Chinese firm MAD Architects has designed a campus for electric car maker Faraday Future (FF) on Mare Island, a peninsula in the city of Vallejo, California.
The 130,000 sq m site contains a built area of 20,000 sq m and is situated in northern California adjacent to the Napa River on a former navy base.
The development will support FF’s research, development and manufacturing.
MAD say the project has been redesigned to support ecological restoration along the Napa’s banks and is part of a "zero-emission base in California".
MAD say the open concept campus incorporates FF’s "mysterious surrealism" and contains "two low metallic structures embedded within the site’s prairie landscape, suggesting extraterrestrial objects capable of defamiliarising employees and prospective clients with the status quo of the contemporary automotive market".
MAD say the "highlight of the project is the user experience center rising into a sculptural, reflective tower" which allows "clients to watch as their car is transported from the warehouse along the elevated light rail into the exhibition hall, to right in front of them".
The experience centre is open to the public where visitors can observe the whole campus.
Many of FF employees will work in what MAD describes as a "double-height facility punctured by a series of internal courtyards, allowing for an abundance of natural light and social spaces within, which provides employees an outdoor space for leisure and activities".
FF has had some successes – it recently announced production of "the world’s fastest-accelerating electric car".
However, it has also met with setbacks, and a certain amount of skepticism as to the soundness of its business model.
In November 2015, it announced plans to build a $1bn Las Vegas factory, which have since been cancelled, and a factory a quarter of the size is now slated.
In November last year, Aecom halted work on the factory, with Dan Schwartz, the Nevada state treasurer commenting: "It is a Ponzi scheme. You have a new company that has never built a car, building a new plant in the middle of the desert, financed by a mysterious Chinese billionaire. At some point, as with Bernie Madoff, the game ends."
Images courtesy of MAD Architects
