MODULAR FACTORY

Modular Factory proposes bringing advanced manufacturing back into San Francisco through a facility that produces components, panels, assemblies, volumetric modules, and complete modular dwellings. Located between the MUNI Metro East Maintenance Facility and Pier 80, the project uses its proximity to the port, rail infrastructure, and regional road network to connect material delivery, production, assembly, and distribution.

The name describes two connected ideas. The factory manufactures modular building systems, but the factory itself is also organized as an expandable modular structure. Regular structural bays allow the production line to grow or adapt as manufacturing capacity, equipment, and gantry requirements change. Like a machine capable of producing parts for its own expansion, the facility is conceived as a system that can evolve alongside its output.

The manufacturing sequence organizes the architecture. Materials enter by truck or rail and move through storage, processing, component fabrication, and final assembly before completed products leave the site. Turning paths, delivery routes, equipment clearances, structural spans, and changing headroom requirements directly shape the building. Instead of concealing these constraints, the proposal uses them to determine the arrangement and character of its spaces.

A raised rectangular bar contains the primary assembly line and expresses the production process as the building’s central element. Large floor openings allow gantry cranes to move materials between the supporting factory spaces below and the assembly line above. A hybrid concrete and steel structure, channel glass façade panels, panelized metal structural insulated roof panels, and a regular structural grid support flexible manufacturing and future expansion.

Below the assembly line, a landform building contains material storage, processing areas, machinery, delivery ramps, and supporting programs. Its green roof extends the surrounding ground plane into a publicly accessible landscape. Visitors can follow the waterfront promenade onto the building, approach the glazed assembly hall, and observe manufacturing through windows, skylights, and openings in the landscape.

Physical models, material studies, connection tests, and a large scale sectional prototype were used to investigate the relationship between structure, enclosure, services, manufacturing equipment, and assembly. Consultation with industry professionals also informed studies of structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, egress, and manufacturing requirements. The project demonstrates how production workflow and Design for Manufacturing and Assembly can operate as primary generators of architecture.