Sustainable architecture: the Audi Brand Experience Center
The Audi Brand Experience Center at Munich Airport, also integrating a charging station for electric cars, is an example of modern and sustainable architecture.
For Audi, building a sustainable future means taking action on all fronts. And, given that modern architecture now places just as much emphasis on environmental sustainability as it does on aesthetically appealing design, the Audi Brand Experience Center at Munich Airport is a perfect example of how the company’s strategy encompasses a number of elements. A 30 x 30 meter cube, the first of three planned modules, floats freely in the air, supported solely by four internal columns and divided into multiple floors by a series of reinforced concrete slabs.
“The brief was to create an eco-friendly event venue for up to 2,000 people. That’s why we developed the ‘flexible box’ concept, which makes it incredibly versatile and multifunctional”, explains architect Peter Zauner, who designed the Center.
Each story offers 530 square meters of floor space and white walls can be used to temporarily divide up the space as and when required.
Temperature control
The Audi Brand Experience Center has two fully glazed facades, offering unrestricted views to east and west, with entrances on both sides. The center’s temperature control system is powered by geotermal energy and the pipes – used for both heating and cooling – are installed in the walls and the slabs between the floors: an eco-friendly and cost-effective solution.
Solar panels
But what makes the Center truly unique are the 1,650 solar cells integrated into the glass facades, with a total combined area of 450 square meters. The solar panels deliver 42,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to the annual power consumption of ten four-person households and far more than the building’s own energy needs. The surplus is stored in two battery storage devices with a capacity of 320 kilowatt hours, which Audi made from second-life batteries.
“To coincide with the launch of the Audi e-tron, the Audi Brand Experience Center was built with the first-ever all-green charging system for our electric fleet,” explains Sophie Scholl, who is responsible for events at the Audi Campus at Munich Airport.
Charging stations
The surplus electricity produced by the solar panels is used to power six public charging points in front of the building. Two of the six charging points are 150-kilowatt rapid chargers. In an ideal-case scenario, the charging points run solely off solar energy, but there is also a back-up system in case the batteries run out due to a lack of sun.
These terminals supplement Audi’s 78 existing charging points at Munich Airport, making it one of the largest contiguous charging parks in all of Europe.
Audi Campus
Audi has been constantly expanding the Audi Campus at Munich Airport over the past 20 years. The Brand Experience Center is the latest addition, joining the myAudi Sphere, the Audi Conference Center, and three other Audi training centers.
The Audi Brand Experience Center is more than just an international training center for Audi staff. As Horst Hanschur, who as Vice President Retail Business Development and Customer Services is responsible for the center, says: “It’s designed to be a central venue for Audi events. So it needs to embody the company’s transformation from a car manufacturer into a sustainable mobility provider”.
Carbon neutral
Audi intends to make all its production locations worldwide carbon-neutral by 2025, and to achieve complete company-wide carbon neutrality by no later than 2050. The Audi Brand Experience Center is both an expression of and an inspiration for this ambition.
Source: AUDI AG