Swarovski Manufaktur is a rapid-prototyping facility designed by Snøhetta at the crystal producer's campus in Wattens, Austria.
Snøhetta desrcibes the new Swarovski facility as a "crystal workshop for the 21st century". It combines design, product development and manufacture in one building to allow clients to be involved in the prototyping of new items.

"The Swarovski Manufaktur sets a new standard for inclusive fabrication facilities," said Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founding partner of Snøhetta.
"Bringing clients, designers, artists, researchers, machine operators, technicians and the public into one space under one roof is going to change how we think about these relationships in the future."

The building is part of the redevelopment of the Swarovski campus, which contains the company's factories and the Snøhetta-designed Swarovski Kristallwelten (Crystal World), which opened in 1995. Along with Swarovski Manufaktur, a new factory is being built, while a crystal-cutting factory has been refurbished into a product-development building by Schlögl & Süss Architects, called Campus 311.

To make the prototyping process as efficient as possible, the entire production process for Swarovski crystal products was replicated on a smaller scale within the Swarovski Manufaktur building.
As a result, production time for making prototypes has been halved.

The building is arranged around a double-height space, which contains all the ...