ZIL ART - DROM
An abstract car-inspired tile skin that ripples, turning the building’s automotive past into a dynamic relief that catches light, shadow and motion all day long.
For Dutch architectural bureau DROM, we transformed the site’s industrial car-making heritage into a bold, tactile facade made entirely of custom tiles. Instead of literally depicting cars, we distilled automotive forms into abstract, sculpted pieces that echo bodywork, vents, and panels in an architectural language.
Each tile is designed with a subtle relief, so the facade behaves almost like a moving object: light slides over curves, shadows deepen and soften, and the building seems to shift as you walk around it.
Up close, the rhythm of repeating parts feels precise and mechanical; from a distance, it becomes a continuous graphic skin that nods to speed, assembly lines and the choreography of machines.
The result is a building that wears its history on its exterior, turning a former car factory story into a contemporary, sculptural surface that feels both robust and surprisingly refined.