1. The Mercedes-Benz Museum: A heritage for the future

2. Timescale: Key dates

3. Facts & figures: Key details of the Mercedes-Benz Museum

4. Architecture: A design masterpiece

5. Exhibits: Innovative concept for an impressive heritage

6. Materials: Man-made leather and parquet for orientation

7. Technology: From lighting to the audio guide

8. A family museum: Perfect for children and young people

9. Stuttgart & surroundings: Art and cuisine highly recommended

10. Travel directions: The quickest way to Untertürkheim

Architecture: A design masterpiece

The world’s most tradition-laden and at the same time most modern automotive museum combines an elegant appearance with a unique structure based on a double helix – a new architectural highlight for the Stuttgart region. Everything about this architecture is in flux: there are neither enclosed rooms nor straight walls. Completely unsupported ceilings span widths of up to 33 metres. None of the 1800 triangular windows which afford a breathtaking panoramic view of the surroundings is identical to another.

Three consultancies played a decisive part in the final design of the Museum: the building was given its dramatic form by the UN studio of Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos. In close cooperation with DaimlerChrysler, HG Merz developed the overall concept from the initial tender to the detailed planning of presentation aspects. DaimlerChrysler Immobilien GmbH was responsible for the construction work as the general contractor.

HG Merz: the man behind the Museum

HG Merz is an architect, though planning new buildings is not a major part of his activities. His forte is creating historical references, as his specialist area is planning and designing museums as a context for their collections. Merz has been associated with the Mercedes-Benz brand for 20 years. Together with the architects Knut Lohrer and Dieter Herrmann he was already involved in the redesign of the old Mercedes-Benz Museum in 1985 and 1986. From 1990 to 1992 he designed the Gottlieb-Daimler Memorial in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, and from 1992 to 1993 the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach. In 1993 he became famous for his conversion of the Old National Gallery in the museum complex in the centre of Berlin. Since then Merz has also had an office in the capital, where he is currently working on the renovation and extension of the National Library at Unter den Linden. In the field of corporate and technological history, the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen which he designed between 1994 and 1996 also attracted great attention.

HG Merz is not only responsible for the presentation of the collection and the associated corporate history in the Mercedes-Benz Museum. He was also involved in the conceptual work right from the start. In close collaboration with the client he formulated the criteria for an architectural competition which took place in 2001.

The specifications for the Mercedes-Benz Museum

Once the location for the new Museum had been decided in 2000, it was time to formulate the requirements to be met by the new building. With an average of 500,000 visitors per year in recent years, the old Museum constructed within the Untertürkheim plant in 1961 had become too small, as Max-Gerrit von Pein, Director of DaimlerChrysler Heritage, explains: "Not just too small to accommodate all those visiting the world’s most frequented corporate museum, but also too small to do justice to the 120-year history of the world’s oldest automotive manufacturer."

Indeed, for space reasons this history only continued up to the 1970s in the old Museum, although a great deal has happened since then. In the longer term, not including later developments would have meant disappointing the visitors and failing to do justice to the Mercedes-Benz brand.

Commercial vehicles also exhibited for the first time

Moreover, a major part of the collection and the history of the brand had not previously been exhibited: displaying heavy trucks, buses and coaches in the old Museum was anyway impossible because the load capacity of the ceilings was inadequate. Large spaces with high ceilings were required to present the more than 100-year commercial vehicle history of the brand. This meant that in terms of load-bearing capacity, overall size and individual spaces, the new building needed to enter completely new dimensions.

On the other hand, a single tour through the entire collection would have been too much for visitors to absorb: "The need for two tour routes is due to the sheer number of exhibits which the company has assembled as highlights of the brand during the course of its history", says von Pein, "and to the wealth of definitive and pioneering advances which the company has contributed to the history of the automobile over 120 years."

Easy to change between tours

Accordingly two routes were already envisaged by the tender specifications: the Legend tour follows the chronological sequence, while the Collection tour provides a detailed picture of the systems involved and the numerous aspects of the brand. Visitors to the Museum were to choose between the two tours, but also had to be able to switch from one to the other at any time. Only one proposal met these apparently irreconcilable needs, as HG Merz confirms: "The proposal by Ben van Berkel and Tobias Wallisser came closest to the requirements."

More than conventional architecture: the UN studio

Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos founded the UN studio, which specialises in architecture, urban planning and infrastructure improvements, in 1988. UN stands for United Network, and the work within this network is organised along modern lines: the design process is integrated, with no hierarchies. This is helped by the latest communication technologies, which ensure an intensive exchange of ideas and information. Based in Amsterdam, the consultancy has always worked internationally since its inception and realised a large number of projects ranging from public buildings and infrastructure measures to office buildings and master plans for urban expansion.

The consultancy has six different teams, each of them devoted to different aspects of the work and linked to the others via a horizontal network: in addition to the Design Team and Project Team, the Management Team and the Coordination Team, there is a dedicated Technology Team and a Computer Team. This enables the consultancy to respond to the technological revolution currently taking place in the field of construction techniques and design processes.

Architecture as a dynamic process

Ben Van Berkel and Caroline Bos, their partners Tobias Wallisser and Harm Wassink, as well as Gerard Loozekoot of the Management Team, do not see architecture as a planning process for immovable buildings, but as a dynamic process in which social and economic forces act in tandem with technological challenges. Their outstanding projects include the La Defense office complex in Almere (1999–2004). The Möbius house constructed in Het Gooi (Netherlands) in 1993 to 1998 follows the principle of an endless, intertwined Möbius band. Urban projects include a redesign of the Ponte Parodi in the dock area of Genoa, as well as a masterplan for the area around the main railway station in Arnhem (1996-2008). UN studio has also planned museums, for example the refurbishment of the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam. However, its most spectacular design to date is the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam (1990 – 1996): the 139-metre high fork of this asymmetrically kinked pylon suspends the 800-metre long bridge across the Maas by a series of parallel, angled cables.

Similar to the development of an automobile

Ben van Berkel likens the design process for the Mercedes-Benz Museum to the development of an automobile: "The guiding theme for this project was to design a building in a similar way to the development of a car: to integrate numerous specialist disciplines, combine technical and aesthetic requirements and rigorously adhere to the set parameters, while realising innovative ideas." These requirements were precisely defined: "Never before have we been given such a clear brief", says van Berkel.

As soon as the outcome of the design competition had been decided, UN studio went into action as part of a larger network consisting of the client and construction management teams, structural engineers and climate specialists, geometrical consultants and landscape architects. Full-scale prototypes of highly innovative building components were created. Hugo Daiber, Chief Executive of DaimlerChrysler Immobilien GmbH and Strategic Project Manager for Mercedes-Benz World Stuttgart, describes the building as a "prototype-like construction".

"The design competition was followed by a long period of cost and utility improvements", Daiber continues. One and a half years went by between the decision to go ahead with the winning proposal in March 2002 and the laying of the foundation stone in September 2003. Extremely tight cost and time parameters were defined, and these were precisely met from start to finish.

A triumph of urban architecture in the Neckar valley

Located just outside the gates of the main plant in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, the new Museum forms a link between the plant itself and the Mercedes-Benz Center: as a vertical landmark, the building is perched on a six-metre high mound which elevates the site above its surroundings "as a new invention in relation to the area as a whole" – to quote Ben van Berkel – while its rounded shapes interact with the hills and contours of the Neckar valley. As part of a complex consisting of the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium and the bank of the Neckar river, the DaimlerChrysler plant and the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Hall, the new Museum and sales branch also have the function of redefining the urban architecture of the surrounding area.

In 1956 the architects Rolf Gutbier, Hans Kammerer and Walter Belz had already created a prominent feature in the form of the 13-storey headquarters building in Untertürkheim, which henceforth became a well-known landmark for those entering the Neckar valley bound for Stuttgart from the south. At a right angle to this building, this was once the tallest in Stuttgart, the old Museum dating from 1961 lies within the area of the Untertürkheim plant itself. In view of the large number of visitors it attracts – currently 500,000 each year - this has long ceased to be an ideal location.

The Museum as a gateway to the city

In urban planning terms the new Museum has the function of a gateway: drivers taking the B 14 highway road from the Kappelberg Tunnel and turning into the Neckar valley perceive the building as a focal point and fulcrum on their route into the city. These are precisely the topographical conditions on which Ben van Berkel based his planning. A car driver sweeping down the valley from the vineyards, as if taking a landing approach in a jet aircraft, is intended to have the feeling of being welcomed by the new Museum, "almost as if driving into the building itself" as the architect expresses it. Especially as dusk falls, the 110,000-tonne building gives the impression of floating weightlessly above the ground. This impression of effortlessness is reflected in the internal layout of the Museum, which presents twelve decades of brand history to the visitor.

A double-helix on a clover-leaf ground plan

The first design sketch produced by UN studio was a seemingly simple geometrical shape. This consisted of three infinite loops, a shape reminiscent of a clover-leaf and also of a motorway junction or the nearby junction between the B 14 and B 10 federal highways. Only in this case the different routes do not lead outside, but intertwine on nine levels along a time axis starting with the invention of the automobile to the present day in the lobby, where the visitor is also able to have a look at the future of the automobile.

While the chronological tour guides the visitor through the different eras in automotive history on a long, continuous ramp, the Collection rooms are inter-connected by a second spiral via narrower steps on the outside of the building. On each level there are connecting areas which allow visitors to switch between the Legend and Collection tours as they please.

The Legend and Collection tours differ in their contrary orientation to the inside and outside. With the exception of the transitions between the different eras, visitors taking the Legend tour through the history of the brand almost feel cut off from the outside world, as if in a cinema. In contrast, the less high-ceilinged Collection rooms are open on the outside to afford a bright, panoramic view of the Stuttgart city landscape.

Materials as used in automobile production

This complex route guidance in the interior also determines the external appearance of the building. The outer skin of the Museum consists of materials that are also found in automobile production: aluminium and glass. In daylight the shiny, polished aluminium panels resemble continuous, intertwined strips, while the darker-looking lines of windows appear to lead the eye into the interior. This impression is reversed at night: the outer skin becomes vague and dark, while a mysterious light shines from within.

The double helix is an image reflecting the 120-year automotive history of the Mercedes-Benz brand and its predecessors. The genetic material for its present and future development lies in the history of the automobile since its invention in 1886. This is already precisely what the Mercedes-Benz Museum communicates to the visitor with its architectural design: the inseparable connection between tradition and innovation.

This journey through time achieves its zenith and puts on a final spurt in the last Legend room, which marks the end of both tour routes and takes the visitor back to the present. 34 racing cars dating from 1900 to the present day enable the Mercedes legend to be experienced at first hand. The banked curve on which these legendary high-performance cars are presented reflects the complex geometry of the building itself, while reminding the visitor of famous racetracks. At its end the banked curve becomes a vertical cylinder, where seven record-breaking cars are displayed.

Entering the final straight: from the past to the future

This image of the ultimate acceleration accompanies the visitor as he re-enters the lobby and continues to the level beneath the artificial mound, where the Museum is linked to the Mercedes-Benz Center. As a continuation of the time axis, and on the way to the current model range, "The Fascination of Technology" area provides a constantly updated look at the research and development highlights by which the future of the brand will be defined.

The mound reflects the design features of the Museum in its own architecture: by means of organic shapes, the interior and exterior spaces constitute the complementary components of an indissoluble connection. An event area with an open-air arena which can be extended both inwards and outwards is attached, while extensive catering facilities enable visitors to relax before and after their tour of the Museum. The Passage linking the Museum and the Mercedes-Benz Center is flexibly designed to meet the different requirements of visitors to the Museum and the Center.

There are no right-angles in the Mercedes-Benz Museum. All the walls and ceilings, ramps and supports are curved or recurved, with soft, flowing transitions. It is only for the sake of clarity that the planners and construction teams refer to nine separate levels, for in reality there is no such rigid division into separate storeys. The Legend rooms are almost twice as high as the Collection rooms, for example, and the difference in level between the two is more than one metre.

The twists: the most spectacular innovation in the building

It is not even possible to draw a precise distinction between horizontal and vertical surfaces: the so-called twists – recurved building components – are the building’s most spectacular innovation. These project from the bases of the lift shafts, then lean against the adjacent shaft and are splayed outwards in a gentle curve. Behind the bright window strips of the façade they support a shallow stairway which connects one Collection room to the next.

This complex geometry is continued in the ramps, which connect the Legend rooms along the outer wall of the building so that the visitor is already able to gain a view of the exhibits from the next higher level, then proceeds around them in a wide curve before being able to view them at close range.

These ramps in turn rest on obliquely angled pillars, which carry out their load-bearing function in a highly sophisticated manner while lending a visual structure to the generous window space provided in the Collection rooms. The pillars themselves start from a triangular ground area, then gradually mutate into a hexagon and end up as a rotated triangle. The play of light of these angled, changing surfaces makes them look much slimmer than comparable pillars on a square base.

Planning basis: a three-dimensional data model

The design process began with simple drawings and models, as in the case of all successful designs throughout the ages. "First we all sat around a table and made paper models", says Tobias Wallisser, Creative Director of UN studio. "Each person produced his own interpretation of the clover-leaf concept." Ben van Berkel adds: "After all, our designs are not exclusively based on digital architecture."

Realisation only possible thanks to the very latest software

Even the proposal put forward for the design competition made use of the latest three-dimensional design programmes, which have only recently become available. It is only with this software, which penetrates through the building in all directions and generates the necessary ground plans, cross-sections and cut-away models, that it was possible to realise the highly complex geometrical shape of the Museum. In order to provide the contractors with precise information, the construction plan for the curved components specified millimetrically accurate coordinates for individual points on the X, Y and Z-axis with respect to a reference point at the base of the atrium.

Arnold Walz, who programmed the software for the design, is a highly sought-after specialist. For a number of years he has concentrated on working with architects who design such complex geometrical structures. Arnold Walz refers to his method as "parameterised architecture", and without this it would scarcely have been possible to turn this architectural leap of the imagination into reality. And especially not in the short time available: "Under such networked conditions every change in the interior can have consequences that extend right into the facade", Walz explains. The spectacular projects in which the architect and software specialist Walz has been involved include the Paul Klee Centre in Berne and a department store in Cologne, both of them designed by the famous star-architect Renzo Piano.

What distinguishes the Mercedes-Benz Museum from these buildings is that its complex geometrical shapes are not just a matter of a light outer skin or a structure which moulds itself into the landscape. On the contrary, the components most difficult to calculate and produce are also the most important structural elements. The floors and ceilings of the individual areas span a width of 33 metres, without any supporting pillars. This was one of the first parameters in the proposal by UN studio. 33 metres: "That is more than the width of a motorway bridge", says Prof. Werner Sobek, who calculated the load-bearing capacities of the building. Nonetheless the Collection 1 and Collection 2 areas, i.e. the "Gallery of Travel" and the "Gallery of Loads" with their truck and bus exhibits, are required to carry about as much weight as many a real motorway bridge.

Werner Sobek is one of the world’s most highly regarded civil engineers. He has designed bridges, stadium roofs, airports and exhibition buildings, and is the successor to Frei Otto and Jörg Schlaich at the Institute of Lightweight Design and Construction at the University of Stuttgart. The geometrical complexity of the Mercedes-Benz Museum not only makes the highest demands in formal terms, but also in terms of structural engineering. "If necessary you will just have to use several computers in parallel", was Sobek’s comment on this enormous undertaking.

Construction principles derived from bridge-building

The ability of the ceilings to carry this great weight over such a wide span is made possible by a principle which originated in bridge-building: the four twists and the ramps between the Legend rooms are of double-skinned construction, similar to box-sections. The upper and lower skins are connected by vertical webs, while the cross-sectional height determines the flexural strength and therefore the load-bearing capacity of the ceilings. The walk-in space between them provides room for service pipes and cables, a further example of the UN Studio philosophy whereby functions are not kept strictly separate, but inseparably combined. The ceiling load is equally distributed over the base and the outer walls. At the building’s wide circumference, massive load-bearing walls in front of the Legend rooms and the angled supports in front of the Collection rooms transfer the load downwards.

Planning on the job: progress and time pressure

In order to realise this enormous project within a construction time of just over two years – and especially considering the highly innovative structures and techniques this required – it was necessary to synchronise the planning and practical execution of the construction process. New techniques needed to be tested and refined in detail while building operations were already well under way.

During the early design phase the architects had already created 1:18 to 1:24-scale models in order to test the lighting effects of the facade, examine the spatial layout in detail and test smoke extraction through the atrium in the event of a fire. 3D simulations showed cross-sections of the building, examined the illumination of individual areas and provided advance views of the different areas after completion, together with all their exhibits.

Advance calculations and small-scale models were not sufficient in all cases, however. The Mercedes-Benz Museum was not the first building in which the innovative "twists" had been used, but they had never been constructed on this scale before. To provide certainty, a 1:1-scale model of the twist – something like a prototype - was constructed on-site in November 2004; this was followed by a section of the facade.

New processes used for the first time

Extensive preparations were necessary to cast these twists in concrete on site during the construction of the Museum. The casing of each of these structural components had to bear a load of 2500 tonnes, while remaining firmly rooted in solid ground. A simulated 3D model generated the shapes of the base construction and casing sections. The nine-millimetre thick, precisely contoured and flexible casings were pressed into recesses milled into the base concrete, so that they would separate from the concrete surface by themselves after curing. This is an innovative procedure which was successfully used for the first time in the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

During the construction phase Arnold Walz wrote 50 versions of the programme which describes these three-dimensional shapes. A total of 35,000 building plans – up to 250 per day – were generated by the software on the basis of the Walz model. Orders were placed with 230 external companies and engineering consultancies and this too was a logistical and organisational masterpiece on the part of the project management team at DaimlerChrysler Immobilien GmbH.

Despite the very latest technology, and as in the early design stages, conventional manual skills were required to finish the project. The usual vibrators and formwork were of no help where the twists become almost horizontal on their outer sides. The only way to finish off their elegant, sweeping contours was to apply a coat of conventional plaster in time-honoured fashion.

Integrated construction: services and climate control

Inclusive organisation is the term used by UN Studio to describe a procedure where there is no time delay or spatial separation between construction and interior work. All the technical services are housed in the concrete structures, including 100 kilometres of heating pipes which are accommodated with the reinforcements in the outer casings in S-shaped loops and carry 33,000 litres of water.

More services are routed through the walk-in hollow sections of the ramps and twists. For example, around 630 kilometres of electrical and data cables run through these generously dimensioned shafts, linking the numerous interfaces for the lighting systems and all the other sophisticated technology required to operate the Museum.

The climate control concept, which was already included in the initial proposal, was developed by Transsolar (now Transplan), a Stuttgart company which has been involved in numerous projects throughout Germany and other European countries, as well as the USA, China, Israel, Ghana and the Lebanon during the last ten years.

The basic approach of the climate control concept is the continuous prevention of internal heat build-up, e.g. caused by the interior vehicle lighting, and rigorously maintaining a constant temperature within the building. This involves measures designed to counter the energy given off by the objects in the building, while daylight and consequent solar energy are controlled. Integrated source ventilation allows the different temperature layers and natural dynamic effects to be utilised for efficient climate control. Another special feature of this concept is its flexibility and scope for subsequent expansion and modification.

Neither have emergencies been left out of the equation: the planners not only carried out a successful smoke extraction test using a model, but also a full-scale test on the completed structure in November 2005.

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