Last Wednesday was the official opening of Coop Himmelb(l)au's new BMW Welt showroom.

I happened to be there the friday before the opening together with the rest of my office on a study trip. Due to it not being officially open, plus that there was some VIP business going on inside, we were unfortunately not allowed in, but here are some photos from the outside and my impressions.

First of all, these are some of the rendered images I had seen on BMW's website (http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/index_highend.html?content=http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/home.html) which are really beautiful and built up a certain expectation before arriving there. The roof promised to be most exciting, described as a cloud floating about the building and the fantastic spiral effect of the roof into the winding "cyclone" of glass and steel.

More...

and this one...

But I have to say I was rather dissapointed. Here are some photos of the actual building

The hovering roof "cloud" does not appear so light

And looking back towards the "cyclone", the roof does not tie these two elements together. To me they seem more detached and clumsy.

On the opposite side of the road is the BMW 4 cylinder building and the walkway linking them is rather nice and fluid.

Here is a close up....nice precision in the metal cladding

But the glass on the cyclone does not have the same fluidity

The perforated cladding here is nicely detailed here too and very precise, but I don't understand why it is so thick.

In detail....

More detail....

And the glass....

Here the walkway enters the main part of the building

And here are some interior shots....the best I could do sticking my head through the door. I think the effect of the floating roof would be much greater inside considering there are very few columns in that enormous showroom.

Another....

And inside the "cyclone"

My reaction to this building is rather critical....perhaps due to it not meeting expectations which I had already built up. Most of all, I expected it to be a lot lighter, more fluid and less faceted.

After we left this building and continued on into central Munich, we passed Olympic Park which is right opposite BMW, and this just served to fuel my criticism. The central stadium, constructed between 1968 and 1972 (designed by the architecture firm of Behnisch and Partners) is a stunning glass structure and achieves, perhaps way ahead of its time, precisely that which I am missing in BMW Welt

There is a website about it here (http://www.olympiapark-muenchen.de/index.php?id=olympiastadion&L=1) with a panoramic camera and this site (http://www.arcaro.org/tension/album/munich.htm) has some fantastic photos. I am showing one image from the website here.

I hope you all understand what I mean.

I am curious about your reactions and if you agree or disagree with me.

An interesting

thank you..........

I also drove by in summer.
I prefere the czech library over that one.

All these old architects that are still working...they should retire.
The gazometer are also shit...

We should stop building and sealing the planet with steel and concrete with absolutly no function but to show off some stupid cars!

I found a map if anyone wants to visit.

Opening hours are from 10:00 to 20:00 and entrance into the foyer is free.

Great post, great critique. Thanks.

Thanks for the good pictures Kristen.
To be frank, I've ceased expecting good buildings by Coop Himmelb(l)au. I remember being as disappointed as you are when I visited the cinema in Dresden, the academy of fine arts in Munich and the SEG Apartment block in Vienna. The buildings just don't live up to the rendered visions or expectations towards exciting architecture.

...but the render looks awesome.

I have been there early this year while it was still under construction.
It looked clumsy then already. I didn't know about the 'cloud' metaphor but I could never have guessed.

But then again, building a 'light' building of that size is quite a difficult task.

In a recent conference (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5375) Prix explained he hates columns and designs roofs to be like clouds, not just this roof, but all roofs. He sees architecture as sculpture and is very unapologetic about it. His sculpture should be better.

He was emphatic in saying his buildings were "within" budget, and I would like to know what the budget was, I am sure it is a lot. Specially when you consider results.

I am also disappointed by what I can see of the building in your photos. I cannot agree with you more. Thank you so much for taking your time in letting us see so quickly photos of the real thing.

video here (http://architecturalvideos.blogspot.com/2008/03/bmw-welt-animation.html)

:)

Missed this thread. I went past in 2004 during our Munich visit on our ten week Euro adventure, and took this pic, which is interesting to see when you see the final product.