Audi Forum Neckarsulm

Corporate architecture today is an essential component of strategic business management, and is thus governed by clearly defined precepts. Both building and product design are expected nowadays to reflect specific aspects of corporate culture—the brand values and competencies of the company concerned. The Audi “Forum” in Neckarsulm, Germany, shows just how this kind of brief can be effectively implemented through architectural creativity. This exclusive customer centre was designed right from the start as a three-dimensional “brand vehicle”. The Düsseldorf architectural partnership Beucker Maschlanka and Partners (BM+P) derived the basic framework for the constructional design from the Audi showrooms encountered in Germany, adding new components to expand the original idea. The result is a building that exhibits an asymmetric shape of refreshing irregularity, the free geometry perfectly visualising, in particular, the exceptional design credentials that give Audi such a distinctive position in the marketplace.
The material mix was selected with a view to achieving a close relationship with the building’s proprietor. Aside from steel and glass, aluminium is therefore particularly apparent in the construction—an indication of the leading position enjoyed by Audi in lightweight vehicle engineering and the production of vehicles with aluminium bodies. BM+P made the particular characteristics of this shimmering metal one of the central themes of the building,providing an impressive aluminium sheet façade over an area of 1,370 square metres. In order to make the creation as true to the brand as possible, various principles of vehicle construction were incorporated into the concept: the steel support structure of the Forum imitates the aluminium space frame of the Audi A8.

Prominent Features

As in Berlin, London, Madrid and Beijing, the Audi Forum in Neckarsulm is designed as a diagonally oriented construction. Its style exudes openness and transparency, virtues that are also embodied in the two DORMA Varioline KTV-S threewing revolving doors integrated in the façade. The DORMA telescopic sliding doors and emergency exit sliding doors with breakout—designated TST-G Iso and SST-G respectively—convey the same values. With their attractive all-glass appearance, these serve to augment the elegant sophistication of the building’s interior. In terms of its size and alignment, the customer centre is an extension of the structure exhibited by the Neckarsulm plant as a whole, with the added attraction that it opens out into a generous forecourt to engage with the municipal surroundings. Its inviting appearance is further underlined by the enticing entrance with its high, distinctive canopy roof. This is visible from quite some distance away. Motorised guests reach the “check-in” in the first floor of the customer centre via a glazed bridge leading from the car park. The floors of the Forum open up towards a central hall designed as an ellipse covering an area of 640 square metres. The oval form generates movement, an architectural device that recurs throughout the entire building and a subliminal reminder of the core business of the proprietor: (auto-)mobility.