I came across a story about a beautiful and architectural award-winning factory while reading The Week Junior with my 10-year-old daughter. We were both immediately struck by the photographs. It didn't look much like our idea of a factory.

This prompted a little conversation about what factories normally look like, why they tend to be designed as purely functional places, and what actually makes somewhere a nice place to work or live.

The factory in question is the Green Field Factory in Rangpur, Bangladesh, and it has just been named the best new building in the world, winning the RIBA International Prize 2026. Designed by Nakshabid Architects, it is not a museum, hotel or grand landmark. It is a rug factory that employs people from the local community, mostly women.

And it is just wonderful.

Inspired by traditional Bengali homesteads, the seven-storey building has courtyards, water pools, gardens and verandas. Natural light and ventilation reduce reliance on mechanical systems, while spaces for rest and relaxation have been designed around the people who work there. There’s even a nursery and a market.

What I particularly like is the thinking behind it. The architect firm's founder, Bayejid Khondoker, described it really well: “A factory should not be a machine that consumes human energy. It should be a living place that restores it.” 

WOW. What an amazing difference it would make if more of the buildings in which we spend our lives were approached and built with that idea. Not just factories, but offices, schools and apartment buildings too. Places designed not simply to accommodate people, but to consider how being there actually makes us feel.

I love beautiful architecture, but it doesn't have to be monumental to matter. Thoughtful design can transform the places in which people spend their everyday lives, bringing together function, beauty and wellbeing.

Read the story on RIBA's website and have a look at the pictures.