Orchard Manufacturing Co. Office / Bent Architecture
Orchard Manufacturing Co. Office / Bent Architecture
Text description provided by the architects. Orchard Manufacturing offers a new approach to factory design, one which creates a happy and healthy workplace inspired by nature.
As a company, Orchard Manufacturing espouses a natural ethos, yet it’s hard to imagine an environment further removed from nature than a manufacturing plant! Inspired by the ideology of artist and activist, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, this new production facility is different. It takes the spirit of the surrounding natural world and weaves it through the interior of an existing warehouse shell.
“The spiral lies at that very point where inanimate matter is transformed into life. I am convinced, for example, that the act of creation has the nature of a spiral. The true spiral is not geometric but vegetative. It has swellings, becomes thinner and thicker, and flows around obstacles who are in her way.” Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Harnessing the vegetative spirals of Hundertwasser, the spirit of the landscape – expressed through color and texture – is encouraged to flow from the nearby indigenous reserve into the interior of the production facility. These elements ebb and flow around the interior, informing the selection of finishes and materials and even inspiring naturally undulating floors.
The project creates an engaging and vibrant work environment, the antithesis of the sterile and oppressive environments we typically associate with production facilities. Colour, texture, and organic shapes create an uplifting and exciting space, bringing a smile to employees’ and visitors’ faces alike.
