Two large com­pa­nies have their head­quar­ters at Auf­bau Haus: the Auf­bau Ver­lag Pub­lish­ing House and Mod­u­lor, a ma­te­ri­als provider which, as Planet Mod­u­lor, pro­vides ad­di­tional ser­vices to the cre­ative and craft in­dus­tries in the build­ing. The ar­eas of ac­tiv­ity of the two main ten­ants – writ­ing and ma­te­ri­als – pro­vided the start­ing points for the de­sign of the ori­en­ta­tion sys­tem. Moni­teurs’ idea was that the ar­ti­sans of Planet Mod­u­lor should be in­volved in the cre­ation process.

In May 2005, the new BMW plant in Leipzig be­gan pro­duc­tion. The heart of the plant is the cen­tral build­ing, de­signed by Lon­don ar­chi­tect Zaha Ha­did, around which the pro­duc­tion halls are loosely grouped. Not by chance has Zaha Ha­did’s build­ing won sev­eral awards: not only does it form the com­mu­nica­tive cen­tre of the plant, con­nect­ing all ar­eas by the short­est route and, through its trans­parency, pro­vide a space for ex­changes and meet­ings. Rather, the staff work­ing in the cen­tral build­ing are also di­rectly in­te­grated into the pro­duc­tion: high above their desks, the car bod­ies pass silently through the cen­tral build­ing on long con­veyor belts, from one stage of pro­duc­tion to the next.