Design of Automobile

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The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, designed by UN Studio. Top image by ©pjt56 via wikimedia commons, Bottom image

Opened in 2006, the museum features a spiraling pathway that leads visitors around and across a large atrium. Visitors can follow two trajectories, one that focuses on a car and truck collection and another on specific Legendary designs.

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. Bottom image by Traveler100 via wikimedia commons.

As its name suggests, BMW World (BMW Welt) is a sprawling complex of buildings devoted to BMW vehicles, past and present. Part showroom, part exhibition space, BMW World provides users with a comprehensive introduction to BMW and BMW-owned brands along with a restaurant and the chance to walk away with keys to the vehicle of your choice. The BMW Museum is a separate but adjacent 1973 structure that was renovated with the 2003 – 2007 construction of the modern structures seen above.

LeMay-America's Car Museum in Tacoma, Washington, designed by Large Architecture. Photos by Lara Swimmer Photography.

Though not operated by a specific brand, the America's Car Museum is home to the world's largest private car collection, or at least 500 of the collection's 3, 000 cars that can be fit into its 165, 000-square-foot exhibition space. Its sleek, metallic exterior shelters the cars under massive glue-lam timber arches.

Top image© Studio cento29 via arch daily, Middle image by Matteo Paciotti via flickr, Bottom image by Caterina Capelli via flickr.

Completed in 2012, the ten openings in the classic Ferrari-yellow aluminum roof evoke the air intakes over an engine. The museum's glass facade curves around the adjacent original Ferrari house.

This new 2011 structure is part of an existing museum complex dating back to 1960. While the new exhibition space expanded the museum's total exhibition space from 120, 000 to 200, 000 square feet, its sweeping Eastern facade (top image) presents a unique visual experience for drivers passing on an adjacent highway.