Which architecture firm designed BMW Welt in Munich?

Coop Himmelb(l)au designed BMW Welt in Munich.

The Vienna-based architecture firm won BMW’s international competition for the project in 2001. Its proposal created a dramatic, transparent hall topped by a cloud-like sculptural roof and centered on a distinctive double-cone structure. The design was intended to extend the architectural ensemble formed by BMW’s headquarters tower and the neighboring BMW Museum.

BMW Welt opened in 2007 as a brand-experience, exhibition and vehicle-delivery center. Rather than functioning only as a showroom, it was planned as a public destination containing exhibition areas, event spaces, restaurants and facilities where customers could collect new vehicles. The building stands near Munich’s Olympic Park and the famous BMW “Four Cylinder” headquarters.

The firm’s name is often written incorrectly. The parentheses around the “l” are deliberate: “Coop Himmelb(l)au” is a wordplay combining ideas associated with cooperation, sky blue and building. The firm was founded in Vienna in 1968 by Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Michael Holzer; Wolf Prix was the leading design figure associated with BMW Welt.

BMW Welt is therefore not a design by SOM, Foster + Partners or Herzog & de Meuron, despite its international-scale engineering and landmark appearance.