The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design designs a transparent, glowing building for a water dispenser manufacturer.

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, site plan

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, ground floor plan

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, first floor plan

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, elevations

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, fabbrica, elevation

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, fabbrica, longitudinal section

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, longitudinal section

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan

Waterfrom Design, factory, cross section

The second generation of an industrialists family commissions Waterfrom Design to redesign and renovate their production plant. The factory needs to transform from a featureless volume into a representative architecture for the brand, as well as to open its enclosed precinct to welcome costumers and visitors. More than other similar assignments, this proves to be a favorable occasion to design a metonymical building, a container that draws from and reinterprets its content’s features. The product is a water dispenser; the production space (more precisely, the building that juxtaposes it) takes on transparency as its main value, and reproduces the reflections and shades of a liquid environment.

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018

The reception, a little showroom, meeting rooms, open space offices and resting areas for employees are all enveloped within a semi-opaque glass skin, and separated by visually “filtering” partitions of the same material, whose barcode decoration simulates the movement of water. The vivid colors of multiple details (including handrails, a few light points and pieces of furniture), as well as of the adjacent warehouse’s façade, are refracted and multiplied through these surfaces.
Inside the entrance courtyard, also hosting a basketball court, the area for garbage disposal and recycle is, quite surprisingly, an entirely transparent, polycarbonate lantern. The technical room turns into some sort of “green” diorama, a poetical mise-en-scène of the conscious use of resources.

Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018
  • factory
  • productive plant, offices
  • Taiwan
  • Waterfrom Design
  • Nic Lee, Richard Kuo, Zona Chen
  • Forest Spring Enterprise
  • 900 sqm
  • 2018
The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, Taiwan, 2018. Photo © Kuomin Lee    

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, site plan

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, ground floor plan

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, first floor plan

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, elevations

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, fabbrica, elevation

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, fabbrica, longitudinal section

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, longitudinal section

The architectural project as a metonymy: a factory in Taiwan Waterfrom Design, factory, cross section