Over the winter I visited BMW World, and its neighboring museum, in Munich, Germany. I loved seeing how the company got its start and how far it has come since it helped to invent the automobile at the beginning of the 20th century. I think their first product was actually an airplane engine. But you and I both know that the paradigm is changing. The internal combustion engine (ICE) is going away and pretty soon we won't be driving, so much as being driven around by our cars. Bloomberg recently published an interesting article about this shift and about BMW. Here is an excerpt:
The fact that both combustion engines and electric motors find themselves inside the same 18,000-person complex in Dingolfing, BMW’s largest in Europe, makes it a microcosm of a shift overtaking automakers the world over. A visitor can see that 625-horsepower engine—more than twice as powerful as the original from 1985, a luxury product relentlessly branded as “the ultimate driving machine”—then walk around the corner and see its puny electric replacement. You start thinking the better slogan might be “the ultimate combustion engine.” As in: last of its kind.
Electric motors are a hell of a lot simpler to manufacture (and service) than gasoline engines. BMW estimates that they take about 30% less time to make. So the impacts of this transformation span everything from supply chain to human capital. Today, about 10% of the work that goes on in Dingolfing is related to electric vehicles.
Over the winter I visited BMW World, and its neighboring museum, in Munich, Germany. I loved seeing how the company got its start and how far it has come since it helped to invent the automobile at the beginning of the 20th century. I think their first product was actually an airplane engine. But you and I both know that the paradigm is changing. The internal combustion engine (ICE) is going away and pretty soon we won't be driving, so much as being driven around by our cars. Bloomberg recently published an interesting article about this shift and about BMW. Here is an excerpt:
The fact that both combustion engines and electric motors find themselves inside the same 18,000-person complex in Dingolfing, BMW’s largest in Europe, makes it a microcosm of a shift overtaking automakers the world over. A visitor can see that 625-horsepower engine—more than twice as powerful as the original from 1985, a luxury product relentlessly branded as “the ultimate driving machine”—then walk around the corner and see its puny electric replacement. You start thinking the better slogan might be “the ultimate combustion engine.” As in: last of its kind.
Electric motors are a hell of a lot simpler to manufacture (and service) than gasoline engines. BMW estimates that they take about 30% less time to make. So the impacts of this transformation span everything from supply chain to human capital. Today, about 10% of the work that goes on in Dingolfing is related to electric vehicles.
Today we visited BMW Welt (World) and the BMW Museum in Munich. BMW Welt was designed by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU out of Vienna. It is the result of a design competition that the BMW Group held in 2001. Construction of the ~73,000 square meter facility was completed in 2007. The project is centered around a great hall and an elevated vehicle delivery area known as Premiere. It was designed -- and this includes the HVAC system -- to handle 40 car deliveries per hour, or 250 per day. I guess they don't work a full 8 hours. Below are two photos that I took of the delivery area. The circles you see on the floor in the second picture are rotating platforms. This is where you want to pick up your new car.
And here is a plan of the entire Welt space via COOP HIMMELB(L)AU:
I also really enjoyed the BMW Museum, which is housed in a separate building adjacent to the BMW Tower (the one that looks like engine cylinders). The "art cars" were a lot of fun. I'm sure that many of you will be able to guess the artist behind this one:
But what I enjoyed most were the classics like this one here:
The least interesting cars for me were the ones that weren't old enough to be "classic", but also weren't new and shiny. This can happen with architectural styles as well. Designs sometime need time to settle in. For more photos of BMW Welt and the BMW Museum, follow me on Instagram. Drawings/Isometrics: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
Today we visited BMW Welt (World) and the BMW Museum in Munich. BMW Welt was designed by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU out of Vienna. It is the result of a design competition that the BMW Group held in 2001. Construction of the ~73,000 square meter facility was completed in 2007. The project is centered around a great hall and an elevated vehicle delivery area known as Premiere. It was designed -- and this includes the HVAC system -- to handle 40 car deliveries per hour, or 250 per day. I guess they don't work a full 8 hours. Below are two photos that I took of the delivery area. The circles you see on the floor in the second picture are rotating platforms. This is where you want to pick up your new car.
And here is a plan of the entire Welt space via COOP HIMMELB(L)AU:
I also really enjoyed the BMW Museum, which is housed in a separate building adjacent to the BMW Tower (the one that looks like engine cylinders). The "art cars" were a lot of fun. I'm sure that many of you will be able to guess the artist behind this one:
But what I enjoyed most were the classics like this one here:
The least interesting cars for me were the ones that weren't old enough to be "classic", but also weren't new and shiny. This can happen with architectural styles as well. Designs sometime need time to settle in. For more photos of BMW Welt and the BMW Museum, follow me on Instagram. Drawings/Isometrics: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU
This past weekend I saw a few people reacting on Twitter to this article by Wendell Cox talking about how Canadian families are being denied their preferred housing choice: the detached single family home.
The fact that the article is by Wendell Cox should tell you everything you need to know. But essentially the argument is that misguided planning policies are driving up the cost of housing and that we should, instead, be encouraging unfettered sprawl.
There’s lots to discuss here, but the first thought that actually came to mind was: “How would this article sound if we replaced all of the references to housing with references to cars?” In case you too are wondering that, this is how the first paragraph would read:
A new poll by Sotheby’s International Realty suggests substantial disappointment among Canada’s young urban families, unable to afford to purchase the types of [cars] that they prefer. The poll determined that young urban households in Canada strongly prefer [Aston Martins], but they are often “motivated by (financial) necessity to purchases [sic] [cars], especially [BMWs], they do not prefer.“
The article is clearly one-sided. I don’t disagree that there are people who – all things being equal – would prefer to raise a family in a ground-related single family home. Backyards serve a purpose, as do large basements equipped with beer fridges.
But all things are not equal. And there also people who value walkability, a reasonable commute, and the kind of urban amenities that come along with being in a dense city. I am one of those people.
This past weekend I saw a few people reacting on Twitter to this article by Wendell Cox talking about how Canadian families are being denied their preferred housing choice: the detached single family home.
The fact that the article is by Wendell Cox should tell you everything you need to know. But essentially the argument is that misguided planning policies are driving up the cost of housing and that we should, instead, be encouraging unfettered sprawl.
There’s lots to discuss here, but the first thought that actually came to mind was: “How would this article sound if we replaced all of the references to housing with references to cars?” In case you too are wondering that, this is how the first paragraph would read:
A new poll by Sotheby’s International Realty suggests substantial disappointment among Canada’s young urban families, unable to afford to purchase the types of [cars] that they prefer. The poll determined that young urban households in Canada strongly prefer [Aston Martins], but they are often “motivated by (financial) necessity to purchases [sic] [cars], especially [BMWs], they do not prefer.“
The article is clearly one-sided. I don’t disagree that there are people who – all things being equal – would prefer to raise a family in a ground-related single family home. Backyards serve a purpose, as do large basements equipped with beer fridges.
But all things are not equal. And there also people who value walkability, a reasonable commute, and the kind of urban amenities that come along with being in a dense city. I am one of those people.
