Benzz

Ben Van Berkel

Caroline Bos

Ben Van Berkel is one of the most interesting young Dutch man.

Along with Caroline Bos he founded the UN Studio Group and, at only 45 years old, he planned houses, museums, power stations, bridges and design's objects.

van berkel was born in utrecht in 1957. he studied architecture at the rietveld academy in amsterdam and at the architectural association in London, receiving the AA diploma with honors in 1987. in 1988 he set up an architectural practice in amsterdam with Caroline Bos. van berkel & Bos architectuurbureau has realized urban development projects, architectural designs and infrastructural plans. in 1998 they established a new firm in addition to van berkel & Bos architectuurbureau: UN studio.

UN studio is a network of specialists in architecture, urban development and infrastructure. UN studio organizes strategic forms of collaboration with architects, graphic designers, and constructors, building consultants, service companies, quantity surveyors, photographers, stylists and new media designers.

The dynamic and integral spatial concept.

UN Studio

DIAGRAMS

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 - 2006

- UN Studio designed the winning entry for the new Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart (Germany). The new museum will cover 20.000 sq. meter of exhibition space for the historical and new collection of Mercedes-Benz. Further to the exhibition spaces the museum includes a museum shop, restaurant, sky lobby, kids museum and cinema. With 450.000 visitors the Mercedes-Benz museum is the bestvisited museum in Stuttgart.

The design of UN Studio has been selected because of the dynamic and integral spatial concept. The organizational structure is based on a continuously changing orientation of the visitor and the dynamical interchange of interior and exterior.

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UN Studio

Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 - 2006

. Shifts in the floor levels challenge the symmetry of the trefoil plan in section.

Spatially, the building is structured as a double helix. The leaves of the trefoil rotate around a triangular void, forming six horizontal plateaus which alternately occupy single and double floor heights, resulting in six double-height and six single height exhibition spaces. The organisation does not involve a continuous, single surface; the six plateaus themselves are level, with slowly sloping ramps bridging the height differences between them. The aimed effect of this organisation is to create exciting spatial constellations, enabling a wide range of look-through options, shortcuts, enclosed and open spaces, and the potential for continuity and cross-references in the various displays. The visitor proceeds through the Museum from top to bottom.

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 – 2006

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 – 2006

Concept diagram CONCEPT

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 - 2006

Location study

Urban setting

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 – 2006

Exterior view

3-D section

The Mercedes Benz Museum intricately combines structure and content. The Museum is dedicated to a legendary car; its unique structure has been specifically devised to showcase a collection in which technology, adventure, attractiveness and distinction are merged. It is also a Museum for people to freely move through, to dream, learn, look and let themselves be oriented by fascinations, light and space…

Lastly, it is a Museum for the city, a new landmark to celebrate the enduring passion of Stuttgart’s most famous inventor and manufacturer.

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 – 2006

UN Studio These three elements reflect authenticity, tradition and vision. The choice of location and landscape architecture bear testament to this, as does the concept behind both the new museum and the Mercedes-Benz Center, a new sales center scheduled to open in 2006 in tandem with the museum.

Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 – 2006

DETAIL PLAN

Passion is a powerful motor, and one which needs an authentic vehicle in which to display its potential. The Mercedes-Benz World will take shape just outside the gates to the company’s original plant in Untertürkheim – the birthplace of personal mobility. The new project embodies the passion of the brand and paints a resonant portrait of its past, present and future.

The Mercedes-Benz World is therefore split into three parts: the New Mercedes-Benz Museum,  the Mercedes-Benz Center company’s original plant in Untertürkheim.

1.

The structure of the MB Museum is based on a trefoil; both in its internal organization and in its outward expression this geometry responds to the car-driven context of the museum. Inside, walking down the ramps of the Museum, surrounded by cars of different ages and types, the visitor is reminded of driving down the highway. Outside, the smooth curves of the building echo the rounded vernacular of nearby industrial and event spaces, such as the soccer stadium, the Mercedes-Benz test course, and the gas and oil tanks along the river, as well as the recurrent loops of the road system on site.

The building also implicitly radiates the qualities that we see as the best of our times; good quality materials, durability, character, neatness. In its materialization the MB Museum reproduces the values that we associate with Mercedes Benz: technological advancement, intelligence, and stylishness. Once inside, the visitor should feel both stimulated and comfortable.

• The 25,000 m2 MB Museum is situated next to the Daimler-

Chrysler Untertuerkheim plant on a raised platform which also offers room to the Vehicle Center. Visitors enter the building from the northwest corner. The entrance lobby introduces to the visitor the organizational system of the Museum, which entails the distribution of the two types of exhibitions over three ‘leaves’, which are connected to a central ‘stem’ in the form of an atrium. The entrance lobby, besides practical functions, contains an escalator that leads down to the ground level, and three lifts that take visitors up to the top of the building.

The visitor proceeds through the Museum from top to bottom; during the ride up the atrium, visitors are provided with a multimedia Pre show presentation. The two aspects of the museological arrangement, the collection of cars and trucks and the Myths, are ordered chronologically from top to bottom, starting with the three oldest cars at the top

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. From this starting point at the top, the +eight level, the visitor may take one of two spiraling ramps down; the first chain linking the collection of cars and trucks, and the second the connecting Mythos rooms, which are the secondary displays related to the history of Mercedes Benz. The two spiraling trajectories cross each other continuously, mimicking the interweaving strands of a DNA helix, thus making it possible for the visitor to change trajectories.

The downward incline of the two interlocking trajectories is confined to the ramps at the perimeter of the building only; the platforms that function as display areas themselves are level, with the slow gradients of the walkways bridging the height differences between them. The platforms, the ‘leaves’ of the trefoil, are arranged around the central ‘stem’ of the atrium in This structure generates exciting spatial constellations, enabling a wide range of look-through options, shortcuts, enclosed and open spaces, and the potential for continuity and cross-references in the various displays.

The collection of cars and trucks is shown in combination on five plateaus.

Seven plateaus show the Myths and, at the lowest levels, Races and Records and the Fascination of Technology. At ground level, below the elevated landscape, and accessed by the escalator at the entrance level, are the Children’s Museum, several small shops and a restaurant, which are housed in a large and open-plan space that connects the Museum to the nearby Vehicle Center.

PHASE I

PHASE II

PHASE III

PHASE IV

MODEL

MODEL MAKING

INTERIOR VIEW

UN Studio Mercedes Benz Museum 2002 – 2006

INSIDE MUSEU