The Transparent Factory in Dresden was designed by Gunter Henn of Henn GmbH for Volkswagen, through its subsidiary Volkswagen Sachsen. It opened in 2002 in a corner of the Großer Garten park. The text gives no construction dates or dimensions and names no style. The walls are almost entirely glass, the floors are Canadian maple and 350 trees were planted on the grounds.
It was a fully automated assembly line using 60,000 magnets. An outdoor speaker system emulates bird calls to deter collisions with the glass. It handled final assembly only, with stamping, welding and painting in Zwickau, and parts arrived by CarGoTram.
It produced the Volkswagen Phaeton until 2016. Electric Golf production began in 2017, and ID.3 production in January 2021. The plant closed in December 2025, Volkswagen's first closure of a German plant. The site stays a research center, and the Technical University of Dresden is to occupy about half.
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