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Article from issue 9/2006 »Konzept Museums«

Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart

process p. 970 - 992
Architect UNStudio | Structural Engineer Werner Sobek Ingenieure GmbH | Lighting planning Brandi, Ulrike | Exhibition design hg merz museumsgestalter |

Drafts
1:10 Sectional details "Illustrated Chronicle"
1:100 Top view "Workbench"
1:1000 Floor plans
1:1000 Section
1:20 Facade details
1:20 Sectional details "Workbench"
1:4000 Site plan

Alongside its main works in Untertürkheim, Stuttgart, Mercedes-Benz has created a monument to its brand image, its history and above all its automobiles. Shooting past the new museum on the four-lane highway, this metallic gleaming sculpture articulated with raking glass strips initially poses a number of riddles. Nevertheless, the outer skin is a reflection of the unique inner organization. Like a clover leaf, the different levels of the building are laid out about a central atrium. The rough, exposed concrete surfaces of this structure – doubly curved in part – are as impressive as the views through the continuous space, where one catches glimpses of the atmospheric, time-related staging of the “Mercedes Myth”. On the other hand, the display depots, which contain the thematically arranged “Collections”, are oriented to the external realm.
Seen as a series of stacked bridges by the structural engineers, as a high-rise block and place of assembly by the fire-protection authority, and as wholly new terrain by many of those involved, this architectural experiment had to be completed in a relatively short time before the World Cup 2006. The necessary software and a large part of the plans were, therefore, created parallel to the construction work. All planning stages were executed with a 3D computer program, using a central data model – the so-called “mother model” – as the geometric basis.