Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany

The Mercedes-Benz 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 of light and space.

TREFOIL DESIGN

The structure of the MB Museum is based on a trefoil; both in its internal organisation 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.

Visitors enter the building from the north-west corner. The entrance lobby introduces to the visitor the organisational 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 contains an escalator that leads down to the ground level, and three lifts that take visitors up to the top of the building.

MERCEDES-BENZ COLLECTION AND HISTORY

From the eighth floor, the visitor may take one of two spiralling ramps down; the first chain linking the collection of cars and trucks, and the second the connecting Mythos rooms, which are the secondary displays relating to the history of Mercedes-Benz.

The two spiralling 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. 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.

»View Other Nominees in the New Build (built) Category

»View Other Nominees in the International Building of the Year Category