Factory championing women workers named world's best new building

RANGPUR, Bangladesh — 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, or 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.

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