Rolls-Royce
Factory
Goodwood is the modern home of Rolls-Royce. Built on a Greenfield site, close to the famous Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit, and nestled into the beautiful Sussex Downs, it’s a fittingly inspirational location in which to build exceptional cars.
Designed by world-leading architects, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, the manufacturing plant and head office are built low, to minimise the impact on the surrounding countryside. Natural materials have also been used extensively in the building’s construction. The roof, for example, is covered in countless thousands of sedum plants, which change colour with the seasons. The largest single-span ‘living roof’ in the UK, it renders the buildings almost invisible from the air, and provides a natural habitat for insects and rare breeds of bird.
The outside is clad in cedar louvers, which serve two functions: softening the exterior aspect and, by adjusting automatically to ambient light levels, shield workers inside from the glare of the sun.
Forming an impressive three-sided courtyard, the manufacturing and administrative buildings feature huge expanses of glass, giving visitors an intriguing view of Rolls-Royce Phantoms in-build on the assembly line.
Inside, the building combines the traditional needs of our craftspeople, who work with the finest wood and leather, with the demands of the most up-to-date manufacturing processes. A pair of purpose-built ‘clean rooms’ house paint spraying robots - the only ones used at Goodwood - while the assembly line ensures our skilled technicians work efficiently and to the highest possible standards.
Careful design ensures the factory makes a minimal impact on the environment. All our paints are water-based, and the wood veneers are lacquered off-site at a special facility on the outskirts of London. To minimise traffic coming into and out of Goodwood, careful logistics and a component collection centre, set up at BMW Group’s Oxford hub, ensures heavy goods traffic is kept to a minimum.
Thanks to the extensive use of glass in the building’s construction, the assembly line is bathed in huge amounts of natural light, minimising the need for artificial lighting and thereby reducing the consumption of electricity. Much of the water used in the building is recycled, while clever design, such as the use of the large ornamental pond as a means of cooling the building’s air-conditioning heat exchangers, means the building exceeds current environmental standards.
All of which makes our Goodwood head quarters unique in the motor industry: a fitting spiritual and emotional home for the most prestigious car company in the world.
