Twenty-five years in the past, BMW began planning a constructing subsequent to the Olympic Park in Munich. No person fairly knew what it might turn into. Immediately, BMW Welt attracts greater than 2.2 million guests a yr — almost thrice the 850,000 initially projected — and has quietly turn into probably the most visited points of interest in Bavaria.
We’ve been there extra occasions than we will rely. Each journey to Munich finally ends up there, even when it’s not on the agenda. There’s all the time a brand new exhibit, a automobile that simply confirmed up, or one thing within the structure you hadn’t observed earlier than. It doesn’t really feel like a company showroom, which might be the entire level.
A Completely different Sort of Model Constructing
BMW Welt works as a result of it doesn’t attempt to promote you something. You possibly can spend a day there trying on the full lineup throughout BMW, BMW M, MINI, Motorrad, and Rolls-Royce, seize a meal at one among 4 eating places — together with the brand new fine-dining spot THE CLOUD by Käfer — take an structure tour, or catch one of many 400 occasions hosted there every year. The BMW Welt Auditorium is Munich’s second-largest stage after the opera home. The Bavarian Sports activities Award is held there. The Blauer Panther TV & Streaming Award too.
None of that’s unintentional. Individuals who won’t ever purchase a BMW stroll by these doorways and go away with a distinct impression of the corporate. That’s the entire recreation.
The European Supply Program
For American BMW consumers, BMW Welt as soon as had an much more particular significance. The European Supply program used to allow you to order your automobile stateside, fly to Munich, choose it up at BMW Welt, drive it round Europe for a couple of weeks, and have it shipped residence — all at a significant low cost. It was among the finest offers within the automobile enterprise, full cease.
We did three deliveries by this system – 1, 2 and 3. The primary time, the dimensions of the constructing alone was definitely worth the flight. Workers knew your title, knew your spec, walked you thru every thing with out dashing. The second time we knew what to anticipate and simply loved it extra slowly. The third had a distinct feeling as a result of it was a good deeper expertise with the assistance of BMW M.
However throughout COVID-19, issues modified, like many others. BMW finally wound it down for U.S. clients, and the explanations given had been logistics, rules, shifting economics. However for the consumers who did it, that supply second at BMW Welt remains to be the story they inform. BMW doesn’t totally replicate that sort of reminiscence anyplace else.
The Constructing Itself
The architect, Prof. Wolf D. Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au, was a pupil of Karl Schwanzer — the person behind BMW’s 4-Cylinder headquarters. That lineage exhibits. Prix and a workforce of 120 architects packed 1,200 rooms right into a construction that appears, from the surface, prefer it landed from elsewhere. The double cone, the cover, the best way it sits towards the skyline — it nonetheless stops folks mid-stride twenty years after opening.
The occasion areas can be found for personal rent, which retains the constructing economically lively nicely past showroom hours and brings in audiences that don’t have anything to do with automobiles in any respect.
25 Years In
BMW Welt has turn into a part of Munich the best way the Marienplatz or the English Backyard are a part of Munich — folks embrace it on itineraries without having to be informed to. That didn’t occur due to promoting. It occurred as a result of the expertise held up. For fans, for structure followers, for households with no explicit curiosity in automobiles, it delivers one thing definitely worth the journey.
For us, it’s simply a type of locations we maintain going again to. There’s all the time a motive.
