A tour through BMW's beautiful museum

The BMW Museum near the Olympiapark in Munich depicts the illustrious history of the automobile manufacturer BMW.

Established in 1972, the museum showcases engines and turbines, aircraft and a range of motorcycles.

Besides actual models, there are futuristic cars, and even conceptual studies from the past 20 years.

Known as the salad bowl or white cauldron, the silver-colour building was designed by Karl Schwanzer.

He was also the architect of the BMW Headquarters.

Karl Schwanzer defined the internal structure of this circular building as a continuation of the road in an enclosed space.

This idea was expressed as a contemporary development and reinterpretation in the neighbouring low building encompassing the vision of a "road in the enclosed space as a principle of dynamic architecture".

The exhibition areas in the adjacent low building are also configured on a ramp as the central visitor route.

About 250,000 people visit the museum every year.

Seven exhibition houses have been built in the low building. Each of the houses has been given an individual "identity" developed on the basis of the themes.

The two buildings - circular building and low building - are linked together by a ramp which leads visitors to all 25 exhibition areas.

While the external appearance of the bowl presents the aspect of a monumental concrete sculpture and the character of an open-plan holistic space dominates the interior, the architecture in the low building takes on an urban character.

While the bowl is reserved for temporary exhibitions, the low building provides an extended tour of the most important BMW themes.

Based on seven major thematic areas, the same number of independent exhibition houses linked by ramps are designed and installed in the low building.

The exhibition area of the BMW Museum is divided into several areas: The new houses in the low building with the permanent exhibition, the Visions area, and one exhibit each from the BMW Art Car Collection.

The BMW Museum offers educational packages transform the museum into a venue for gaining interdisciplinary educational experience outside school.

The main educational objective at the BMW Museum is to encourage visitors to engage proactively when looking at the displayed exhibits.

The BMW Museum has joined hands with senior educational experts to develop a dedicated educational concept for the museum.

The M1 Cafe Bar in the BMW Museum lets you unwind with refreshing drinks after a long tour.

The cafe is located in the low building and can be reached through the foyer of the museum.

The museum shop offers an exclusive range of caps, T-shirts, publications and miniatures of historic BMW vehicles to different scales.

Postcards with historic motifs and the latest photographs of classic cars complete the range.