- Installation
Car Building
Wed, July 22, 2026 – Sun, June 27, 2027
- Location
- Meadow in front of the Hallenbau
- Entrance fee
- Free admission
Can cars be architecture? For Austrian architect, artist, and theorist Hans Hollein, the answer was yes. Guided by the principle “Everything is Architecture,” he created the installation Car Building in 1960, replacing traditional building materials with automobiles.
The installation consists of five Volkswagen Beetles in different colors, stacked on top of one another and rotated along different axes. Inside, metal supports provide structural stability, holding the vehicles in their unusual positions, which seem to defy the laws of gravity.
Based on a sketch made by Hollein in 1960, Car Building was first realized in 2011 for the exhibition Car Culture. Media of Mobility at ZKM | Karlsruhe. During the exhibition, the installation was on view in front of the ZKM Cube until early 2012. On the occasion of Karlsruhe’s 300th city anniversary, it was reconstructed in 2015 in front of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
Now Car Building returns to ZKM. The installation is on the lawn on the north side of the Hallenbau and will be on view there initially for one year.