BMW Welt
BMW Welt is both a new corporate symbol as well as a centre for events, exhibitions and automobile delivery visually linked with the BMW headquarters. Five thematic blocks are connected like walk-through sculptures in an urban landscape, overarched by the virtually free-floating roof of steel space truss construction that originates from the Double Cone. The spatial composition along with photovoltaic roof panels, natural ventilation and the glazings low thermal transmission coefficient allows for minimal heating and cooling systems. At the centre of the Hall is the Premiere, where customers pick up their vehicles and over which the Lounge, or purchase area, is suspended. Air firewalls doubling as escape routes permit open vertical connections for the multiple interacting functional layers and avoid divisions of the 18,000 m² roof area. Glass-bead-blasted stainless steel cladding for the outer skin and the Hall ceiling, and a modified post-and-beam glass facade system produce a spatial effect that is dominated by glass and steel and light.