Architecture as an experience

Brilliant ideas, fascinating technology and legendary vehicles deserve to be presented in a suitable environment. The architecture of the Porsche Museum provides just the right context for bringing together the three strands of Porsche’s past, present and future.

One thing is certain: the building designed by Delugan Meissl is a bold statement. Supported on just three V-shaped columns, the Museum’s dominant main structure seems to float high above the ground like a monolith.

At its widest, the opening between the monolith’s underside and ground level is ten metres high, reinforcing the sense of spaciousness in the area in front of it. It houses the exhibition area proper, the Christophorus restaurant and the event zone with a roof top. Crouched beneath the monolith is the base building, which welcomes visitors to the Porsche Museum with an inviting gesture: the foyer accommodates the museum’s workshop, archive, bistro, coffee bar and museum’s shop. The cloakroom and ticket desks are also located here. The rising roof form of the base building creates space for a second storey opposite the entrance, in which the archive’s reading room can be seen.

Both structures are linked by a partially glazed, dynamically angled stairway and an elevator. Visitors access the exhibition space, that measures about 5,600 square metres in the upper part of the building, via an escalator. They now have the choice of starting their tour with a chronology of the company’s history prior to 1948, or proceeding directly to the main section of the exhibition by following the product chronicle post-1948.

From every angle, the shapes of the monolith and base building look different thanks to their polygonal, avant garde forms and the variation in the structures and windows. The glazed main façade of the 23 metre high museum adorned with the Porsche logo faces north, greeting those heading into the city centre by car. The architect has succeeded in creating an eye-catching complex that nevertheless blends well into its overall setting.

“The new Porsche Museum creates a space that gives architectural expression to the company’s confident outlook and discerning standards, while also capturing Porsche’s dynamism. Knowledge, credibility and determination are as fundamental to the philosophy as boldness, excitement, power and independence. Every idea is treated as an opportunity to actively tackle fresh challenges and probe the limits, yet still remain true to oneself. This museum endeavours to reflect all that,” declares architect Delugan Meissl in his dedication.

The Viennese firm of architects was selected from a field of 170 bidders to design the Porsche Museum in 2005.

Building data

The technical data of the Porsche Museum at a glance:

Exhibition

Events

Location: 4^th floor
Conference zone area: around 600 square metres
Mobile partition walls for flexible room
configurations
Area of roof terrace: around 800 square metres

Miscellaneous

Christophorus Restaurant
Museum workshop
Porsche archive
Museum shop
Coffee bar
Boxenstopp bistro