Ten years ago Mate Rimac I had no idea that the newly formed company that bears his name would end up supplying Porsche and Hyundai, becoming synonymous with yet another Richard Hammond’s accident, or grow so fast that it should build a new $ 238 million campus for 2,500 employees outside the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Rimac has gone from fighting to paying employees to a shining example of new Croatian industry, and now intends to build a factory that fits its reputation.
(Full disclosure: Rimac invited me to join a Teams call to talk about his new headquarters project last week. Some of the quotes from this interview have been edited for clarity. Mate Rimac seemed to be a very neat guy.)
Mate Rimac, now aware that his company is a significant part of his country’s future economy, carefully explained the approach of building a new headquarters through a video call last week. The new headquarters could not simply be a disgusting cuboid with a logo pushed into a corner.
“We work day and night. We work our asses. I want people to be able to use every little moment they have between sessions or when they need to breathe or anything to enjoy their time. Don’t go crazy just being at the office all day. I think it’s the best thing to spend time in nature, “Rimac said on appeal.
This means that it will come with a fairly traditional factory for painting and assembling electric battery packs and Rimac supercars. But the company also has much more planned for the space.
For young executives, the new commune was to be a place where employees and their families could actually use and interact, rather than a place just to be seen and admired from afar, or a building to be seen as a product. per se .
“For example, McLaren, I respect the company and they have a great campus. But it’s designed so that people don’t mess with it, “Rimac added.” We really want to project something around people, give them the best job, and [Architects 3LHD] I understood everything in terms of requirements and so on. They didn’t try to make a monument, but actually something that works for the company. And it looked beautiful. I think it was absolutely the right choice. ”
When it came to design, the Croatian architecture firm 3LHD got the job done, but it wasn’t an easy trip for the local boys. Rimac has assembled a huge team to ensure that whoever gets the best job will be suitable for the project and the local area.
“We did an international competition. I would say that they were really some of the best architects in the world. From the big world I did not think that some Croats would be the best. But I made it pretty professional. I had a jury. Marta was one of the members of the jury. But we also had a jury with independent members, such as construction people, to say how feasible it is to build or expensive. I had people from the city. ”
“We are trying to do something bigger here, not just to build our company. But I also try to be patriotic to the end and attract other companies to come here. Unfortunately, there are very, very few foreign investments that are not related to tourism. ”
The renderings make the new headquarters look like a utopian compound from another world, like something raised from a Mass Effect game. Some features are worth mentioning specifically: for beginners, the company’s test track will be public access, according to Rimac, “There is a [test] follow. Perhaps a key thing is that it is fully integrated with nature and open to the public. It will probably be the only carless research and development unit around it, because we, as a company, are very, very open. ”
This track has, in fact, a special corner: “One of these corners is called a mandatory drift corner. So when you go through it, you have to go straight. You can not pass it normally ”.
Rimac will also try to keep sheep and geese alive on campus as well, as the architecture firm seems to be suitable for keeping them “in nature”. This without a fence could get out of hand.
Human guests visiting one evening will be seated in one of the on-site rooms. Except that it is not really a room, but rather an apartment in the woods. “It’s like, glamping, let’s say,” Rimac snorts. Although it’s probably not the kind of glamping that involves a chemical toilet in a wicker warehouse.
Although animals may not be welcome inside, employee deposit will be more than welcome in kindergarten.
Rimac does not intend to leave the new site when more space is needed. He said that if the need arises, there will be more standardized sites, built to accommodate the production of batteries and trains, but that the new campus will be the long-term home of the company. Much of Rimac’s appeal was about the importance of supporting the local and national community.
There is not much industry in Croatia other than hotels, tourism and hospitality. Rimac hopes the new facility will attract more business and attention to the country and help the nation’s PR reach.
The factory proposed by Rimac and the current one are big: “When there is a foreign visit, a kind of high-level state visit, they go to the government and bring them to our company. Even now, when there is no campus. What can I show them? We are the showcase of industry, of the country. So it will have a much greater impact on students and universities, visitors and on the overall profile of Croatia. ”
Rimac did not know that his company would be here 10 years ago, but he had hope: “There is a statute on Facebook that I wrote eight years ago in 2012 or in ’13. I cycled past this 15th century castle. I said, “I have this crazy dream, which makes no sense and the chances of making it happen are zero percent. But why not build the production unit near the castle and have a few offices in the castle and such? I didn’t think we would grow to the level we are today. But the same idea kept in my mind and we continued to work on it. So this is the campus project. ”
Although the castle no longer officially includes the company’s basic plan for headquarters, the land behind this alleged castle is the area where Rimac is really building its new home. That crazy dream came true and now Rimac will have the castle to watch during the lunch breaks.