100 STAFF WILL SERVE 30 000 CUSTOMERS A YEAR

+ Click to Enlarge NEW LANDMARK: The world's largest Audi Centre will open officially on Monday, October 19, with the cars on display visible to millions of drivers on the nearby elevated freeway.

October 12, 2009

It has taken six years to build, has a floor area of 17 650 square metres and cost the equivalent of R530-million – welcome to the world's biggest Audi Centre.

Its seven storeys include three showroom floors with space to display 116 cars and two basement levels housing a 32-bay workshop and extensive parking. The top two storeys are laid out as a business and creative complex - the Audi Quattro Rooms - that operates as a conference centre.

Architect Wilkinson Eyre said he drew inspiration from nature, art and science to create the huge glass and metal structure. The sweeping curves were taken partly from a manta ray and partly from the wing shapes of a B2 stealth aircraft.

The roof of London's newest landmark is made of aluminium sheets, each approximately 40m long without any joints.

The basement levels are an engineering marvel – they are built below the water table (and the River Thames) and extend on all sides right up to the boundary lines of the premises.

A dramatic aluminium sculpture, featuring the record-breaking Auto Union Streamliner and weighing almost a ton, is suspended between three floors within the atrium. It took three cranes and two days to install.

The Audi quattro Rooms on levels four and five include a heritage section displaying many of the innovations from Audi's 100-year history and meeting rooms, exhibition space and a screening room with 2.6m Bang & Olufsen screens.

West London Audi is located next to the elevated section of the M4 freeway so the cars on display will be visible to million of commuters every day.

It will open officially on Monday, October 19 with a huge party whose guest list reads like a Who's Who of UK glitterati, including Bryan Ferry, Gordon Ramsay, Dominic Cooper, Jamie and Louise Rednapp, Phil Glenister, Keeley Hawes, Rupert Penry Jones, James Cordon, Ronan Keating, Beverley Knight, Davina McCall, Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Jackie Stewart.

Audi UK director Jeremy Hicks said: "West London Audi is like nothing we've built before in its scope, size and complexity. It's 100 times more complicated than a normal retail centre – but the sheer scale of this project shows the increasing significance of the Audi brand worldwide."

The centre will have a staff of 100 to serve an estimated 30 000 customers a year.