Factory and industrial architects in Sri Lanka

The Thurulie garment factory at MAS Fabric Park, Thulhiriya, was built under Marks & Spencer’s Plan A eco-initiative as the world’s first purpose-built green factory for apparel. From the first conversation with MAS the instruction was simple: touch the ground lightly. Over forty per cent of the building is lifted on stilts, the walls are eco-bricks made from site soil mixed with a little cement, and evaporative cooling, adapted to a hot, humid climate, keeps it comfortable on very little energy.

It uses 40% less energy and 50% less water than a comparable factory. When it opened it became the first new-built factory in the world to earn LEED Platinum, and in 2009 the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction named it a global best practice. Read the Thurulie story.

At Kadawatha the Wilkins Spence packaging factory steps down a steep site, with eco-brick walls and a tight, well-insulated envelope that runs on very little energy. At Kolonne we added a green vertical screen across the long west elevation of the Bernard Botejue factory, which solved the afternoon sun and the visual problem in one move. MAS Ayathi, on a tight plot in Biyagama, was built up rather than out, with vertical gardens on several levels and a roof holding a gym and outdoor dining.

At Kolonne the layout and construction were worked out around production, at the lowest cost for the highest efficiency. In Kilinochchi, and at Athi River in Kenya, reception, offices, workspaces and production are arranged to keep circulation and services short, and the Kilinochchi plan is kept flexible for future expansion.

For a second MAS fabric park at Giriulla we proposed a master plan in which factory premises share a services zone and a centralised kitchen, dormitory and laundry, with a green belt kept free of building along the Mattegama Ela and land held back for the park to grow.

The Bernard Botejue factory kept running through its twelve-month extension and re-skin, and the client did not lose a shipment. At Athi River the project combined a renovation and an extension with a new two-storey factory building. See also renovations.