Oatmeal Factory, Shanxi Province Project, China, Chinese Building Development, Commercial Architecture, Photography
The Oatmeal Factory in the Shanxi Province
8 June 2023
Architecture: JSPA Design
Location: Ningwu, Shanxi Province, China
Photos: SCHRAN
The Oatmeal Factory, China
JSPA Design unveils The Oatmeal Factory, located in Ningwu, Shanxi province, China. The project consists of the creation of an Oatmeal factory, transforming raw oats into flour products. The production process, mostly automated, needed two different production lines with high volume machinery, as well as spaces open to the public with a shop, a café, and office space.
The surroundings of the project featured newly constructed industrial buildings, dry landscape, and coal mines, and it seemed like an interesting concept to develop the factory as an introverted building that would recreate its own natural environment. Besides satisfying all functional requirements, the project conceived of the building as a stimulant of human senses, generating surprising experiences to visitors.
The idea was to use a system of brick walls to enclose and hide the various technical spaces of the factory in an opaque ground floor, and to establish a simple concrete volume on the top of it to host the public spaces of the program. Patios and large gardens will pierce the whole building, providing natural light and creating impressive spatial dilatations within the factory. Central production spaces will also receive natural light from concrete sheds, opening the roof to the north light.
The system of brick walls starts from the front of the factory, where a landscaped area is voluntarily left open for use by the local community, with benches and water pools for kids to play. Brick walls emerge slowly from the benches to become the property fence of the factory, and the façade of the entire building.
The shape taken by the brick walls will form and define the different entrances of the factory, each with a specific function: Raw materials delivery, product loading, staff and visitor entry. Separated into distinct lanes, staff and visitors will never cross paths inside the factory. While workers will enjoy functional organization, visitors will enter a planned spatial experience. The production line is showcased to the visitor in an elevated corridor overlooking the workshop.
The dormitory for employees was set-up in the back of the factory and was conceived as an invisible architecture. The brick fence wall was thickened to host the building, and patios were created to bring light to the rooms, while still preserving their intimacy. The space between the factory and the dorm becomes a garden in which a concrete table and square seats were set-up.
The choice of construction materials carries a strong meaning: the use of th gray brick is a way to create a deep relationship with the site using local construction methods. Exposed concrete, on the other hand, emphasizes the modernity of the building, enabling structure and architecture to be bind together.
The landscape design is also fully integrated in the design process. Rain water is collected on the roof and redirected to water pools on different levels through cast-in-place concrete water exhausts, making its natural circulation part of the experience of the space. The water flows up to the entrance of the factory, where a last waterfall, combined with a twelve meter cantilever concrete logo wall, invites visitors to enter the architecture.
Across the process, some regulatory issues were resolved through innovative design solutions. Fire-fighting regulations required a water container on the roof, and an independent element was created in the form of a sculptural cantilevered stainless-steel box.
The Oatmeal Factory in the Shanxi Province, China – Building Information
Architecture: JSPA Design – https://jspa.fr/
Location: Ningwu, Shanxi Province, China
Client: Shanxi Tianchi Agricultural Development Co., Ltd
Architects/designers: Johan Sarvan, Florent Buis
Project Manager: Johan Sarvan
Design team: JSPA Design
Engineer: Jie Jiang
Landscape Architects: Johan Sarvan, Florent Buis
Lighting Designers: Johan Sarvan, Florent Buis
Budget: 70 million RMB
Project completion date: 8/8/2022
About JSPA Design
JSPA Design is a Beijing-based French design studio established in 2009 to work on architecture, interior, landscape, and product design. Adopting modern design methods, while eliminating common style concepts, the studio focuses on creating evocative architecture that stimulates human senses by working with light and shade, space and materiality.
Exploration of architectural expression and reinterpretation of local construction materials allows the studio to deliver projects that are simultaneously unquestionably contemporary, yet also deeply rooted in their sites.
The dialogue between nature and architecture plays a major role in their work. The design process focuses on how architecture can coexist with its environment, or how nature can impose itself through architecture to enter a building.
From concept design, to detailing and on-site supervision, the JSPA team is fully committed to ensuring quality throughout the lifecycle of the design process, through to completion.
Photographer: SCHRAN
The Oatmeal Factory in the Shanxi Province images / information received 080623
Location: Shanxi, China, eastern Asia
Shanxi Province Buildings
Shanxi Province Building Designs – Selection
Datong Art Museum
Design: Foster + Partners
photo : Yang Chaoying
Datong Art Museum Building
The “Streets”, Taiyuan
Design: HOOOLDESIGN STUDIO
photo : Liu Yulin
The Streets in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province
Datong Sports Park
Design: Populous
image from architects practice
Datong Sports Park
Datong Towers
Design: Plasma Studio Architects
image : Plasma Studio
Datong Towers
Y-Loft City, Changzhi
Design: Superimpose Architecture
photo : CreatAR
Y-Loft City Changzhi
Xi’an South Gate Plaza
Design: China northwest architecture design and research institute
photograph : Chen Su
Xi’an South Gate Plaza
Architecture in China
China Architecture Designs – chronological list
Chinese Architect Studios – Design Office Listings
Changzhou Culture Center Building, southern China
Design: gmp · Architects
Phoenix International Media Center, Beijing
Design: BIAD UFo
Comments / photos for the The Oatmeal Factory in the Shanxi Province designed by DHOOOLDESIGN Studio welcome
