page_title: BMW
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: BMW / Involvement in the arts / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: BMW Tower and museum, Munich, Germany Español: 4 cilindros y museo BMW, Múnich, Alemania Français&#160;: Tour des «&#160;quatre cylindres BMW&#160;» et musée «&#160;soucoupe&#160;», Munich, Allemagne.
context_page_description: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, commonly referred to as BMW, is a German multinational company which produces luxury vehicles and motorcycles. The company was founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, which it produced from 1917 until 1918 and again from 1933 to 1945.
  Automobiles are marketed under the brands BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, and motorcycles are marketed under the brand BMW Motorrad. In 2015, BMW was the world's twelfth-largest producer of motor vehicles, with 2,279,503 vehicles produced. The company has significant motorsport history, especially in touring cars, Formula 1, sports cars and the Isle of Man TT.
  BMW is headquartered in Munich and produces motor vehicles in Germany, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and Mexico. The Quandt family are long-term shareholders of the company, following brothers Herbert Quandt and Harald Quandt's investments in 1959 which saved the company from bankruptcy.
context_section_description: The global BMW Headquarters in Munich represents the cylinder head of a 4-cylinder engine. It was designed by Karl Schwanzer and was completed in 1972. The building has become a European icon and was declared a protected historic building in 1999. The main tower consists of four vertical cylinders standing next to and across from each other. Each cylinder is divided horizontally in its center by a mold in the facade. Notably, these cylinders do not stand on the ground; they are suspended on a central support tower.
  BMW Museum is a futuristic cauldron-shaped building, which was also designed by Karl Schwanzer and opened in 1972. The interior has a spiral theme and the roof is a 40-metre diameter BMW logo.
  BMW Welt, the company's exhibition space in Munich, was designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au and opened in 2007. It includes a showroom and lifting platforms where a customer's new car is theatrically unveiled to the customer.
caption: BMW Headquarters
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