BMW Central Building, Plant Leipzig

Planning Constraints

When the Central Building was designed, the planning and layout of the adjacent fabrication buildings had already been finalized, leaving a narrow stretch of open land to be filled.

With a wide range of suppliers pre-appointed for the rest of the factory many fit-out elements were selected from a standard range of products, emphasising BMW's industrial approach to office spaces.

The design addresses the client's objective to translate industrial architecture into an aesthetic concept that complies equally with representational and functional requirements.

The design echoes BMW's industrial approach to office space.

Concept/Programme - The Central Building as Communication Knot

The Central Building is the nerve-centre of the whole factory complex with all the building's activities gathering and branching out again from here.

The knot connects the three main manufacturing departments of Body-in-White, Paint Shop and Assembly while serving as the entrance to the plant.

The whole expanse of this side of the factory is oriented and animated by a force field emanating from the central building. All movement converging on the site is funneled through this compression chamber squeezed in between the three main segments of production.

Such planning strategy applies not only to the cycles and trajectories of workers and visitors but also the production line, which traverses this central point.

This dynamic focal point of the enterprise is visually evident in the proposed dynamic spatial system that encompasses the whole northern front of the factory and articulates the central building as a point of confluence and the culmination of various converging flows.

The central area as a "market place" is intended to enhance communication by providing staff with an area with which to avail themselves of personal and administrative services.

This organisation of the building exploits the obvious sequence of front-to-back for the phasing of public to quiet activities.

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