BASF equips old bunker for the future of materials development

A former air-raid bunker belonging to BASF’s site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, is being expanded for a new ‘Creation Centre’.

BASF’s Performance Materials Division is bringing together its global expertise in the development of product solutions in one location when it comes to innovation and future concepts.

“For customers, the Creation Centre is a kind of app store that’s equipped with our expertise. It’s not a showroom, but an environment that offers our customers new ways of working and experiencing our competencies in an open-minded and creative space,” explained Guiscard Glück, Vice President, New Markets and Products.

BASF believe the Creation Centre concept will combine the real material world with the latest digital possibilities, focusing on the customer, the market, and future trends.

The concept also includes BASF’s in-house simulation technology Ultrasim, which is used for the virtual development of real solutions.

BASF says it is paving the way for a new dimension in cooperation with customers and partners, by combining comprehensive computer-aided methods combined with state of-the-art visualisation technologies and 3-D-printed sample components.

The centre will be a cuboid structure with a side length of 22 meters built on top of the bunker, creating an area of around 1,000 square meters over two floors.

Construction work started in March, with the Creation Centre scheduled to open in mid-2019.

Creation Centres will also be implemented at other BASF locations in Tokyo (Japan), Shanghai (China), and Wyandotte (USA).