Automobile Museum of China

World’s First Drive-Through Museum Coming to China

Visitors to an AutomobileMuseum planned for Nanjing will drive their cars into the building and up an undulating, uneven ramp to the roof. As designed by 3Gatti.com Architecture Studio, which has offices in Shanghai and Rome, the 15,000-square-meter museum will offer a drive-through experience, as well as exhibitions, restaurants, shops, a special events space, an automobile sales office, a design center, and laboratories to be visited on foot.

“We designed a building geared to the automobile, where the car is the point of reference,” says Francesco Gatti, the principal of 3Gatti. Gatti’s design is “dedicated to the car as an object of desire, a world to explore, a technology to study and an article to display,” explains the architect. He imagines “a dynamic building with surfaces that are continuous and fluid, without interruptions,” so it recalls the sensation of moving along a road, explains Gatti.