VESTRE

VESTRE,

Reputably the most sustainable furniture factory in the world, The Plus is the largest investment in the Norwegian furniture industry for decades and won Vestre two awards at the 2023 Scandinavian Design Awards, including the Sustainability Award of the Year.

The factory has been designed for peak efficiency, with four wings, each dedicated to a stage of the production process and arranged around a central experience hub, forming the ‘+’ shape that gives the building its name.

The building’s roof is covered with natural forest vegetation as well as 900 solar panels, which supply its energy. This, together with the factory’s carefully designed working conditions, accommodation of electric heavy goods vehicles and the management of the surrounding forest, means that energy consumption in The Plus is 90% less than an equivalent factory.

Welcoming visitors all year round to come and explore both the factory and its surrounding fir forest, Vestre hopes the project will serve as a symbol of how the furniture production industry can operate sustainably, showing how ‘people, production, technology, architecture and nature’ can be ‘completely integrated in each other’.

Meanwhile, Vestre’s stand at Stockholm Furniture Fair, designed by Note design studio, expanded on the idea of sustainable stand design, using materials that were not only fully recyclable and durable, but that were also rented: meaning they could be returned to the producer after the fair and sold to the end customer in their present form.