With an increasingly prominent brand presence in the world’s great cities, Audi looked to develop identity-building corporate architecture to showcase their vehicles. The architectural concept was designed to make Audi’s branding elements easily recognizable, while also giving dealerships the flexibility to adapt them for the respective global markets.
The architectural design is based on a consistent typology that offers strong brand resonance and strong brand recognition: the iconic curved shapes are simple and at the same time distinct, communicating the high-speed dynamics and sophisticated engineering standards associated with the brand. Asymmetrically curved interior spaces dominate within the clear-cut cubature of the orthogonal exterior. The large-scale, frameless glass façade reveals the spatial profile of the sloped walls, creating an eye-catching vehicle display even from afar. This idea continues in the interior, where the curved room’s walls are slightly tilted or sloped; the floor and wall form an organic basin shape as a counterpart to the same shape formed by the opposite wall and ceiling. Stacking stories vertically and consolidating the overall structure keeps the required footprint to a minimum and enables dealerships to leverage high-density urban locations in cities across the world.
The basic principle of creating a link between the static and dynamic elements of the space is clear-cut and allows dealerships to adapt the design’s scale and modular features for their respective location. A series of feasibility studies, manuals and training programs were developed to facilitate the rigorous implementation at more than 1200 locations worldwide.
Realization:
Prof. Dietrich, Carola (Project Leader)
Wagner, Alexandra (Project Leader)
Lauber, Konstantin (Project Leader)
Meusburger, Thomas (Project Leader)
Steckhan, Antje (Project Leader)
Ferreira, Pedro
Huber, Raphael
Pott, Philipp
Stetter, Veronika
Both, Matthias
Frank, Michael
Haupt, Benjamin
Hengher, Karin
Noss, Lisa
Mathew, Priya
Competition:
Prof. Dietrich, Carola (Project Leader)
Wagner, Alexandra (Project Leader)
Both, Matthias
Ernst, Uwe
Haupt, Benjamin
Ottinger, Marc
Specialist planners:
realgrün Landschaftsarchitekten, Munich (Landscape design)
Werner Sobek Stuttgart GmbH, Stuttgart (Structural design)
Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH, Munich (Energy planning)
Schmidt König Lichtplaner, München (Lighting design)
Grüne Modellbau, Wolfratshausen / Matthes Max Modellbau GmbH, Munich (Model making)
Artefactory Lab, Paris / mw², Munich / Killius Ernst Architekten, Munich (Visualisation)