Snøhetta's new Swarovski Manufaktur in Wattens, Austria brings creative design, rapid prototyping, and technical production under one porous roof.

To enter the Manufaktur, visitors first walk through a bridge from Campus 311, a new office location in an old factory building that has an interior with a dark color palette. Visitors then walk into the brighter interior of the Manufaktur, which features white walls and light birch wood panels that cover the floor and a sculptural platform on the second floor.

In designing the building, Snøhetta drew inspiration from the ephemeral elements of a crystal, like incorporating natural daylight. “Crystals only come to life with light, so for us it is the intense presence of that daylight that is the most important aesthetic aspect of this building,” said Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of Snøhetta’s Studio in Innsbruck.

The self-supporting, white steel ceiling consists of a repetitive 6x3-meter pattern with a slightly skewed grid. It also contains 135 “cassette” openings that are covered with a protective solar coating to allow sunlight to gently seep into the building. Perforated acoustic panels ensure a comfortable sound level that lets people converse at a normal volume, despite any background noise from production machinery.

A large open staircase serves as a meeting point and arena, and provides access to the main floor from the wooden platform that is structurally suspended from the ceiling. Offices, showrooms, and presentation rooms enclosed by glass walls are integrated into this sculptural, gallery-like structure. The interiors of these rooms are dominated by materials like oak, wood, stained glass. brass, and various textiles.

The main floor contains the machinery needed to produce prototypes or small crystal series in a short amount of time, and its flexible design can accommodate new technological equipment as production standards and specifications change. A “chandelier hole“ – an open space that plunges from the main floor to the basement – lets prototypes up to 14 meters high be assembled and tested on-site.

The Manufaktur “sets a new standard for inclusive fabrication facilities,” said Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Snøhetta Founding Partner, in a statement. “Bringing clients, designers, artists, researchers, machine operators, technicians and the public into one space under one roof is going to change how we think about these relationships in the future”.

Design Team:

Architecture: Snøhetta - Innsbruck
Interior Architecture: Snøhetta – Innsbruck
Carla Rumler, Cultural Director Swarovski
Lighting: Martin Klingler – Moosbach
Sally Story - London
HVAC: ATP Architekten Ingenieure, Innsbruck
Electrical Engineer: ATP Architekten Ingenieure, Innsbruck
Structural Engineer: Baumann + Obholzer, Innsbruck
Building Physics Engineer: Spektrum, Dornbirn

Check out a project video and additional photos below.