The Transparent Factory is a car factory and exhibition space in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, Germany owned by German carmaker

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

and designed by architect Gunter Henn. It originally opened in 2002, producing the

Volkswagen Phaeton The Volkswagen Phaeton ( ) (''Typ'' 3D) is a full-size luxury sedan/saloon manufactured by the German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, described by Volkswagen as their "premium class" vehicle. Introduced at the 2002 Geneva Motor Show, th ...

until 2016. As of 2017 it produces the electric version of the

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Meaning

The original German name is Gläserne Manufaktur (meaning factory made of glass). Both the German and English names are a

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, pho ...

on the double meaning of ''transparent'' and ''glassy'', referring to both optical transparency and transparency of the production process. It is .93 miles (1.5 kilometres) long.

Car factory

The factory originally assembled Volkswagen's luxury sedan, the Phaeton. It used 60,000 magnets in its fully automated assembly line. Spare capacity was also used to build Bentley Continental Flying Spur vehicles destined for the European market until 2006, when all work was transferred to

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, Nort ...

's plant in

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Production of the Bentley Flying Spur resumed in late 2013. The factory only handled final assembly. Operations such as stamping and welding and the painting of the steel bodies took place in

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...

. Painted bodies arrived at the factory by truck. The other 1200 parts and 34 preassembled components were shipped to a logistics center and are transported to the factory by CarGoTrams that run on Dresden's public transport tracks. All vehicle production at the factory ended in March 2016, before restarting again in 2017. The Volkswagen ID.3 is produced here since 2021, sharing production with the Zwickau-Mosel Plant.

Location

The Transparent Factory is situated in the city center of Dresden, an 800-year-old

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

city known for its arts and craftsmanship. It stands in a corner of the

Großer Garten The Großer Garten (English: Great Garden) is a Baroque style park in central Dresden. It is rectangular in shape and covers about 1.8 km². Originally established in 1676 on the orders of John George III, Elector of Saxony, it has been a pu ...

, where a convention center was located before the Second World War. The factory's walls are made almost completely of glass. Its floors are covered entirely in Canadian maple. Its visitor-friendly layout was designed to accommodate up to 250 tourists per day. There are no smokestacks, no loud noises, and no toxic byproducts. Volkswagen planted 350 trees in the grounds.

Current visitor experience

Visitors can test drive VW electric vehicles for 30 minutes, take a virtual tour of Dresden and look at various exhibits relating to VW's electric and hybrid technologies.

Previous visitor experience

The ''Gläserne Manufaktur'' also provided visitors with a series of educational attractions relating to the VW "Phaeton". The attractions, designed by BRC Imagination Arts, include Vision World, a multimedia "global theater" that allows visitors to take the pulse of the planet in real time; a Virtual Test drive, featuring a real VW Phaeton combined with motion base technology and computer generated scenery; a computer-based Car Configurator that enables visitors to design the VW Phaeton of their dreams; an interactive Techwall explaining the workings of the Phaeton's "infotainment" system; a Virtual Production Tour; and a media-enhanced Delivery Experience for customers taking possession of new vehicles. The German TV channel ZDF occasionally films a philosophical panel discussion in the Transparent Factory, "Das philosophische Quartett" (The Philosophical Quartet). To stop birds from flying into the glass, an outdoor speaker system emulates bird vocalisations marking the territory as "taken".

Future

The factory is to be renovated to enable it to produce luxury and electric cars.

Gallery

File:VW-Cargotram-Dresden.jpg, CarGoTram delivers parts to the Transparent Factory File:CarGoTram in Dresden - Pirnaischer Platz Dresden.jpg, CarGoTram in Dresden - Pirnaischer Platz Dresden - Delivering parts to the Transparent Factory in 2017 File:Glass manufacture vw phaeton dresden3.jpg, Car tower at the Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden File:Grosser Garten Dresden Karte 2008 05 02.svg, location of the Transparent Factory in the ''

'' park File:Dresden-Glaeserner-Manu-nig.jpg, Front entrance of the Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden File:Glaserne Manufaktur.jpg, Volkswagen Transparent Factory in Dresden

References

External links

Gläserne ManufakturPhoto tourMegaworld
{{Authority control Volkswagen Group factories Buildings and structures in Dresden Motor vehicle assembly plants in Germany Tourist attractions in Dresden