The total area of the complex is 400,000 sq. m, or 50 football fields. This gigantic site houses the traditional corrugated metal factory buildings, which include a body shop, a paint shop and a conveyor line, laboratories, transportation, finance and advertising, and a staff clinic.
The Hadid building is also clad in metal, but this is not an attempt to fit it into the surroundings: despite the fact that the architect's task was to create a project only for the factory's "office", subsequently the management of the concern asked her to develop a version of the external design of all the buildings of the industrial complex.
The shape of an office building, in contrast to technical structures, is much more streamlined. It is placed on concrete supports, which make it look like a flyover. Passing under this "bridge", the visitor is directed through a small courtyard to the wedge-shaped Central Building itself (its address - BMW Passage, Building 1 - speaks of its position in the ensemble). There is the main lobby of the plant, from where you can get to any of the production and office departments located on its territory.
There is also a conveyor belt along which future cars pass on their way from the hull shop to the paint shop or to the assembly line. Some of the cars change the direction of movement along the way, turning around on special turntables.
Thus, the conveyor connects engineering departments and workshops, overcoming the forced division into lower and higher personnel. At the same time, he emphasizes the idea of movement that is fundamental to all of Zaha Hadid's work. But its Central Building is not the last element of the complex: the "main facade" of the ensemble will be the flowing building of the main showroom of the plant, which will be built in a few years.
