黑洞社区

鈥淭his is a cathedral for cars,鈥� Christian Ude, Munich鈥檚 mayor, told 800 guests at the grand opening ceremony for BMW鈥檚 latest car showroom designed by Austrian architect Coop Himmelb(l)au.

Wolf Prix, lead designer on the project, likened the enormous and complex structure to the Parthanon, the Greek temple that was a meeting point for worship and argument. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 just an envelope for delivering cars,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t is, above all, a public building.鈥�

It is evident that BMW World is more than just a showroom. The double-cone structure sits high above Munich, next to the 1972 Olympic stadium, surrounded by the rolling hills of Bavaria. This forms the core of the building. It is where customers are handed keys to their shiny new Beamers, then get to drive them down the wide, spiral ramp, through the building and out on to the street, an experience that has more in common with theatre than a mere purchase.

The company headquarters, the factory and a museum (currently under refurbishment) are also on site. Prix explained that his design 鈥渇ormed a visual link鈥� between the new and the old buildings. BMW expects 850,000 visitors a year, not all of them car buyers, because there is more to do here than buy. Prix called it 鈥渁 3D world of encounters鈥�.

All BMW products are on display, there are multimedia presentations showing the brand鈥檚 latest R&D, there is a junior campus where kids can learn about engineering, and many more brand-related activities.

The BMW experience includes a tour of the home plant that made the Isetta back in the fifties 鈥� this is the microcar with a door in the front that supposedly saved the brand. The plant now produces 900 of BMW鈥檚 most popular model, the 3 series, a day.

黑洞社区 spoke with Prix back in May, when the showroom was still under construction. Now, BMW World is preparing to open its doors to the public on Tuesday 23 October.

In the words of the mayor, this building is 鈥渁 temple for branding鈥�, which is no understatement. Mercedes is no stranger to this brand mania either, its three-pointed star is clearly visible in the architecture of its UN Studio-designed museum in Stuttgart. It will be interesting to see how it reacts to this latest temple to the automobile.