ATP Architekten Ingenieure: IWC Manufacture Center receives award

With the integrally planned, 13,500-square-meter IWC shovel factory in Schaffhausen, which was inaugurated in August 2018, ATP Architekten Ingenieure was honored this year with the Iconic Award 2020 for Innovative Architecture. Matthias Wehrle, Managing Director of ATP Zurich, where the manufacturing center of the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer was planned with Building Information Modeling (BIM), confirms this award that "visionary architecture and sustainable innovation can perfectly cross-fertilize each other".

New building aims to embody "spirit of the IWC brand

Due to strong growth, IWC had increasingly reached the limits of its capacity in the existing premises in recent years. At the same time, a strategic decision was taken to expand IWC's expertise in the manufacture of its own movements, and the decision was made to build a new facility based on plans by ATP Zurich. The opening of the new IWC production facility for movement parts, manufacture movements and cases in 2018 marked a milestone in the 150-year history of the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer. The new manufacture center combines craftsmanship and high-tech, explained Christoph Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen, at the opening ceremony.

With a design reference to the pavilion-like buildings of modernism, ATP's architectural concept closely follows IWC's high-quality corporate design: The manufacturing center appears sleek, delicate and contemporary - like an IWC Portugieser watch. Elegantly set in the terrain, the slender building complex has little in common visually with a conventional factory. Designed to be energy-efficient and geared to flexibility, durability, and cost-effectiveness, the factory combines under its roof both the production of movement parts, manufacture movements, and cases, as well as a showroom. According to Grainger-Herr, the building not only offers optimal conditions for manufacturing and excellent workplace conditions for employees: "It also embodies the spirit of the IWC brand and allows visitors from all over the world to experience the production of our manufacture movements and cases at first hand."

Iconic Awards

With the Iconic Awards, the German Design Council honors international best achievements in the fields of architecture, interior design, product design and brand communication. Already in the inaugural year of the award in 2013, ATP was honored with the G3 Shopping Resort in Gerasdorf. Further "icons" for ATP planning followed in 2018 (education center in Holzgau, Tyrol), 2019 (Hofer Alpha Retail Network in Eberstalzell) and 2020 with the IWC Manufacturing Center in Schaffhausen.

The award ceremony of the Iconic Awards 2020 will take place on October 5 at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. (bw)