Fraba Production Hall

Special Economic Zones provide exceptional development opportunities. In return for tax relief, developers invest millions of euros in the local economy. Unfortunately, such zones tend to become bland and anonymous. The newly built architecture responds only to the functional needs of the companies concerned. For FRABA, a German electronics manufacturer, BeL architects conceived the ambitious aim of transcending typical industrial architecture. Their cylindrical building certainly stands out among the random scattering of boxy buildings, although the rooftop installations detract from the purity of the form. The walls of the building are covered with strips of shiny roof sheeting, an interesting alternative to the corrugated iron one usually finds on industrial façades. Internally, there is no distinct function-related division of the space: sanitary and technical services are located in 3 small cylinders freely floating in 'a non-hierarchical, uniform, infinite and flexible space'.