Excursion to the Fagus Factory

For years, Held+Team has continued the tradition of an annual trip to the hometown of one of our team members. Unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic has made major travel with the company difficult for the past two years. As an alternative, this year we went on a day trip to the Fagus factory in Alfeld. Shoe lasts have been manufactured in this factory since the beginning of the 20th century, which can be viewed in the adjacent museum.

However, not only the production of this factory is interesting, the building itself has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011. It was designed in 1911 by designer and architect Walter Gropius. The curtain walls made of glass, innovative for the time, and the windows running around the corner, were the first examples of modern "skeleton construction". A particularly interesting detail is the gradation of the window sizes. They get taller towards the top of the building to counteract perspective distortion and appear the same size as the lower windows.