The 2015 Frankfurt Audi Motor Show | SCHMIDHUBER

Audi Motor

Every year is a new high for the Audi International Motor Show. Known for its exceptional designs, the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA) has been known to organize the world’s largest motor shows. Frankfurt, the city of trade-fairs has always been an ideal location for IAA, 2015 Audi Motor Show is no exception. What defines this year’s show is the “live communication” theme which gives the whole experience a uniquely Audi-like feel. The concept not only draws one into the whole arena but beautifully helps to understand the design of Audi. It is anticipation that we feel when we enter the four levels up until the main exhibition area, featuring the brand new Audi A4. Dubbed, “the power of the four” by the architects, SCHMIDHUBER, a live presentation in four stages showcasing the focus themes of Audi ultra, Audi Technologies, Quattro, and Audi Sport, each in a way suited to the respective qualities, forms the crux of the experience. “We’ve never developed an exhibition presentation that was as thematically stringent as this one. Never before have we been able to describe the innovations from Audi in such great detail. At the 2015 IAA, we will be offering our visitors more of an experience than ever before. This is a unique combination,” says Luca de Meo, Board Member for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG As one begins the ‘experience walk’, they are confronted by an exquisitely organic structure projecting itself form the façade of the building, covering it in its network of webs.

photography by © Andreas Keller

The lightweight 3D structure represents the qualities of lightweight construction techniques, alternative fuel systems, and efficient engines. On walking further, one is hit by a blast of cold, at -21 degrees Celsius, in a universe of ice and ice-carved structures presenting the idea and lifestyle of Audi Quattro in an attempt to physically manifest the concept. The next section gives a tantalizing view of the Audi A4 at the end with the curving entrance to the main hall visible. This would be the Audi Sports section justifying the theme using sound effects and visuals cues to stimulate a race-track environment. The fourth section is highlighted by an impressive vista of the Audi cars arranged in a mannerly way, at the heart of the exhibition building. A kinetic compass installed high above the center, with the new Audi A4 directly beneath it, points to the four focus areas, presented on four huge screens with a real car mounted on top of each. The cars help tell a story by way of movement, lighting and media. The compass needle picks out the focus themes to develop the story. The whole motor-show gets a new dimension thus, changing one’s outlook radically and making it possible to understand first -hand what an Audi car experience is all about without actually sitting inside one. The communication establishes itself in a tangible form which is both simple and intricate at the same time.“Live communication changes your point of view,” – Michael Ostertag-Henning, Managing Partner at SCHMIDHUBER.