Urban Production is an international architecture competition organized by the BMW Group in close cooperation with the City of Munich. The aim is to realize outstanding, future-ready production in the urban setting of the company’s home plant in Munich. The competition has now finished successfully, with the two winning architects’ practices—OMA of Rotterdam and 3XN of Copenhagen—opting to develop their designs jointly. Their collaboration will combine the best of their respective winning designs, which will then serve as the basis to develop a masterplan.

As part of its transformation for electromobility and the LEAN. GREEN. and DIGITAL. approach of the BMW iFACTORY, Plant Munich will receive new assembly and logistics halls and a new bodyshop. The planned structural optimizations and their associated production processes will be extremely flexible and efficient, digitalized, and highly sustainable to fully prepare the plant for production of the upcoming Neue Klasse.

BMW Group Plant Munich future Vision Urban Production with neighborhood

The entire automotive industry is in the middle of a transformation to electromobility, in which digitalization and circularity also have a key role to play. Over its 100-year history, the BMW Group’s home plant in Munich has undergone numerous changes but none as extensive as this. This vision reaffirms the BMW Group’s strong commitment to such a unique production location in the middle of Munich. With the BMW iFACTORY, production at the BMW Group is offering a clear view into the automotive production of the future. Efficiency, sustainability and digitalisation will combine to create a unique manufacturing campus where people, production but also the residential and the industrial will coexist in symbiosis.

—Milan Nedeljković, BMW AG Board Member for Production.

In their proposal, OMA and 3XN present a union of production and the urban environment, laying the foundation for the site’s progressive development and for efficient vehicle production at the BMW Group. Public footpaths in the north of the campus will create a suitable transition to the nearby residential areas and successfully embed the future plant into the surrounding cityscape. The entire façade is visualized as transparent and open, offering a view of automotive production of the future.

The architects’ vision of urban production gives the BMW Group’s home plant a new face and makes it a new go-to location. The new main entrance on Lerchenauer Straße could be linked to the Olympic Park by a bridge and, along with the Olympic Centre bus station, it would optimize routing for employees and visitors. The new central building is envisaged as a hub at the heart of the plant, with open-plan work areas that link associates and the production technologies.

In the future, human and logistics flows could be separated and take place on different levels, potentially enhancing efficiency and arranging production processes in line with the idea of the value flow. Redesigned, the various levels could open up natural green spaces that will help regulate the micro-climate inside the plant and also support water retention. Sustainability is not just a key design principle within the holistic approach of the architects but also fundamental to the masterplan. To help future-proof the working and production environment at Plant Munich for the longer term, the architects’ proposal also integrates associate training and development, as a fundamental component.

The members of the competition jury were: Dieter Reiter, Lord Mayor of Munich; BMW AG Board Members Ilka Horstmeier and Dr. Milan Nedeljković; Prof. Elisabeth Merk (University of Florence), Planning Director of the City of Munich; various renowned architects, landscape architects, transport planners, and further representatives of the Munich City Council and District Committee 11, Milbertshofen/Am Hart.