The Central Building of BMW's plant in Leipzig, Germany, was awarded the GranitiFiandre special award during the Premio Internazionale Dedalo Minosse event in Vicenza, northern Italy.

The awards are intended to recognize the courage of customers who contract with architects to create innovative buildings and spaces.

The selection was made by the free Italian architects association in partnership with L'Arca magazine.

A total of fve main awards and eight special awards were assigned.

BMW Central Building at Leipzig plant was described as s "perfect combination of fine aesthetic and advanced functionality".

The main characteristic is its transparency which makes communication and organization easier.

Among the signature elements are the 600 meters long galleries where body-in-whites are transported to and from the paint shop.

The galleries are visible from outside so that the production process becomes tangible for both employees and visitors.

The building, designed by architect Zaha Hadid from London, has already received several awards: Deutsche Architekturpreis 2005, Leipziger Architekturpreis 2005, Deutsche Architekturpreis Beton 2005 and Best-Office-Award 2006.

The Z-Car concept by Zaha Hadid (Source: Square Magazine / Dezeen)

Speaking about this projectm Zaha Hadid said "I can finally experiment my architecture language on a large operating building - 'Panta Rei': here energy flows at all levels.

"The Central Building bundles and distributes all the essential movements of the plant."

The idea of convergence of all communcation flows into the Central Building is also expressed in the design of the Hall which is a sort of "gravitational field" of the building.

For more information about Zaha Hadid's work, visit www.zaha-hadid.com and Zaha Hadid on Wikipedia.

(Source:Bmw)