Germany's fantastic 'carchitecture'
Why is it that dramatic, visionary buildings and precision-engineered cars seem to go together like Mercedes and Benz?
BMW Welt, Munich
If you ever wanted proof that buying a new car is practically a sacrament in Germany, look no further than BMW Welt. Some 45,000 proud new car buyers from all over the world pick up their factory-ordered Bimmers each year in a formal ceremony at BMW Welt, a gravity defying, multipurpose building by Coop Himmelblau architects. The price of the vehicle handover ritual starts at €390.
The Porsche Museum, Stuttgart
Erratic as it looks from the outside, the interior of architect Delugan Meissel’s Porsche Museum could hardly be any more goal directed. A central escalator is a veritable stairway to heaven for Porsche devotees, leading directly to a Type 64 race car, the origin of the brand’s automotive DNA. But that is only the beginning, because the building contains over 80 pristine historical vehicles.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart
This structure was built in 2006 to propel hundreds of thousands of visitors each year through 120 years of Mercedes-Benz history, which is essentially the history of the automobile. Design is by the Dutch architecture firm UN Studio. The exterior concept features three overlapping circles and 1,800 differently sized panes of glass. It holds 180 vehicles, thanks to a double-helix interior design.
The Transparent Factory, Dresden
Probably the most important decision Volkswagen made about its hugely unpopular luxury model, the Phaeton, was to build the factory out of glass. And then to place it right in the middle of Dresden, still undergoing a renewal after unprecedented WWII bombing. Gunter Henn’s design is revolutionary because it challenges the notion that factories are not good for property values.
BMW Central Building, Leipzig
Superstar architect Zaha Hadid had a heyday on the central building at the BMW 3 series plant in Leipzig. Her job was to create a “nerve centre” linking three existing production halls. The result are overlapping, criss-crossing levels where BMWs in various stages of completion float eerily over office workspaces, even the canteen, on their way to the next assembly hall.
Audi Terminals, everywhere
Audi Terminals are to auto retailing what flagship stores are to the fashion business: where you go to mainline the brand’s core values, followed by an opportunity to score the product. The asymmetrical, glass-fronted Audi dealerships by Allmann Sattler Wappner are now going up with only slight variations in dozens of major cities around the world. Our picture shows the one in Dubai.
The ICC, Berlin
Designed by Ralf Schüler, the International Conference Centrum is owned by Berlin, not a carmaker. Still, the ICC has its own autobahn exit, a subterranean drop-off point for passengers, and an integrated parking tower for 650 vehicles. The ICC is now abandoned... a reminder for architects that if cars are the focus of your designs, they will eventually be irrelevant. No matter how visionary.