Re: IMG: Modern architecture at the VW Works in Germany

Jim,
thanks for taking a look. The factory is indeed immense.
Today, instead of delivering your car to the local dealership, VW invites you to pick it up in the Autostadt. You can watch your car being picked out of one of two glass storage towers (a bit like an old telephone exchange dialler), driven underground to the customer centre where it gets its plates and it's then delivered personally by one of their engineers. While you're waiting there's plenty of time for a wander around the grounds. You get a free pass with 30 Euros for the restaurants and 20 for merchandising products - their prices are all adjusted so that any number of visitors greater than 2 is forced to spend a lot more - a family with 2 kids would probably spend a small fortune by the end of the day as the time between registration and driving your new car away is at least 3 to 4 hours. 
A very clever marketing concept.
Cheers
Douglas

Jim Brick wrote:
Very nice Douglas. It is certainly different than when I was there. In 1972, I bought a VW Fastback from the factory in Wolfsburg. I took a tour of the factory (while waiting for the car), which was simply amazing. I took lots of photos but they are buried in one of a hundred carousels at the moment. I can tell you that the reception area didn't remotely resemble what it now (your photographs). Back then, it was basically a dingy industrial room with a 'train station' style interface with the factory reception personnel. The buildings looked like mile long warehouses, all lined up. It is a BIG BIG place! 

Thanks Douglas,

Jim


At 07:40 PM 10/22/2007 +0200, Douglas Sharp wrote:
As promised yesterday - the architectural setting in which VW markets their various brands.
The Power house is a remnant of the early days of the Third Reich - the rest looks a s if Frakn Lloyd-Wright and his buddies had a good time. The BW shots are in BW because the light failed completely around 4 in the afternoon and the few colours there were just faded away. 

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DMS/New-Old-Pictures/Autostadt/
Made a mistake with the large version of the Reception area - it's colossal - (but very well detailed :-) ) 
Hope you enjoy them
Douglas



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