ANALYZING

BMW WELT Munichthe

COSMOS BEDZRA under the guidance of Prof. Christos Passas and Yevgeniy Beylkin

THE BMW WELT

The automobile industry is a highly dynamic industry. Vehicles are under a constant evolution feasting on every new advancement in technology or spearheading the discovery of ingredients needed to form the contents of the industry’s answers to questions of Speed, E�ciency, Fuel economy and so on. Undoubtedly BMW is one of the leaders in providing high quality tech-nological solutions to the automobile industry. This hunger for pacesetting would not be left out in the building of this branding center; the BMW Welt.

The BMW Welt’s physical context in Munich is characterized by high pro�le architecture. To the south is the Olympiapark with Frei Otto’s tensile roofs and to east is the BMW Complex, comprising the BMW manufacturing plant, the four cylinder high rise and the BMW museum. For a building which was to represent the BMW culture, there was the need to have a building which stands out in its immediate physical environment and at the same time put BMW ahead of the competition in the automobile industry.

The project explores a parallel phenomenon to that of the combustion and the release of energy which puts the automobile in motion. Here the design-ers aim at capturing the energy present in clouds. The process of cloud formation, the movement of a �oating cloud and the point where it gives way to rain is a utopian concept to be brought to the level of a building. However BMW Welt successfully explores this concept metaphorically and in an abstract way. The excellent organization of spaces within and under the cloud reinforces the fact that a cloud transforms into rain and rain provides water for life.

Beyond the fact that the BMW Welt is an image-oriented architecture and makes use of state of the arts technology in its design and construction, it is a building that has not overlooked the basic and important principles of architecture which includes spatial con�guration and climate modi�cation and so on.

The BMW Welt is a highly informed building. It is an icon and stands out in its environment but simultaneously, it is also well integrated into the context. A foot bridge runs across the building and over the road to the main BMW complex. This feature widens the space of the BMW Welt. It makes it a thor-oughfare. In this sense the BMW Welt is not just a new imposition on the landscape, drastically changing the movement patterns of people but it provides an option and one does not need to have any business in the BMW Welt before deciding to use this bridge from one point to the other.

The building allows views from the interior to its surroundings, extending this privilege to the spaces in the �oating roof by way of a slit. Locating the main entrance is not a problem at the BMW Welt. The double cone is a strong statement; carrying the sense of the source and origin of an explosion.

In an interview with Kristin Feireiss recorded in the book dynamic forces, Wolf Prix, leader of the Design team said, “Naturally, BMW Welt serves to enhance the corporate image. But where is the di�erence between that and a Greek temple? ”. In fact, the extensive program of this building has been organized in a simple, clear and highly e�cient way. Spaces are open some-times physically or only visually. One can hardly tell where barriers exist but a whole lot of activities take place without con�ict at the same time. The structural achievements of this building, de�nitely is a great contribution to investigations into high e�ciency of structural elements. In this building which has an area larger than that of a soccer �eld and an Airbus A-380a, there are only eleven columns to be found.

FACTS AND FIGURES

NAME BMW Welt BMW DELIVERY CENTER, Munich, Germany, 2001-2007 CLIENT BAYERISCHE MOTOREN WERKE (BMW) AGARCHITECTS COOP HIMMELB(L)AU ENGINEERS BOLLINGER + GROHMANNFLOOR AREA 73,000 m2 BUDGECT ABOVE DATA COMPETITION 1st PRIZE: 2001 START OF PLANNING: 11/2001 START OF CONSTRUCTION: 08/2003 OPENING: 20/21.10.2007

SITE AREA: 25,000 m2 GROSS FLOOR AREA: APPROX. 73.000 m2

BUILDING COST: ABOVE 100,000,000 Euro

JOBS CREATED: APPROX. 200 VEHICLE DELIVERIES: MAX. 250 PER DAY

FREQUENCE OF VISITORS: 850,000 PER YEAR

BMW GROUP REVENUE 2008 53 BILLION Vehicle production Automobiles units 1,439,918 1,541,503 -6.6Motorcycles units 104,220 104,396 -0.2

Deliveries to customers Automobiles units 1,435,876 1,500,678 -4.3Motorcycles units 101,685 102,467 -0.8

Workforce at year-end 100,041 107,539 -7.0

Revenues euro million 53,197 56,018 -5.0thereof:Automobiles euro million 48,782 53,818 -9.4Motorcycles euro million 1,230 1,228 +0.2Financial Services euro million 15,725 13,940 +12.8Reconciliations euro million -12,540 -12,968 -

Capital expenditure euro million 4,204 4,267 -1.5

WHY COOP HIMMELB(L)AU ?

THE COMPETITION recieved 275 submissions. This number was shortfoli-

follows. Morphosis Architects of Los Angeles - 3rd prize, Zaha Hadid Archi-tects of London - 2nd price, Coop himmelb(l)au of Vienna and Sauerbruch/Hutton from Berlin - 1st price. After further revisions of the proposals, Coop himmelb(l)au was awarded the contract.

THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY is a highly dynamic industry. Vehicles are under a constant evolution feasting on every new advancement in technol-ogy. There is great competition in the industry and one needs to engage in constant search for something new. Undoubtedly BMW is one of the leaders in providing high quality technological solutions to the automobile industry. This hunger for pacesetting would not be left out in the building of this branding center.

COOP HIMMELBL(L)AU, prior to their participation in the competition had embarked on a long journey of investigating the ability to capture forces and

come as a surprise when their proposal of an architecture towards a zero gravity was unanimously awarded the an opportunity to collaborate with an extremely ambitious and adventurous client as BMW

CHALENGES OF PROJECT

Providing design to act as a mouthpiece of the BMW brand, Corporate Culture and the City of MunichNeed to blend design into the OlympiaparkAccessibility to visitors on footinterconectivity of surrounding structures expecially, BMW facilities

EAST: BMW Museum BMW “four cylinder” high rise

Olympiapark

BMW Welt

BMW Manufacturing Plant

ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE CHALENGES

BMW Museum

BMW “four cylinder” high rise

THE DOUBLE CONE is not just important because it serves as a point of departure for the �oating roof and is a main load support, but it serves as an attractor point where the main entrance is located and a unifying elment between the BMW welt and the main BMW complex through the BMW Museum. It is a strong statement to overcome the street as an obstacle in integrating the building into the complex.

The BRIDGE is the physical element of unitybetween the BMW properties. This major circulation spine linkes all the public spaces within the BMW Welt and extends the spacein a continuous motion to the BMW Museum.

GENEOLOGY OF BMW WELT ROOF STRUCTURE

Images showing 3 decades of experimentation aimed at capturing the forces present in clouds, combustion and wind.

ABOUT+INSIDE THE CLOUD

Oscillating between physical and digital models, the cloud of the BMW Welt has been a pivot and a central point around which the whole design evolves. Right from the competition stages, its Archi-tects had to be clear in their submission on how it was going to work.The cloud which was to be supported with less columns had to undergo several modi�cations to address issues related to e�ceincy in load transfere.

In conjunction with the double cone, the cloud serves a functional structurally independent entity. It also serves as a space di�erentia-tion structure and a conopy over the entire building.

To further enhance the cloud e�ect, the architects proposed a trasluscent skin. The clients however wanted to have control over the mood and sentiments of some of the spaces through arti�cial lighting.

The cloud also houses the lounge. This space which accommodates VIPs and clients, provides views to the plaza and the rest of the BMW com-plex accross the street through the slit in the cloud. The cleint is elevated and given a feeling of importance.

In a building where cars are driven in and out, fumes needed to be eleminated as quickly as possible. The cloud is therefore porous; provid-ing pores for fumes to escape to ensure a good quality of air in the build-ing.

The slit in the cloud in an angle directed towards the four cylindrs was to pay homage to the high rise. It also enhances dayligh admittion into the lounge and provides views into the plaza.

ABOUT+INSIDE THE CLOUD

projection of lines froom slit con�rming veiw to the four cylinder high rise

BMW Welt

BMW Manufacturing Plant

EAST: BMW Museum

BMW “four cylinder” high rise

THE SPACES

FORUM in ancient Rome, a public square or marketplace in a city where business was conducted and the law courts were situated

PLAZA

FORUMLOUNGE

PREMIERE BUSINESS CLUB

JUNIOR CAMPUS

The BMW Welt has been likened to important places such as the Acropolis in Athens and and its main hall also to the St. Mark’s square in Venice. The collection of spaces in the BMW

It is a market place, a meeting place, an information center, a center of education and so on. From the initial proposal of a 45,000 square meters, the program grew to 75,000square meters, requiring a e�ective but harmonious spatialcon�guration. Falling on examples such as the Acropolis asa point of departure was a useful tool in facing the challenge

the SPACES

the SPACES

the PLANS

third-�oor plan

the SECTIONS

the SECTION

The section above shows a huge area of the space located below ground level to further enhance the �oating cloud over the open space below.

BOLLINGER+GROHMANN; engineers’ version of story

The strategy was to apply virtual forces in the computer model to an area of support to get a de�ection, and then, using these de�ected areas as the low areas of a roof structure, they could optimize and test the results, allowing for a structurally e�cient and dynamic roof.

There is an upper and a lower layer of roof structure, and the distance and depth between them varies along the roof geometry. The shaping of these grid girder layers was developed through testing �ctitious load scenarios.

These studies led to the de�nition of the upper surface, which was pushed up under its own negative weight, and of the lower roof struc-ture, which was shaped by forces exerted down upon it relating to the columns and building below. According to the designers, using these imagined load scenarios, a resulting roof form was tested and opti-mized in terms of meaningfulness of load transfer.

The initial competition design included a forest of columns holding up the roof. Engineering studies were undertaken on how to rationalize

them, and, as a result, the majority of the columns were omitted. The roof now bears down on 11 specially shaped concrete-composite columns and on the "Gastro Tower," a mushroom-shaped restaurant core.

The facade's bent construction system, with glass panels and glass-bead-blasted stainless steel, realizes the design intent while eliminat-ing the need for expansion joints in the roof and allowing the warping of the massive undulating roof to be taken up by the elastic bending of the posts.

During construction, it took 26 lift towers to hold up the roof, which was raised by hydraulic lifts and eventually lowered onto the structure.The initial design had the roof largely translucent to allow visitors to see its structure. This was changed by the client. BMW opted to prevent sunlight from shining directly on the cars as they were being presented to customers. The company wanted the presentation of the vehicles to be consistently perfect, and direct sun would create an uncontrollable aspect of the experience.

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EXPANDING THE BMW WORLD

BMW Welt

BMW Manufacturing Plant

EAST: BMW Museum

BMW “four cylinder” high rise

In order to prevent competition of the expanded area with the �oating roof which is the main center of attraction, it will be advisable to carry out the expan-sion at the roof level to intensify the cloud e�ect. The rest of the expanded area will be below ground level.

before EXPANSION

EXPANDING THE BMW WORLD

BMW Welt

BMW Manufacturing Plant

EAST: BMW Museum

BMW “four cylinder” high rise

after EXPANSION

INTERPRETATION PROJECT

The interpretation project is an installation aimed at splitting the BMW Welt into its constituents parts. There is clearly an icon on the skyline of Munich. The building is not just an image of a corporate body but a highly informed architectural intervention.

Water molecules rise they condense and form a cloud and send out a sign of hope to those who wait for the rain. The elements in this instalation are sym-bolic of water molecules that form the BMW Cloud. It is a congress of the dreams of a corporate body, technological advancements of our time, the social and leisure life of people and so on.

CONCLUSION

The BMW Welt is a current architectural icon. In my opinion the success of the project has been the ability of the designer to take the issue of context and intigration into context very seriously. The relaiance of the design team on the history of architecture expecially, inspirations from Greek temples as means of organizing space makes it possible for people to identify easily with the building. The important lesson here is that current investigations into new design aproaches must keep an eye on the evolution pattern of architectural design.

REFERENCES

Dynamic Forces: COOP Himmelb(l)au, BMW WELT Munich,Feireiss, Kristin (Editor), Kwinter, Sanford (Essay) www.bmw-welt.com

www.coop-himmelblau.at

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