Ralph Applebaum Associates

Autostadt (Automobile City) is a visitor attraction adjacent to the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. It serves as a communication platform between the Volkswagen Group’s individual brands and existing and future customers. It has a state-of-the-art car museum, brand pavilions for marques that range from Volkswagen to Lamborghini, driving courses for adults and children, tours of the world’s largest auto factory, robot-guided ascents of the 20-story car towers, and music festivals and other events.

RAA was asked to create a new 3,050-square-foot installation in the Azzurro, or the “blue” pavilion. In what looks like an over-sized car from the outside is a cinema on the inside; visitors sit in swivel chairs, surrounded by six screens in a window-shield design. The film, which invites visitors to take a trip—through Bangkok, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Zurich—illustrates how the infrastructures of auto-mobility have influenced personal frames of reference, business development, mindset, and culture.

Interactive consoles at the room’s perimeter explore the state of the automobile industry worldwide, economic and socio-cultural developments brought about by auto-mobility, future challenges, and local opportunities.

Autostadt attracts around 2 million visitors a year. It is also regarded by the German National Tourism Board as one of Germany’s top ten tourism destinations.