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INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE AS LANDMARK
industrial building / January 1, 2017

Becoming a landmark is one of the most important features every industrial building should have.

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Gotec industrial building

These kind of buildings, in fact, have to communicate a commercial message related to the brand, catching the attention over time. While in industrial areas buildings are usually boring pre-fabricated constructions, choosing the right combination of color, shape and material could create a new strong and visible attraction.

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Kilometro rosso _ street view by day _ © owners

In addition, industrial buildings usually grow near the major motorways, and the view from the car window is one of the main observation points. The high travel speed which characterizes these roads means that architecture along them should be recognizable in the landscape, giving people the possibility to remember a brand.

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 Kilometro rosso _ street view by night_© owners

There are several studies about the importance of car driver point of view; an example is “the view of the road” by Kevin Lynch, in which the author represents highways as a possible work of art and as a design opportunity for cities.

We could say that designing an industrial building means doing both an aesthetic artwork that will transform the landscape and a marketing work to impress in people mind the company brand.

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A2 cockpit_view by night _ © owners

One of the best examples of this type of architecture is kilometro rosso, by Jean Nouvelle. The project is a long red wall modelled to appear attractive in the A4 motorway traffic flow. The wall runs alongside the motorway for one kilometer, becoming an architectural scenario behind which the different research buildings are arranged. Any car driver who pass this way remembers the long red wall.

a2-cockpit

A2 cockpit_view by day _ © owners

Our architecture for Gotec has the same aim of kilometro rosso: attracting driver gazes in order to become a landmark along the autoroute of Rhône . To achieve this goal, we worked on colours, materials and shapes.

We choose the gold colour for several reason. First of all because it reminds a precious jewel, secondly for its attractive power, and finally because it creates an aesthetic connection with the landscape natural colours.

ronic

ronic_street view _ © owners

The building shape reminds a big G on the main two elevations, in order to make recognizable the brand Gotec. The G shape is not only an aesthetic whim: in the north part of this elevation there are services as the big reception, the offices and the guardian apartment, while the south part is designed for the working spaces. The horizontal part of the G in the south elevation become a big platform roof for the delivers.

Finally, we wanted to allowed car-drivers to see the building also during the night. For this reason, we decided to build the G wall with big glass panels to let the light out.

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wall utrecht_street view _ © owners

There are several other examples of landmark buildings related to a brand:

Poliform industrial building, with its concrete wall, is becoming an historic landmark along the highway between Milan and Lecco.

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Poliform industrial building _ Street view _ © owners

poliform

Poliform industrial building _ entrance _ © owners

Riva factory, a wooden block that represents the ability of the company to do wood furniture;

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Riva industry _ street view by night _ © owners

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Riva industry _ street view by day _ © owners

The bright red Nestlé chocolate museum, located beside the high way that connects São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, is visible from the street and remarks the red colour of the brand;

 

nestle-chocolate-museum-bridge

   Nestlé chocolate museum _ © owners




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