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s e i r o t c a f a g e m June 2009 | www.lifestyleliving.in

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ARCHITECTURE SMART WORKSHOPS FACTORIES

avant-garde car factories The factory is where it all starts. The world’s favourite cars are conceived, drawn on paper, designed and take shape in these super, hi-tech and environment-friendly industrial units

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INSPIRATIONAL DESIGN IS THE ULTIMATE LUXURY

RADHIKA RAVI RAJAN CAR FACTORIES today are realising a vision where both the product and the factory are an integrated work of art. Examples include the Volkswagen (VW) factory in Wolfsburg– a city in north-western Germany–that features 200-foot-tall robotic silos at the end of the production line and an eco-friendly VW assembly plant in Dresden that is transparent and sits right at the centre of the city.

BMW's new plant in Leipzig, Germany, costing 1.3 billion euros, is easily one of the most innovative car factories in the world, not only because it rolls out dream machines but also because of the state-of-the-art

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design of its main building. When plans were being made for building this factory, Plant Manager Peter Claussen decided to hold an architectural competition. The brief was crisp: design a central main building that would have huge interior spaces to help line workers and managers communicate with each other, an atmosphere that encourages productivity and holds a capacity for speedy problem-solving. What he had in mind was soaring, transparent spaces, with daylight streaming in, and open, cascading work areas.

Prize-winning London-based architect Zaha Hadid transformed that vision into a factory that is also visually striking.

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ARCHITECTURE SMART FACTORIES

“Great facilities attract great people.

We need highly-motivated, dedicated people, and such people can only exist if you provide them with an environment in which they can aspire to be the best” – Ron Denis, Chairman and CEO, McLaren Group

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INSPIRATIONAL DESIGN IS THE ULTIMATE LUXURY

The central building is home to an administrative and communication centre that combines modern forms with a variety of functionalities. It connects production areas, offers space for meetings and communication, and gives an understanding of production. A 90-minute guided tour lets visitors experience its architectural splendour.

In this newest building, which forms part of the worldwide production network of the BMW Group, additional production capacity has been created due to the extension of the product range and the higher demand for BMW automobiles. Up to 700 vehicles a day roll off the conveyor belt.

The main function of the central building provides a short-cut between the great production halls, offering space for encounters and communication, and allowing people to experience the production process first-hand. It has won for itself the German Architectural Award 2005.

The McLaren Technology Centre, out of

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which roll out the new Mercedes-Benz SLRs, is spread out on a 50-hectare site located approximately three kilometres north of the Woking town centre in Surrey, UK. The building's 57,000 square metres of office space is home to a majority of the McLaren group's 900 employees. The building is environment-friendly, with natural light used wherever possible and energy recycled throughout the site.

It is a very large building–100 metres by 200 metres and 11 metres high–yet, the design makes it look flat. It has been planned in a way that it gives a circular appearance. The main body of the building is broken into 18-metrewide 'fingers', with six-metre-wide strips in between, called 'streets'. These allow daylight into the interior of the building and give employees a connection with the outside.

They also form part of the ventilation system of the building. There are also mezzanine floors 18 metres wide, incorporated in 11metres, from the ground to the roof level. The design,

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ARCHITECTURE SMART FACTORIES administration and light assembly area people work on the upper level, directly beneath the roof.

One of the signature features of the building is the lake. Functional as well as aesthetically attractive, its 50,000 cubic metres of water form a vital part of the cooling infrastructure of the building. The lake’s water is pumped, one third directly and two thirds via a natural filtration system of reed beds and a cleansing biotope through a series of heat exchangers which extract heat from the chiller plant. The water is recirculated via a 160 metre-long cascade that extends around the far edge of the lake, its temperature reducing as it cascades down

a series of shallow steps. The fast flowing water causes it to aerate, thereby helping to oxygenate the system.

The best thing about the McLaren Technology Centre is the planting of one lakh new trees. The 62-hectare site on which the building was to be located during the time of its construction, had to be handled sensitively.

Due to height limitations, the building was sunk low, and shielded from outside view by the new trees. The green effort is further enhanced by the choice of trees planted here: there’s Turkish hazel, Norwegian maple, whitestemmed Himalayan birch and Scots pine trees, which have been specially selected along with a wide variety of ornamental shrubs and

RENAULT DISTRIBUTION CENTRE The Renault Centre in Swindon, UK, has been described as the practice’s most ‘playful’ structure.

Yet, it is also highly flexible and adaptive, able to accommodate a warehouse, a training school, restaurant and showroom, within a single enclosure.

Primarily a showroom, as evident in its suspended car body shells, the gallery was used

by Renault as a popular venue for arts and social events, encouraging wider community involvement in the building.

As much as its internal spaces, however, it is the building’s almost festive Renault-yellow skeleton that gives the Centre such an identifiable character. Significantly, this created such a memorable image that the building, alone among the company’s facilities, did not need to carry the Renault logo. In fact, for many years, Renault used it as a backdrop in its UK advertising campaigns.

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two-and-a-half kilometres of box hedging to provide an ever-changing, year-round display.

In addition, 33 hectares of the site have been sown with wildflower seeds to establish a wildflower meadow.

Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the McLaren Technology Centre on 12 May 2004.

In the words of Ron Dennis, CBE, Chairman and CEO, McLaren Group, “The McLaren

INSPIRATIONAL DESIGN IS THE ULTIMATE LUXURY

Technology Centre is a model for the new technological optimism and a showcase of industrial architecture for the 21st century.” His next few words drive home the point that atmosphere affects people. “Great facilities attract great people. We need highly-motivated, dedicated people, and such people can only exist if you provide them with an environment in which they can aspire to be the best.”

The Volkswagen factory breeds a new kind of automotive culture. Its transparent factory

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makes the fascinating process of car production transparent to the world, establishing a link between technology, environment and people that has never been seen before. Volkswagen is opening up a whole new dimension in public relations: the birthplace of the Volkswagen luxury-class car and a combination of manufacturing and event hosting that’s unique throughout the world.

At Volkswagen, it’s about communication and interaction. The transparent factory offers

visitors the opportunity to experience the creation of a Phaeton, a large luxury sedan introduced at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show. It represents a piece of automotive culture, offering a transparency and openness only Volkswagen can offer. Applying innovative production methods closely oriented to the traditions of precision craftsmanship, each vehicle is built virtually by hand. The Phaeton tradition has its basis in Dresden, with its long tradition of craftsmanship and manufacturing.

It was here in 1709 that Johann Gottfried Böttcher produced the first white porcelain in Europe. Later, in 1836, Andreas Schubert built the first German locomotive in the city. In fact, collecting their Phaeton from Dresden is a special event for all new owners. After taking a tour of the transparent factory and undergoing an introduction to the Phaeton, the vehicles are ceremonially presented to their new owners in the Salon.

Wolfsburg, Germany, the headquarters of Volkswagen AG offers complete immersion into a world of Volkswagens. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size of the factory grounds which cover 8 square kilometres. The four signature power station chimneys tower more than 410 feet in the air. The twin 20-storey car towers next to the Kunden Center (customer delivery centre) in AutoStadt isquite a site, with every slot filled with cars from ground level to the top. The 1.6 square kilometers (395 acres) of indoor factory facilities are geared to systematic, state-of-the-art and hi-tech production of cars.

Veering across the world to Asia, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has its headquarters in the city of Toyota, less than one hour east of central Nagoya. Next to the headquarters stands the Toyota Kaikan Exhibition Hall, where Toyota's new models and technologies are displayed to the public. The Kaikan Hall also serves as the meeting point for plant tours.

Tours are held from Monday to Friday in English and Japanese.

For people who can't make it on a plant tour to Toyota City, the best substitute is a visit to the Toyota Techno Museum (also known as Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology) in central Nagoya.

The museum introduces the history of Toyota from its beginnings as a textile machinery manufacturer and also features many exhibits on automotive technologies and car production processes.

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