STATUS
IN DESIGN
CLIENT
Farfetch & Castro Group
TYPOLOGY
Work
SIZE M2/FT2
330,000 / 3,552,090
SHARE
Farfetch, the leading global technology platform for luxury fashion, seeks to further connect creators, curators, and consumers in a purpose-built urban fashion village on the slopes of Leça River in Porto. Situated within the larger Fuse Valley site – also designed by BIG and developed in collaboration with Castro Group – the new HQ is scheduled to break ground by early 2023, and open its doors in 2025.
The new Farfetch HQ features 12 interconnected buildings that each represent the various elements of the company’s organization, with the design of each space tailored accordingly. BIG’s design seeks to amplify the exchange of ideas between the different aspects of the organization and create new opportunities for the 3,000 Portugal-based Farfetch employees, the local community and visitors.
Plot A & B
— The site is divided into Plot A and Plot B. The first will house the three phases of Farfetch's new home, while plot B will be occupied by mixed use office buildings, serviced apartments and a hotel.
River vs. Road
— The site has two very distinct characters defined by infrastructure in the east and the river Leça in the west.
Urban Grid
— With a rational, orthogonal grid as the starting point for the layout BIG's design prioritizes efficiency with an optimized depth and floor area as well as an urban experience.
Buildings
— Inserting buildings within the grid results in a dense, but low rise building mass. To comply with the gross floor area requirements in the brief the massings have a general height of three floors.
Public Space
— To improve the light and views from the buildings, the number of floors needs to be increased and landscape area is released. With six-story tall buildings, green "corridors" or plazas can be integrated.
Network
— By alternating buildings and public space, a series of plazas and courtyards are created. The shifting perimeter of the buildings offers pockets of greenery and adapts better to the surrounding landscape.
Building Connectivity
— The buildings extend to create overlaps and interconnectivities within three different clusters, decreasing in scale towards north as a village of independent buildings.
Human Scale to Icon Scale
— Towards the entrance and the north, the blocks gradually rise up to 11 floors, creating visibility along the road and a variable and continuous roof profile. Along the river, building height decreases to meet the nature.
View, Light & Noise
— The roof height profile allows views from all buildings towards the river and the wider landscape, while the tall buildings along the road create a barrier from the traffic noise.
Central Passage
— Between plot A and B, the buildings set back at ground level creating a covered central passage. The main public functions incl. lobbies, the auditorium and commercial spaces are along the central promenade.
Connected Groundscape
— By cutting back the building corners at the ground level a series of shortcuts connecting the different courtyards are created, giving a continuous and accessible public realm from which all functions can be accessed.
Roof & Terraces
— Terraces are integrated in the taller buildings as cuts in the inclined roof surface. The terraces are protected pockets to hang out, work and relax. They provide access to the rest of the roofscape.
Upper Floor Program
— Office spaces are inter-connected on upper levels for a seamless spatial connection and allows for collaboration between different departments.
Program at Ground Level
— The public functions are generally placed at ground level along the central promenade as well as the river front, with access directly from the network of plazas and courtyards.
Fuse Valley
— The new neighborhood will grow and expand organically, like a natural village. Fuse Valley will be a lively urban ensemble bringing every curator, creator, customer and collaborator together.
As a manmade extension of the hillside, the roofs of the new buildings rise and fall to create peaks and valleys, with slopes and terraces providing employees with generous spaces to enjoy breaks and host gatherings – surrounded by views of the river. Natural paths extend from the landscape to the roofscape, creating flexible wayfinding for people to move around the complex – both inside and out, and above, below, and within the building.
"We are very excited about this project and the vision that Bjarke Ingels has presented to us, not only because of what it will mean as a milestone for the company, for our people, but also for the community. This project will be a revolution on the current concepts of workspaces, marked by its futuristic nature, by the orientation towards sustainability and well-being. It will be a space not only for FARFETCH, but for the entire community.”
On the ground floor, the facades recede to expand the public realm, creating natural canopies to welcome visitors, collaborators, and customers. The chamfered corners of the buildings merge to create archways and openings between the courtyards that act like canvases for different artistic expressions, bringing color and texture to the streetscape.
“The individual buildings that constitute the various elements of the organization are connected to form large continuous work environments – physically consolidated, but spatially varied to create a human-scale experience.“
Each building is tailored to its specific program, with gently–altered floorplans creating an equally lively and varied interior architectural experience.
Atelier-like attics with additional ceiling heights and open mezzanines are created by the sloping roofs of the buildings. Open connections extend from the attic mezzanines all the way to the ground, creating visual and physical connectivity across all floors.
The interior experience prioritizes an immersion in nature, providing a biophilic environment that aims to increase productivity and wellbeing. Similarly, the dense urban fabric and ample vegetation provides a naturally shaded, cooled environment.
The new Fuse Valley combines maximum connectivity with a varied visual and physical experience, stimulating human exchange and innovation.
The larger Fuse Valley is organized around plazas, parks, and courtyards which are landscaped and programmed to extend the life inside the buildings to the outside. Like an urban fabric, the individual buildings rest on a series of urban terraces connecting the main road to the east, with the Leça River to the west. Along the central arrival axis, an urban alley opens all the way from the street to the river, featuring all the major public programs and amenities along the riverfront of Farfetch: lobbies, an academy, an auditorium, canteen, and wellness facilities.
Agustin Perez-Torres Álvaro Villanueva Angel Barreno Gutiérrez Bjarke Ingels Dominika Kłopotek Francisco Abajo Duran German Otto Bodenbender Giulia Orlando Gonzalo Ivan Castro Vecchiola Hanna Ida Johansson Jakub Fratczak João Albuquerque Mathieu Michel Cardinal Matthew Reger Mireia Sala Font Paula Madrid Pietro Saccardi Stefani Fachini De Araujo Ulla Hornsyld Alberto Gonzalez-Garces Mediero Andreas Francesto Raphael Winter Ariadna Carolina Mejias Alvarez Elena Ceribelli Eszter Oláh Filip Galic Florencia Kratsman Gabriela Lira Dal Secco Gabriella Luppi Mackenzie Geoffrey Eberle Gonzalo Coronado Maceda Henrik Kania Javier Mora Sánchez Jorge Ferrer Castillo Lena Mariella von Buren Luca Fabbri Miquel Benedito I Ribelles Nandi Lu Natacha Fernandes Da Ponte Viveiros Pernille Uglvig Sangvin Ragna Nordstrom Raphaël Logan Barber Sergi Sauras Tristany Serra Vladimir Savcic Wei Lesley Yang Yingxin Du Yuanxun Xu Yue Hu
COLLABORATORS
Arup
OODA
Ventura & Partners Arquitectos
Dimscale
Quadrante
PROAP Arquitectura Paisagista
Filamento
Pacifica
Limsen
FEUP/IC
VHM
Ambisitus
Engimind
CORE
Castro Red
AFA
NdBIM
