A logistics, development, and management center for Unitronics, Modiin

Design of the automation company’s management and R&D offices, including an automated warehouse, large production floor, and landscape design, a total built-up area of around 12,000 m2. Unitronics is engaged in developing, planning, and production of automated systems for storage and transport, and automated parking lots. The company wanted to build one center that would be built in two stages and include an R&D and management building, and a production and automated logistics warehouse building. The R&D building will also house an automated parking lot that will showcase its state-of-the-art developments in the industry. The lot is visible from Highway 6, enhancing its importance to be presentable and dignified, and make a visual contribution to the surroundings. The design saw the need for sustainable construction and use of passive architectural elements to achieve most of the objectives, including self-shading, advanced glazing technologies, energy-efficient lighting, water recycling, using vegetation indigenous to the environment, and more. The two main buildings define the complex’s main square in between them. The main square is used as a garden, common area, and an outdoor seating area for the employee restaurants. Visually, mixed materials were used to connect the two buildings into one complex that has something in common but is also unique. The visual dominance of simple industrial finishing materials, including corrugated tin, exposed concrete planks, aluminum and steel panels are present in production and storage, and in the R&D and management office building. Another important design component is the light and shadow created in between the buildings, and within each structure. The structures are built from layers, and spaces in between them. These spaces are used for shade, ventilation, and for infrastructure spaces. A functionally and visually important component is located in the R&D and office building: the automated underground parking lot and its transparent elevator, which serves as a sort of light box that faces Highway 6. The same goes for the light box of the high automated warehouse, which shines in the twilight.