Green-tinted bridges – cutting across a double height white-cube lobby – are not what you would expect when imagining a Hungarian factory. Conjoining a high-tech production plant with an innovation centre, British contact lens manufacturer Sauflon recently opened a massive facility – just 20km south of Budapest – that accounts for 35-percent of its annual turn-out. Designed by local Foldes Architects, the massive space serves both clinical and business activities.
Nudged between the factory floor and offices, a 10m high foyer welcomes visitors into the innovation centre – testing new concepts and eventually products. Reflective, transparent, glossy and polished surfaces are sharply disrupted by wooden-clad cubes that push out on multiple levels. These houses within houses encapsulate pocket conference rooms and a 32-seat auditorium. Further on, a pink–covered cafe appears to float among white monoliths. Altogether, this core emanates as a beacon of light within the industrial landscape it sits in.
Photos by Tamas Bujnovszky