Eco-Park is a manufacturing plant set within a Park, bringing together production, culture and the environment.

It is a concept headquarters for a timber and furniture company in which production processes are intertwined with the local ecosystem. Eco-Park is conceived as the Ecology that brings these together, embodying the company’s ethos of Sustainability in Practice.

The production process turns wood from senile coconut trees into beautiful products by skilled local people, an activity that already draws the curiosity of a high number of Fiji’s tourists to the current factory. The proposal formalises and expands on this attraction and acts as an exemplar for ecological design & production.

The layout and design splits production into a group of smaller workshops and facilitates visitors interacting with the process of handcrafting and assembly.

In addition to this interactive production line, there is a Coconut palm R&D centre. Visitors learn about the life cycle of the coconut tree, from cradle-to-grave, and regrowth. They participate in the process by planting their own tree in the Park’s plantation.

Another part of the Park is an educational and cultural facility dedicated to detailing the Company’s ecological philosophy, Fijian design and production as well as on-site bio-diesel energy production.

A regenerated rainforest at the rear of the site provides future provision for eco-huts to accommodate workers and guests on site.

The initial phase of the EcoPark opened in 2011 with the concept gradually phased in, proving an ongoing success for the Company and for Fiji, as one of its main exporters.

Undercurrent Architects : Didier Ryan, Alessandra Gianotti