One of Munich’s architectural highlights, the BMW Museum stands right next to the world famous BMW Group Head Office Four-Cylinder Building. It was here that the Chairman of the Board of Management of the BMW Group, Dr. Norbert Reithofer, officially reopened the Museum last week.
He highlighted the importance of tradition for the company: “Awareness of our heritage, the experiences and developments that our company has been through give us direction, power and inspiration for our work,” he said.
After a two and a half year refurbishment project, visitors can look forward to more than 120 exhibits in museum space covering 5,000 square metres. They will be presented in a completely new exhibition concept.
The circular museum will continue to be a landmark and a sought-out destination for car lovers from across Europe and the world. The adjacent low-level building now complements the ‘Bowl’ – as the circular museum building has been designated ever since it was opened in 1973. This has entailed increasing the available floor space five-fold. The museum will open its doors to the public this coming Saturday, 21 June 2008 from 10.00.
As guest of honour, Dr. Norbert Reithofer welcomed Eberhard von Kuenheim, who as Chairman of the Board of Management opened the museum in 1973. Although the exhibition has changed since then, the philosophy of the museum remains the same:
“A BMW Museum has to present living corporate heritage. And it must show how BMW defines the future, on the basis of concrete objects,” Dr Reithofer said.
The future was presented in an unusual way at the opening ceremony: 350 apprentices of the BMW Group surprised guests as representatives of the upcoming generation who would shape the history of the BMW Group, and themselves create new vehicles that will one-day be exhibited with pride in the Museum.
The much anticipated new BMW museum the BMW Welt has just opened in Munich and is one of the world’s most amazing archetectual spaces as our You Tube video will show you. The Welt is more than a museum it is also a distribution point where you can pick up your spanking new BMW. Designed by Coop Himmelb the facility took nearly four years to construct using some amazing construction techniques. The huge roof is home to over 3600 solar panels and many other substainable items are used in the structure. The facility includes the premium lounge for new car owners, a public gallery, conference suite and children’s center. The huge Double Cone will act as a media dome for exhibitions and events accommodating up to 450 people. BMW anticipates over 800,000 visitors per year.
We were visiting http://news.windingroad.com earlier and found this interesting spy shot. it is believed to be a test mule from BMW. From the picture it is easy to see the front is very mini like- the body looks all wrong to be a Mini, and we just had the new models released- could it be the return of the Moke? There has been rumors doing the rounds for some time now that BMW were working on a 4×4 crossover style Mini- the return of the Moke would be the perfect vehicle. Imagining what’s under this yellow camouflage its not hard it think there might be an open top buggy- time will probably tell. The original Moke was designed by the then Mini owner BMC from about 1964. They became extremely popular as a low cost and rather rugged little car. They were later built in Portugal and Australia where they were very popular. Australia even exported the Moke, the Israeli Army were one of their major customers where machines guns were mounted to the front of the car.
After the second world war there was a great need for small cheap transportation and there was a boom in what we now call microcars. The Isetta was one of the most successful being originally designed in Italy but being built in several European countries and even Brazil the vehicle was infact licensed to the car manufactures from Iso SpA. in Italy which was more familiar with making fridges and scooters. BMW made the car its own and did some innovative design changes and today it is the classic Isetta including making it more reliable. The thing that made the car so popular you only needed a motor bike license, because under the skin that’s really all the vehicle was. Transeum took this photograph of this lovely example of the Isetta at the amazing BMW museum in Munich, Germany.
