WET Innovation Centre

Pilisszentiván, Hungary

Photo © Andrea Haider

Architects: Földes Architects

Location: Pilisszentiván, Hungary
Year: 2002

The realization of the Innovational Building meant the crowning of a long planning and building period which lasted for years. The Hungarian factory of the German W.E.T. Automotive Systems started with fifty workers. Throughout the years it grew into a more than one-thousand-worker-factory. The extend of production needed the completion of one new producing and storage hall each year. Due to the successful management, the management staff in Germany decided to bring the innovative-researches to Hungary, as well. This is how the idea of the Innovational Building was born.

The space structure of the Innovational Building can be divided into three narrow zones. The first zone is made up of the offices placed on three stores. The elegant passageway is connected to this part with bridges and skylights. Then follows the zone of the service rooms- the meeting rooms, the kitchenettes and bathrooms can be found here. The 550 m2 test plant is connected to the service zone. The double-layered climate-façade constructed on the street-side façade heats the building during wintertime while cools down inner parts during the summer. The building won the Architectural Prize of the journal Figyelő in 2003 and the Pro Architectura Prize in 2004.