Life & Style

Driving Force: CUPRA City Garage Berlin

How will car brands present themselves in the future? Preferably unconventional and enduringly desirable. The new CUPRA City Garage is more than just a showroom, it is a place where you can celebrate culture and lifestyle and experience the brand’s DNA up close. We decided to see for ourselves.

  • Text
    Patricia Jell
  • Fotos
    CUPRA & Frederick Unflath

How do you communicate a brand in a modern way, explaining its origins, its particular values and goals beyond the mere product? There’s a very clear way to answer these questions. Or rather, a place that immediately illustrates the meaning of brand experience: the CUPRA City Garage Am Tacheles in Berlin. The location was specifically chosen to convey the spirit of CUPRA.


After German reunification, the building, which today gives its name to an entire development, was to be demolished. But an artists’ initiative came along and occupied the building. Their vision: instead of tearing something down, to create a thriving art and cultural center. And they prevailed. The building was heritage-listed and soon became a permanent fixture in Berlin’s art and culture scene under the name Tacheles, with studios, exhibition spaces and a bar.

“We’re not a brand for everyone. And that’s something we’re proud of,” says CUPRA of itself. Doing things differently, not setting out to please, telling it like it is (Tacheles roughly translates to “straight talking”) – that’s what the Spanish brand stands for. Two years ago CUPRA brought the spirit of Barcelona to Germany with the CUPRA City Garage in Munich. The new establishment in Berlin also sees itself as more than just a showroom; it is a space that vividly conveys everything the brand stands for. On two floors, with a total of 500 m², CUPRA puts not only its cars on display but also shines a spotlight on products from the greater CUPRA world. The City Garage in Berlin is currently featuring the brand’s product highlights alongside various themes that serve as an inspiration for CUPRA.

How do you communicate a brand in a modern way, explaining its origins and particular values? The CUPRA City Garage in Berlin shows us how it’s done.

The popular new sport of padel, for example, where CUPRA is involved as a sponsor, is given just as much space here as the topic of motor racing, something that is firmly anchored in the brand’s DNA. But most importantly, the CUPRA City Garage is a melting pot where artists, opinion leaders and individualists – known as the CUPRA Tribe – come together to exchange ideas and create new ones. The evening’s event kicked off with Yousef Hammoudah, the director of the contemporary photography museum Fotografiska Berlin at Tacheles, who is himself exhibiting his works exclusively at the CUPRA City Garage Berlin. Together with its partners, the Garage wants to remain a mirror for the city’s art and music scene. A better location (with a better name) could not have been chosen.

More information:

→ cupracitygarage.de

ramp #63 Happy on the Road

ramp #63 Happy on the Road

Glücklich auf der Straße? Sowieso. Für ein anständiges Autokulturmagazin ist so ein glückliches Unterwegssein gewissermaßen nur eine bereits konzeptionell hinterlegte Pflichtveranstaltung. Nach und nach – und mit etwas Glück (was sich hier ja fein ins Thema fügt) – entwickeln sich diese Emotionen in der Summe dann vergnüglich zu einer Affektbasis, ...

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