Designed by the architects Jan Brickman and Leendert Van der Vlugt, supervised by Kees Van der Leuw, the boss of Van Nelle, the factory is the most important and the most accomplished example of industrial architecture in the modern movement.
The result of a cross between Taylorism and Bauhaus, the Van Nelle factory at Rotterdam, built between 1926 and 1931, is a gigantic factory in which, up to the 80s, they processed tobacco, coffee and tea.
Rather than a simple building, picture a great machine, a huge liner clad in glass and metal.
The completely glazed facades expose the internal structure of the buildings and allowed the employees to work by daylight. Every step through lift wells, staircases and bridges was visible thanks to their glass walls – transparency was both a touch of style and a means of surveillance.
