(BDT_09_071) Mercedes-Benz Design Center

Description

The Mercedes-Benz design team is internationally renowned for its product design, which is based on ever-shorter development cycles and the close cooperation of all involved parties. To bundle all forces, the corporation closed all 18 centres in Germany and established a new central research and development centre in Sindelfingen.

The brief called for a work environment that would best suit the team-orientated design processes of a variety of vehicle types. These processes are based on communication and the exchange of ideas. Following these requirements, the architects conceived a building which is at the same time extraordinary and prototypical. The open and light-flooded interior provides an inspiring work environment, which is nonetheless closed off from the exterior to prevent disruption and, last not least, industrial espionage. The participants in the design process – designers, model makers, and prototype developers – are electronically and spatially linked.

Bruno Sacco, Mercedes-Benz chief designer, was impressed by the openness and transparency of architect Renzo Piano’s own Building Workshop. He asked Piano to create a similar atmosphere for the design centre in Sindelfingen. The difference was that the building had to serve for a few hundred employees, not only a few dozen. Hence, the desired work atmosphere had to be transferred to a much larger scale.

The building is located at the southwestern tip of the overall premises of the research and development centre. It is based on the existing master plan that proposes an orthogonal grid organising the engineering offices and production halls to be positioned at right angles. At the intersections of the grid, shared courtyards with an almost private atmosphere are placed encouraging communication between engineers and designers.

The design centre was the first building of the master plan to be completed; it is protected by vegetation on one side. It forms the final part of the master plan and juxtaposes its perpendicular grid. The building shape follows the triangular site but is also motivated by the call for an unconventional building that presents the design team as a self-contained unit of the company without creating the image of a privileged elite.

The design is reminiscent of a fan whose individual segments house different functions such as design, model making, prototype development etc. Several ”fingers” radiate around a central point at a constant angle of nine degrees and get longer from south to north. Three-dimensionally curved saw-tooth roofs cover the seven industrial halls. The fanning-out, individual roofs create a dynamic form that seems to be generated by centrifugal forces. Light bands provide daylight that is necessary to control prototypes; solid external walls below afford visual protection. The geometry of the roof surfaces is derived from sections of a torus. Their surfaces are not perpendicular to the walls but inclined. Hence, the skylight strips get narrower at the ends and reinforce the impression of ”floating” roofs.

In close proximity to the design centre, a four-storey administration building including an entrance hall and foyer is located. The linear office building forms the architectural hinge between the free form of the design centre and the perpendicular organised engineering offices and production halls further east. Two hall segments protrude beyond the administration building forming a triangular forecourt as main access to both buildings. The presentation hall is positioned roughly perpendicular to the five shorter segments of the main building. In the west, the gable ends of the halls face onto a common garden that is enclosed by a dense hedge satisfying concerns of privacy and security.

The constant interaction between the employees called for an architectural concept that links all interior levels in a complex and efficient way. This has been achieved by means of vertical accesses and visual links between the design offices on the second floor, storage on the first floor, and workshops on the ground floor. Each ”finger” incorporates a central atrium where car models are exhibited; this way, employees can check them any time. Offices have been arranged in a U-shape around these atriums and provide direct visual contact to the workshops.

The centre comprises a presentation hall for completed prototypes. It was created by eliminating the end sections of two radial walls and bridging the gap with steel tube trusses. To simulate various light conditions, skylights consist of a super-fine plastic mesh sandwiched between two insulating glass panes that follow the curve of the roofs.

The design centre receives its particular architectural charm from the large dimensions of the spaces, the merging of different work zones, and the elegant interior detailing. Partitions are rendered and painted white. The curved roof surfaces consist of inclined parallel parabolic louvers with reinforcing crossbars that form a grid of tiny north-orientated skylights. They solely allow north light to enter the building and diffuse direct sunlight.

To the exterior, the building presents itself in almost monochrome tones of grey and silver. The façades received a cladding of tall and narrow Alucarbon panels, which were also used on the roof and provide a mat silver finish. According to Renzo Piano, he wanted to create a monolithic building that looks like a singular piece of cast aluminium. The wafer-thin exterior envelope elegantly wraps the enormous cubic content of the building.