vitsoe factory, leamington spa

One case study of a contemporary architectural building that applies and understands the importance of sustainability in their design and process is the Vitsoe Factory. Located in Leamington Spa, England. Vitsoe factory was designed and constructed in 2017 with the most advanced modern technology and technique to achieve a sustainable outcome. Vitsoe’s awareness of sustainability and humility values are applied in every stage of the design process, construction and future implications of the building’s use and created in design that beautifully crafted and sensitive towards environmental context.

In the case of how sustainable Vitsoe is, a deep analysis of their company’s production and building construction can be seen on Appendix 1 which was examined against the newest released framework by the World Green Building Council as a guideline to sustainable building designs.

Vitsoe, without doubt, covers sustainability aspect towards their design and building’s performance. On the other hand, Vitsoe’s approach to humility was not reached in a straightforward manner but still covers humility’s aspect in their design. The first part of humility where Vitsoe Factory achieves is even with the high economic demand of architecture and design, Vitsoe still succeeds to produce a humble building. Modern buildings commonly focuses on profits ask it was following the demands of its stakeholders and resulting in putting aside humility and sustainability on their design.

Instead as a modern building, Vitsoe was built from the importance of meeting both economic values and sustainability (Vitsoe, 2019). One example that can be seen through Vitsoe Factory that it was designed to fit into any changes in the future. The timber-framed structure of Vitsoe Factory allows the company to add and reduce spaces to fit the current need of the factory. May be seen as a simple gesture and highly profitable but at the same time, it minimizes environmental and climate impact from the building to the context. They managed to implicate the abstract quality of modernism and at the same time able to stay humble and sustainable towards the different field of their journey as a company.

Second, Vitsoe uses modern technology and techniques to be more humble. Advance technology in modernist architecture usually has embodied a great negative impact on the environment with a high carbon footprint. Oppositely, Vitsoe manipulates advanced technology that does not obstruct the environment but work alongside with nature to produce new technology and techniques that is better and sustainable for the modern architecture to learn from. One of the case how Vitsoe able to starch technology to its advance is by using Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) in their structural plan (Fig. 17) which is a new material that is used in the building environment. LVL roof beams span the full 25 meters width of the factory, this is not only a sustainable and renewable resources material but also able to span in greater length as good or even better than a usual concrete modernist structural system.

Vitsoe Factory is certainly not vernacular nor inspired and reflecting any local British vernacular architecture aspects, but it is undoubtedly both sustainable and humble. It proves that in the contemporary architecture industry, the progress towards better and sustainable designs are improving. The advantage that the Vitsoe factory has laid in its nature as a company. Vitsoe, have the aim and design core that allows its goods and services to be as sustainable and humble as it might be (Vitsoe, 2019). In reality, not all modern and contemporary clients have the same focus and aim as Vitsoe.

The nature of modernism that still faces tectonic mishaps which commonly caused due to initial financial constrain or maybe ignorant, sometimes both, (Porteous, 2002) is nevertheless a big factor for a modernist building to be not as sustainable as Vitsoe. Vitsoe Factory was built with a high budget coming from their supporting loyal clients which allow them to be built with renewable material (LVL) that is undoubtedly expensive and with its company design principles (Vitsoe, 2019), they manage to naturally carried to a more sustainable outcome than other modernist projects. It can be said that Vitsoe factory successfulness as a green contemporary came effortlessly than other modernist projects that do not have sustainable design core to its name. Not to say that it is hard or impossible to achieve sustainable and humble architecture design but the reality of the modern built environment makes it cheaper and easier to be ignorant and unsustainable.