The Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart Germany has been discussed here. (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3274)
As I was lucky enough to be in Stuttgart I went by and took some pics.

The museum's Website (http://www.museum-mercedes-benz.com/)
Entrance fee's (http://rsi-cda.mercedes-benz.com/content/classic/retailer/museum/en/home/home/home/museum/for_visitors.html)
If your travelling by car. it's easy to get there as it is directly next to a highway, the B14 and close by the B10. There is charged parking and if lucky, free parking in front.

Arrival by train:
From Stuttgart main station take the S-Bahn (rapid transit system) line S1 in the direction of Plochingen/Esslingen to Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadium. On leaving the train, follow the signs to the museum.

Arrival by bus:
Bad Cannstatt station is served by S-Bahn lines S1, S2 and S3 as well as by the regional rail network and RegionalExpress. Bus line 51 connects Bad Cannstatt station with Mercedes-Benz World (departs daily from 8.30 a.m. to 10.00 p.m.)

Address:
Mercedesstrasse 100
70372 Stuttgart

View from our parking. There was hardly anything going on so we were lucky to park right in front of it.

View of the aluminium cladding. Notice the perforation for the vents.

Close up

Looking up

Touching the ground in angles

Looking inside through the glass.

The entrance

Ticketing and reception

Looking up in the atrium. The center is the suction for the cyclone. See more on this subject here (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3274&page=2)

Inside the elevators

The floor and ceiling are composite acrylic and the wall are padded with some sort of imitation leather.

Exiting at the top floor. The elevators are very slick. While traveling they project onto the opposed concrte surfaces

The top floor with the 'chimney' in the center.

The exhibitions spaces have different wall surfaces according to the period described in the 'Myth' exhibition. It begins with brass cladding. it is actually 'ribbed'. The picture doesn't convey the effect.

Looking into the arrival area from exhibition. Views from one space into the next pop up everywhere. It is a very complex spacial composition.

Coming down the first ramp.

Glazing between two levels

once again, complex spacial connections

the concrete finish is high quality

Lettering in the concrete. Lots of sharp edges and curvy details.

more concrete

There are a few designated look out points in the museum with seating. This is from one of those points. You can see another one across under the curved ceiling.

70ies tribune looking towards the racing car collection

View towards the Mercedes Benz Center. Not very interesting but adjacent and connected undergound. I will show pictures of that connetion at the end.

This is following the 'Collection Route' passing the glazed facades

Pictures of these stairs have been published everywhere. But I had to shoot them myself too.

Looking back

Another view into the exhibition spaces. Thats the back of a garbage truck btw.

There are other elevators in the building that connect single floors. Not that spectacular.

Balustrade detail

The museum is directly next to a highway. It seems there is an even higher density of Mercedes in Stuttgart than in the rest of Germany.

Detail of interior glazing

Another looking up.

A simple joint between outer facade and concrete structure.

Handrail detail

Looking towards the Gottlieb Daimler football stadium

The projecting elevators

The toilets in the main exhibition area are orange

Inside

Another. Do they expect people to shave? ; )

Leaving the main exhibition area into the public café

Looking down past the cafe into the basement. Passing prototypes you go down to seminar rooms and the 'arena'

Looking up from the café

Detail of the cafés wall. Brushes from a car wash (I think) that were stuck into a mirror. It's quite a neat effect.

Looking towards the arena from the underground.

Moving towards the tunnel space connecting the two buildings. You can see the entrance above

Under the entrance. To the rigth there are offices and seminar spaces. And the couch (http://www.walterknoll.de/de/circleseating-w.htm) UN studio designed for Walter Knoll. (Has anybody modelled it yet?)

A lounge behind glas. Connected to the outside amphi theatre

An office (?) space.

Part of the underground area. There is a restaurant in the back.

Part of it looks like a drab duty-free area

The entrance from the inside

Looking down into the arena from the entrance.

A detail of the balustrade connecting (or not) to the glazing of the entrance

A cool detail in the café. Armrests like you'ld find in the old mercs.

Outside, the arena. ( I need a new camera, badly)

The outdoor seating

One last shot of the situation with the adjacent MB Center.

Another detail I forgot to show, the lighting in the 'Collection' spaces.
Really the last one.

Phew! Looks like their masterpiece to me!
Ben van Berkel is a rare composite of theoretician + sculptor.
From the very beginning (erasmus bridge, post#34 + 35 of this page (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1838&page=4)), their level of detailing was legendary.

Thank you sigue and your wife is beautiful too!

Thank you Sigue

But I have seen better from van Berkel.....

Sigue, thanks a lot for this great tour!
The building seems very coherent throughout and all the detailing looks very well controlled. And the concept seems to actually work!

But I have seen better from van Berkel.....
Wow, which building is that?
Do you care to share pics in travel section? :wondering

really nice pictures.
Good work,man

Thank you for the pics, they are stunning. Those details and materials are way cool.

Great photos as well - how of the spaces must be very hard to capture - thanks for your generous sharing -

wow thanks sigue , great pics
so useful for me , i have to design a car exihibition this term . thanks

thank u so much for the share. the images are amazing.

There are a few designated look out points in the museum with seating. This is from one of those points. You can see another one across under the curved ceiling.

They must of had an amazingly talented builder/s on this project! I wonder how many master concrete people they had employed?

Amazing building.

The cnc-cut formwork was placed on preconstructed shapes using calculation of the materials behaviour. The steel reinforcement was also pre-shaped and was designed on the basis (as everything) of a 3D data-model.
The formwork was refined on a full scale model of a 'Twist' element to further improve the efficency. By the way, the shape shown weighs 2.500t.

Facts:
50.000 m3 of concrete
about 11.000 t reinforcing steel
14 months for construction of the shell structure
850 pillars in the ground with a 60cm diameter as footing

The cnc-cut formwork was placed on preconstructed shapes using calculation of the materials behaviour. The steel reinforcement was also pre-shaped and was designed on the basis (as everything) of a 3D data-model.
The formwork was refined on a full scale model of a 'Twist' element to further improve the efficency. By the way, the shape shown weighs 2.500t.

Hold on, im trying to understand what that means. "the formwork was placed on preconstructed shapes". Does this mean that they built the building twice?, they would have had to build all the preconstructed shapes then build all of the formwork ontop of this?, or was there alot of duplication of these shapes?

And do you know what "cnc" stands for?

Hold on, im trying to understand what that means. "the formwork was placed on preconstructed shapes". Does this mean that they built the building twice?, they would have had to build all the preconstructed shapes then build all of the formwork ontop of this?, or was there alot of duplication of these shapes?

And do you know what "cnc" stands for?

It stands for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNC). :D

I too don't understand that part. Lest that about the precalculation. What did they precalculate for?
Nevertheless what I understand is pretty interesting. Keep it coming Oliver!!!

It stands for this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNC). :D

I too don't understand that part. Lest that about the precalculation. What did they precalculate for?
Nevertheless what I understand is pretty interesting. Keep it coming Oliver!!!
Ok, ok.

The architects had high expectations towards all the concrete work: surface quality, sharp edges, tight form work joints, no bulging or deformation, precise tie positioning.

This was achieved by creating base 3D shapes to place the formwork facing on. To create the precise markings of the facing on the concrete, they had to be cut in a cnc process after calculating their behaviour under strain with consideration of their specific material properties. Check post 20 (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums//showpost.php?p=101946&postcount=20)and 21 (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums//showpost.php?p=101946&postcount=21) to see how well they succeeded.

This method was tested and refined on the full scale 'Twist' element shown in post 71.

By doing so the cost and construction time could be reduced.

I hope I've made it somewhat clearer.

I found these would add to the thread..

My first tview on the building was an in the media transported outside view of the building. When Himmelb(l)au did there BMW building I thought that the Berkel looses this duel of car branding centre, because the transported outside view was not so impressive.
When I had this look, I saw the details of the building. The lift- the silver grey and orange- like the spheare of a HugoBoss parfume extended in length in the form of a pill. The silver grey inside and outside like a Mecedes "Silberpfeil". The dialogue with the orange. The projection of the film or pictures on the concrete. Details like the car wash cafe parts, the cars on the wall and the stairs, the discussion of the materials inside and impressive space. Great.

Thanks for the tour, great input, have to make a paper on it connected to my studiowork, it's a great help to understand the building. The details are amazing, so are the relations between the 2 different tours inside and different levels..:clap:

The projecting elevators
Oh thanks man that was full of ideas...The projecting elevator?!! oh that was rare man!!!! thanks!:eek: :)

Beautiful, you Germans do everything perfect. Love the tour, waiting for more.

There are 3 videos about the Mercedes Benz Museum from O300VD (http://0300vd.com/) (soon to be O300.TV) on Youtube. Here are the links:
Part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMmXDNAH2T8)
Part 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4IX2sj0gQo)
Part 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvhUExvAVHM) - "buy me a Mercedes Benz" exhibition (also the title of a book (http://www.actar.com/index.php?option=com_dbquery&task=ExecuteQuery&qid=2&idllibre=2006&lang=en) by ACTAR (http://www.actar.com/))

Or use this link (http://0300vd.com/2007/03/02/mercedes-benz-museum/) directly to the O300VD page on the museum and scroll down for the english text.

I Can't Say .....this Is A Great Building....

Ben van Berkel & Caroline Bos works . great

good photos

complex building.I can't Imagine how difficult to build it up