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The idea was to celebrate the site, and to create a sense of lightness where the building touches the ground. the project site was once a working farmland with an extensive network of irrigation canals, and the horizon runs far and wide. The environment and historical background of the Grand Canal compel us to work with this original state in a physical and visceral way. Through this concept design proposal, in a post-industrial world today, Neri&Hu reflects on the very nature of a factory, its manufacturing capacity in a globally connected world, and the impact of research and innovation on society at large.
Even though the brief asks for considerable floor areas across multiple levels, we want the workers and visitors to have a constant awareness of the factory’s surroundings. We interpret the surroundings to include the physical environment and the historical context. Located along branches of the Grand Canal in Jiaxing, the future Camerich factory is at the intersection between industry and culture. The Grand Canal, an ancient engineering feat that dates back as early as 500 B.C., has connected the vast territory between Beijing and Hangzhou with about 1794 kilometers in length. Since the Sui Dynasty in the 7th century, this artificial river has been instrumental in the development of local economy and a number of urban centers.
The project takes consideration for daylighting, natural ventilation as well as using recycled materials. Our goal is to incorporate remnants of the excavations and site work into the final construction, as wall assembly infills and other non-structural elements. This method of recycling construction waste also relates back to the modern land art movement originating from the 1960s, in which markings by boulders, rocks and other natural elements stand in stark contrast with the open field. The section of the hovering metal roof forming the clerestory level allows for the passage of both air and light into the production spaces. This departs from conventional spaces of production, which often rely on artificial lighting and more hermetically enclosed interiors.
Inspired by the innovation in flexibility and systematic management of space and production from the industrial revolution, our approach is to allow standardization and mechanization to create a central spatial experience. The dominant sense of permanence is imparted by the overall factory massing, which is further emphasized through the rigorous repetition of the structural members. Rendered in red concrete, articulated beams and posts can be seen directly on the façade, as if the productive spaces inside the factory register themselves onto the exterior. The design of the regular structural bays is informed by systems thinking, wherein flexibility and efficiency of production are optimized. The overall organizational strategy defines parallel rows of manufacturing areas, each separated by a double-height gallery featuring clerestories to accommodate larger scale equipment, as well as to introduce natural light into the heart of the factory. To connect the production rows with other support facilities and offices, an elevated ring is established to distribute and connect various areas across the expansive factory floors. The stepping tower orients its most substantial elevation to the north, facing the visitors’ arrival plaza, also creating the possibility of daylight penetrating into most parts of the building. R&D, exhibition, traveling staff apartments, and public amenities are housed on different levels, each with access to internal atriums or exterior hanging gardens.
Neri&Hu envisions a project that anticipates its own history, one that is at once particular and universal. Particular - as machines, logistics and technical know-how will always grow by leaps and bounds, requiring architecture to be capable of adaptation; universal - as weathering, passing of time and materials decay will result in how the building is occupied as well as its relationship to nature.
Founded in 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office is an inter-disciplinary architectural design practice based in Shanghai. The practice’s burgeoning global portfolio includes commissions ranging from master planning and architecture, to interior design, installation, furniture, product, branding and graphic works. Currently working on projects in many countries, Neri&Hu is composed of multi-cultural staff who speak over 30 different languages. The diversity of the team reinforces a core vision for the practice: to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a new paradigm in architecture.
Neri&Hu’s location is purposeful. With Shanghai considered a new global frontier, Neri&Hu is in the immediate center of this contemporary chaos. The city’s cultural, urban, and historic contexts function as a point of departure for design inquiries that span across a wide spectrum of scales.
