DISSONA

WORK

LIVE

COMPLEX

The Dissona Factory campus is located in an industrial sector of Guangdong province, which has experienced rapid growth over the past few decades. The urban factory campus typology, with its live-in workforce, has proliferated around the region to accommodate a large number of migrant laborers from across China.

These strands encompass offices, studios, showrooms, research, housing, manufacturing, cultural and educational amenities, and outdoor/green spaces. The strands overlap to create nodes suffused with communal facilities, stimulating cross-pollination across hierarchies and between disciplines.

The factory strands reflect a number of innovations designed to significantly improve worker comfort. Open-plan workspaces with 16.5ft high ceilings provide a generous sense of spaciousness. A wrap-around glass curtain-wall, complemented by interior glass partitions and a system of skylights, ensure that each worker is granted unobstructed access to views, natural light, and natural ventilation.

Compensating for extreme temperatures and humidity, which typically limit the use of glass, DS+R created a system of undulating louvers, dubbed “eyelids,” that provide shade, improve air flow, reduce energy consumption, and give the building its unifying architectural expression.

The “eyelids” extend to the living strands, which provide housing for approximately 4,000 workers. The dormitory units offer a gradient of spaces – from public, to semi-public, to private. They house four workers, each of whom is granted individual control over an operable window facing private bunk alcoves. A fifth window, shared by all four residents, controls cross-ventilation. The semi-public spaces within the units include a living area with couches, storage spaces, showers, and laundry amenities. These give onto public spaces – balcony-like outdoor corridors interspersed with double-height, open-air lounges open to all live-in workers.

Strategically situated in the nodes where the various living and working strands of the building come together, the cultural and educational programs are perhaps the building’s most progressive contribution to industrial culture. These programs aim to transition unskilled workers into skilled, well-rounded workers within a span of several years. To support educational programming, the building provides classrooms, an internet café, and a library hosting a broad range of elective courses. Cultural and leisure spaces include a full-service gym, a movie theater, and a series of lush courtyard gardens. The building is also equipped with a rooftop running track shaded by trellises and replete with plantings.

The living, working, cultural, and education programs, combined with retail operations at the building’s base, endeavor to create a dynamic city within a city for workers and visitors alike.