The garment sector in Bangladesh is the second biggest in the world. It is the highest export earner for the country by an order of magnitude than any other sector.

The new NHT factory of Pacific Jeans Group is the biggest jeans manufacturer in Bangladesh and possibly in the world.

The building was designed for NHT Fashion Limited to comprise both factory and offices for management and design teams. There were a number of specialized design requirements for this building and MDM successfully integrated these into their designs and gave the client much more than the brief.

The new NHT factory is in Chittagong Export Processing Zone (EPZ). This is the business capital of Bangladesh

This new factory building will have all the features of a good factory and more….

The steel structure building has 8 floors plus basement, 4,000 square meters on each floor. Each floor has lots of natural light, ventilation, and shading. The external cladding and the multi layer wall structure ensure minimal transmitted heat to the work areas. The windows have Ultra Violet (UV) cutout film.

Each floor is being lit using LED tube lights, and all the wiring is via Bus-bar trunking, which minimizes fire risks and overheating. This is very important as fires kill factory workers on a regular basis.

Rain water harvesting from the roof is being used in addition to treated ground water for washing garments, cars and flushing toilets. The roof will have shade and planting to keep the building cool and provide workers with rest and respite space. The ground is being landscaped with low maintenance plantation, and paved areas kept to a minimum.

The factory has its own onsite power generation capacity using a gas fired generator with a ‘co-generation’ kit that will increase the generator’s efficiency to very respectable figures. The washing plant water is being pre-heated using the waste heat from the generator. Ten percent of the onsite generation capacity will be generated from solar panels.

It has international standard of fire safety with sprinkler system throughout the building, five separate staircases to quickly evacuate, and intumescent paint on the steel members to ensure the right fire rating.

The job is scheduled to be complete by December 2014.