Installment #11 in Monolisticle's Ongoing Campaign Against the "Internet of Endless Listicles."
When you think of a car factory, you think of old brick.
And window grids.
And oil.
And grime.
And cold, drafty spaces.
The words "architectural phenomenon" rarely come to mind.
But that's exactly what this mesmerizing space designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid is. A phenomenon.
Commissioned by BMW, the plant is located in Leipzig, Germany, just 93 miles from Berlin. Although it stands as a worthy destination in and of itself, more realistically it makes a perfect day trip excursion from your travel home base in Berlin.
Assuming you hadn't stayed up too late the previous night at one of Berlin's legendary night clubs, you can get up, head over to Leipzig, do the tour and be back in Berlin in time for abendessen. Especially if you're making the drive in a stylish 3-series (you'll find plenty of rental options in Berlin).
I've always loved Zaha Hadid's work. But what I love most about this particular marvel she designed is the respect she showed not only for the employees who assemble the BMW 1 and 2-series that are built here, but even the factory's office workers. For example, rather than enclose the assembly line entirely on the factory floor, she designed a portion of it to pass through the offices as a reminder to every employee what it is they work toward. And to promote teamwork and include them as an integral part of it.
Subscribe to monolisticle for free weekly articles sent to your inbox, everything from art, culture and music to food, film, and travel. Not all the things. Only the best things.
The shapes and angles within the space evoke a feeling of movement, and speed and trajectory. As if the architectural lines and forms are racing throughout the structure. And yet those details also seem to reflect the design features that are so distinctive in the legendary cars that are built there.
BMW provides tours of the plant, where you can watch production, and even witness the moment of "marriage" between the chassis and body. For those who love BMWs, it's worth the cost of a plane ticket to Germany. You used to be able to double down on that plane ticket with a tour of Europe. BMW had a package where you could pick up your BMW from the factory and drive it across Europe to any one of a number of port cities, where it would then be shipped to America for you to pick up on the other end.
But the good news is, BMW now offers Performance Center Delivery, where you can pick up your new BMW at BMW's Performance Center driving school in Greenville, South Carolina. Under the expert instruction of BMW driving instructors, you can learn how to truly drive a BMW under various road conditions, and get to know what it's really capable of.
The plant is also a model in sustainability. BMW's i3 and i8 vehicles are produced here using energy provided by four wind turbines on site. BMW also has a plant in the United States that powers itself using methane gas recycled from a nearby landfill. It's good to see car companies doing this kind of thing. Hopefully we'll see much more of that in the near future.
If you enjoyed this article, please click the Facebook or Twitter icons at the bottom of this page and share it with others. You'll be helping to support our work, and the work of the artists, restaurants, cultural institutions, and experiences we write about. And we all would certainly appreciate the support right now. Thank you!
To unsubscribe, email us at monolisticle@monolisticle.com
@bmw
@bmwusa
Comments