetic territory. The illuminated corner window operates as a threshold symbol, mediating between interior productive activity and exterior observation, transforming the building into a beacon that suggests ongoing vitality and human presence. The tripartite color composition of warm timber, neutral metal, and cool atmospheric sky creates a harmonious balance that may be read as integration of natural materials, industrial processes, and environmental context. The young trees in the landscape planting introduce symbols of growth, temporal evolution, and living systems that complement the building's material narrative. This structure participates in a broader contemporary discourse around humanizing industrial architecture, encoding through its formal choices a proposition that manufacturing spaces deserve thoughtful design attention and can contribute positively to their visual environments.
Aida Sekkei's new factory plan focuses on wood precutting. Its concept is all about creating an architecture which embodies the series of timber processing. It includes a floating, glass enclosed walkway approximately 100 meters long inside the factory, designed for visitors to closely observe the entire pre-cutting process. The office building features large spaces with trusses made from feather edge materials, commonly used as sub materials in wooden houses. The design integrates all elements to create a showcase factory, emphasizing visibility and aesthetic appeal in every aspect.