Factory championing women workers named world’s best new building

Featuring tranquil courtyards, pond-lined walkways and a facade bursting with tropical plants, a rug factory in Bangladesh has claimed one of architecture’s top prizes.

Green Field Factory, a seven-story textile facility in the northern city of Rangpur, won the prestigious RIBA International Prize on Thursday, with judges calling the building a “work of quiet humility.”

Set across more than 144,000 square feet, the factory was commended by the award’s organizer, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), for integrating greenery into its design. Landscaped gardens, verdant verandas and a main wall draped in plants helped “bring nature directly into the workplace,” the organization said in a press release.

The Bangladeshi firm behind the project, Nakshabid Architects, was inspired by traditional Bengali homesteads, which are typically interspersed with courtyards and ponds.

The biennial prize often honors community-focused projects, rather than eye-catching icons, and it was the architects’ focus on the approximately 5,000 — mostly female — employees that attracted particular praise from the jury.

Amenities for workers include a rooftop daycare center, on-site medical practice and shady areas to socialize. A large statue of a female figure, which the architects said represents the “strength of women’s empowerment,” stands at the facility’s entrance.

According to RIBA — whose judging panel visited the site in September — employees often use the factory’s amenities with their families outside working hours. The project presented an “alternative model for factory design and operation,” the organization added.

Bangladesh is among the world’s largest textile producers, though conditions in the country’s factories are an ongoing concern among labor rights groups. In 2013, Rana Plaza, a nine-story building crammed with garment factories outside the capital Dhaka, collapsed killing 1,100 people. The disaster resulted from cultural as well as structural failures: factory workers’ safety concerns had been ignored, with many forced to return to the building after cracks were discovered.

In stark contrast, Green Field Factory’s design prioritized employee wellbeing and challenged “ingrained social hierarchies,” RIBA said. In his citation, jury chair Bijoy Jain pointed to the huge central entranceway used by employees, managers and owners alike (in Bangladesh, it is common for laborers and senior staff to enter large factories via separate entrances), calling it an “equanimous shared portal.”

In a statement published ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Nakshabid Architects’ founder and principal, Bayejid M. Khondoker, said he had wanted to “prove that industry can breathe, nurture and inspire.”

“We asked a simple question: What if a factory were designed first as a home for the people who work in it?” he is quoted as saying. “Every courtyard, garden, water body and shaded verandah grew from that question. A factory should not be a machine that consumes human energy. It should be a living place that restores it.”

Green Field Factory is operated by Karupannya Rangpur Limited, which, as well as handmade rugs, produces textile items like doormats and bathmats. It was one of two Bangladeshi projects on the prize’s four-building shortlist, alongside the climate-responsive BRAC University in Dhaka. The other two finalists, both in Belgium, were a thoughtfully renovated 1960s office building and a recently expanded art institute.

Although only founded in 2016, the RIBA International Prize is arguably the most prestigious accolade awarded to a single building. Typically held every two years (although the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted this schedule), the prize honors projects that demonstrate “visionary, innovative thinking and design excellence.”

The prize was last awarded in 2024, when it was won by a six-story timber social housing project in Barcelona, Spain. Other previous winners include a school in rural Brazil, a university in Lima, Peru, and a serene hospital in a remote, flood-prone area of Bangladesh.

孟加拉国一家地毯厂拥有宁静的庭院、池塘环绕的步道和充满热带植物的外墙，荣获了建筑界的最高奖项之一。

位于北部城市朗布尔的七层纺织厂绿野工厂于周四荣获著名的英国皇家建筑师学会国际奖，评委们称该建筑是“低调谦逊的作品”。

该工厂占地超过14.4万平方英尺，其设计巧妙地融入了绿色元素，因此受到了奖项主办方英国皇家建筑师学会（RIBA）的赞扬。该学会在一份新闻稿中表示，景观花园、绿意盎然的阳台以及一面绿植环绕的主墙，都“将自然直接引入了工作场所”。

该项目背后的孟加拉国公司 Nakshabid Architects 从传统的孟加拉民居中汲取灵感，这些民居通常穿插着庭院和池塘。

该两年一度的奖项通常表彰以社区为中心的项目，而不是引人注目的标志性建筑，建筑师们对大约 5000 名（其中大部分是女性）员工的关注赢得了评委们的特别赞扬。

为员工提供的便利设施包括屋顶托儿中心、内部医疗诊所和供人社交的阴凉区域。在建筑入口处矗立着一座大型女性雕像，建筑师称其象征着“女性赋权的力量”。

英国皇家建筑师学会（RIBA）的评审团于9月实地考察了该项目，他们表示，员工经常在工作时间之外与家人一起使用工厂的设施。该机构还补充说，该项目展示了一种“工厂设计和运营的替代模式”。

孟加拉国是世界最大的纺织品生产国之一，但该国工厂的工作条件一直是劳工权益组织持续关注的问题。2013年，位于首都达卡郊外、挤满了服装厂的九层大楼拉纳广场倒塌，造成1100人死亡。这场灾难的发生既有文化因素，也有结构性缺陷：工厂工人的安全顾虑被忽视，许多工人在发现裂缝后被迫返回工作岗位。

与此形成鲜明对比的是，英国皇家建筑师学会（RIBA）表示，绿野工厂的设计优先考虑员工福祉，并挑战了“根深蒂固的社会等级制度”。评审团主席比乔伊·贾恩在评语中指出，员工、经理和老板都使用巨大的中央入口（在孟加拉国，工人和高级员工通常通过不同的入口进入大型工厂），他称之为“一个和谐的共享门户”。

在周四的公告发布前发表的一份声明中，Nakshabid Architects 的创始人兼负责人 Bayejid M. Khondoker 表示，他一直想“证明行业可以呼吸、培育和激励”。

他说道：“我们提出了一个简单的问题：如果工厂的设计首先是为了让工厂里的人们拥有一个家，那会怎样？每一个庭院、花园、水体和绿荫环绕的走廊都源于这个问题。工厂不应该是消耗人类能量的机器，而应该是一个能够恢复人类能量的居住场所。”

绿野工厂由卡鲁帕尼亚·朗普尔有限公司运营，该公司除了生产手工地毯外，还生产门垫和浴室垫等纺织品。它是入围该奖项四座建筑候选名单的两个孟加拉国项目之一，另一个是位于达卡的气候适应型布拉克大学。另外两个入围项目均位于比利时，分别是经过精心翻新的20世纪60年代办公楼和近期扩建的艺术学院。

尽管RIBA国际奖创立于2016年，但它无疑是授予单体建筑的最高荣誉。该奖项通常每两年颁发一次（尽管新冠疫情打乱了这一进程），旨在表彰展现“远见卓识、创新思维和卓越设计”的项目。

该奖项上一次颁发是在2024年，当时获奖的是位于西班牙巴塞罗那的一栋六层木结构社会住房项目。其他往届获奖项目包括巴西农村的一所学校、秘鲁利马的一所大学，以及孟加拉国偏远易涝地区的一家环境优美的医院。