Precedent Analysis Essay

Mercedes-Benz Museum

The name Mercedes-Benz gives people the perception of wealth, sleekness, speed and luxury.  The Mercedes-Benz Museum gives people the perception of wealth, sleekness, speed and luxury also.  Germany is the place where the first automobile was invented; therefore, it is an appropriate setting for the automobile museum.  Award-winning architects from UN Studio designed this very unique building.  The building was started in 2001 and completed and opened in 2006. 

Sometimes, a museum is just about what the walls and insides hold.  Not so with the Stuttgart, Germany Mercedes-Benz Museum.  The museum structure itself is also about the clever architecture used in the design of the building where every detail was thought through allowing for display spaces and also a restaurant, office spaces and other uses.  This very large, 16,500 square meter building has facades that are covered in aluminum and glass.  It takes the shape of a three-leaf clover using three overlapping circles with the center removed to form a triangular atrium. This design compliments the cloverleaf of the nearby fast lanes of the highways B14 and B10.  The shape of the building is also a reminder of the logo used for the Mercedes-Benz Company, a circle with a three-pointed star.  The building is made up of only rounded forms and curves, having no right angles.  Another unique feature is there aren’t any pillars used for support in the building.

When museum guests ride on the elevators, they are able to experience part of the museum by being shown an introduction to the museum. 

In 2007, 860,000 people visited the Mercedes-Benz Museum.  Admission is free for everyone.  It would take about two hours to tour the nine levels of 160 cars and 1,500 exhibits. 

         I chose this building for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I really enjoy cars and secondly, the design of this building is so unique on the inside and out, it is a clever way to exhibit many unique cars, limousines, sports cars and even buses.  It would be a wonderful experience to visit Germany and drive to the Mercedes-Benz Museum one day.

 

www.unstudio.com/projects/year/2006/1/139

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/mag5/art20060615/htm/tourisme-mercedes-museum.htm

[Explorations] unit summary

Chandelier

Mustangs

Biltmore House

Charleston, SC

Waterfalls

Hot Air Balloons

Willow Trees

Butterflies

The Beach

Stars

[Reflections] unit summary

The Crystal Palace

This unit was about finding modernism.  In the early 1800s architects started working with glass and iron.  The most known building that was built of glass and iron is the Crystal Palace, in London.  It was designed by Joseph Paxton in 1851.  Paxton designed the building to be built around the trees that were already there.  Then America wanted one so they had a foe one built in New York in 1853. 

            Then in the later 1800s they added concrete to the glass and metal.  In Chicago five buildings were built.  The Marshall Field Warehouse by H.H. Richardson in 1885-1887.  The Home Insurance Building by William Jenny in 1883-1885.  The Monadnock Building by Burnham and Root in 1889-1891.  The Reliance Building by Burnham and Root in 1883-1885.  The Marshall Field & Co. by Daniel Burnham.

            Then in the early 1900s, the race for height started and used concrete, steel, and glass.

            Frank Lloyd Wright was a famous and great architect in the later 1800s, early 1900s.  He designed using horizontal lines.  He designed his house and studio in Oak Park, in 1889-1909.  He designed lots of houses and churches.  His Robie House, built in 1909, 

Analytical Essay

Mercedes-Benz Museum

 

Mercedes-Benz Museum is located in Stuttgart, Germany, where the first automobile was invented.  It was designed by UN Studio, starting in 2001 and completed and opened in 2006. 

It is a very large building taking up 16,500 square meters of space on only 4,800 square meters on the ground.  Its facades are covered in aluminum and glass.  It takes the shape of a three-leaf clover using three overlapping circles with the centre removed to form a triangular atrium. This design compliments the nearby highways B14 and B10 forming a clover shape also. The building is made up of only rounded forms and curves, no right angles.  They aren’t any pillars used for support.

In 2007, 860,000 people visited.  Admission is free for everyone.  It would take about two hours to tour the nine levels of 160 cars and 1,500 exhibits. 

            I chose this building because I enjoy cars and this is a new exhibit to show of they many unique cars that were designed.

 

 

 

 

www.unstudio.com/projects/year/2006/1/139

 

http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/tpl/mag5/art20060615/htm/tourisme-mercedes-museum.htm

[ALTERNATIVES] unit summary

Ritual Shape Buildings and Building Shape Rituals

         In the churches circles are a very sacred form and symbol because it is the connector from earth and heaven.  In the Church of the Nativity around the center of the cross is a circle.  With it being on the alter, the circle allows the focus point to be the cross.  There are also circles found in the designs of Santa Constanza and Hagia Sophia.  Also being developed from a circle pattern is a dome.  It allows light to come into churches.  In the church of the Holy Sepulchre a dome is the sacred burial spot, but still has function.  The courtyard separates the dome and the basilica where the people gather in one area so they can hear.  After a while architects and designers started to test the boundaries and break rules of the normal rituals and go outside the box.  

The Duomo, in Florence, Italy, shows the rebirth of antiquity, individualism, and humanism.  It rediscovers the natural world and is a reglorification of the state as a work of art. The Venezia is known as the city of floating stone, where you can find Santa Maria della Salute, while there is still a dome on this church it is a pilgrimage church inside a city.  The Doge’s Palace, in Venice, is designed to resemble lace. Glass and lace were important materials in Italy.  Filippo Calendario’s design did a good job in doing so.  Piazza San Marco is the principal square of Venice.  It is the only urban space called a piazza in Venice.

Precedent Analysis [deliverables]

[outline]

The Mercedes-Benz Museum

I.  Introduction

II.  Body

       A.  History/Background

             1.  Why it was built?

             2.  Who built it?  When?

                    a. Key dates

3. What is it used for?

             4.  What does it represent?

       B.  Building Itself

             1.  Size

             2. Shape

             3.  Materials

             4.  Interior 

              5.  Exterior & Surroundings

       C.  Museum Tour

              1.  Admission

             2.  What will you find where?

             3.  History

III.  Conclusion

       A.  Why I chose this building.

       B.  Summary of all.

[views & media]

• plan view, 1':1/4", pencil on bond
• front elevation, 1':1/4", pencil on bond
• section cut (n-s), 1':1/4", pencil on bond
• section cut (e-w), 1':1/4", pencil on bond
  
• 1 point interior perspective, colored pencils on bond
• 1 point exterior perspective, markers on bond
• 2 point exterior perspective, markers on bond
• interior detail, colored pencils on bond
• exterior detail, watercolor on bond
• diagram, pen and colored pencil on bond

[questions]

What should I focus more on in the essay?

Are the drawings a good variety?

Precedent Analysis (new)

The Mercedes-Benz Museum is located in Stuttgart-Unterturkheim, Germany.  UN Studio was very creative in the design process, and it was completed and opened in 2006.  This steel structure with modern glass houses around 100 cars.  It is a spiral ramp showcase, with a tour starting at the earliest models to end with the newest.  The building is shaped with three rounded corners, in the shape to mimic a three leaf cover.

Precedent Analysis

Robie House

Frank Lloyd Wright

Built in 1908-1910

Chicago, IL

 

Frank L. Wright built this house for his client, Frederick C. Robie.  It is considered one of the most important buildings in history of American architecture.  It inspired an architecture revolution.  It has horizontal lines, overhangs, and an open floor plan.  It is a Prairie style house.   

525 BC & AD

525 BC

Institutions

• Gautama Buddha attained Enlightenment, and began his ministry.
  

Technology

• Coins started to have images on both sides.

Governance

• After Pisistratus of Athens dies: his son Hippias inherits his power.
  
• Smerdis is ruler of Persia.

Commerce

525 AD 

Institutions

• Rome's Colosseum suffers damage from an earthquake as it did in 422.
• The Benedictine order of monks is established at Monte Cassino near Naples by Benedict of Nursia, 49, who founds a monastery on the mountaintop overlooking fertile valleys that are subject to frequent invasion as the Roman Empire crumbles. Benedict formulates strict rules in his Regula Monachorum. Benedict inaugurates monasticism in western Europe.
  
• A Christian basilica is completed at Leptis Magna in North Africa.
  
• Provence becomes part of the Frankish kingdom.  
• A monastery is founded at Beneventum by Cassiodorus.

Technology

• The Susruta medical book that will become a classic of medicine in India is compiled. 
  
• The aged Byzantine emperor Anastasius I constructs a wall from the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara in an effort to protect Constantinople from raiding Bulgarians and Slavs. 
• Alexandrian explorer-geographer Cosmas Indicopleustes travels up the Nile. He will venture as far to the east as Ceylon, become a monk, and write Topographia Christiana to vindicate the biblical account of the world.
  
• A magnificent tomb is erected at Ravenna for the late Theodoric the Great.

Governance

• The Byzantine emperor Anastasius I agrees to pay his share of defending the Caucasian Gates against invasions from east Asia and makes peace with Persia.
  
• The Visigoth king Alaric II issues the Lex Romana Visigothorum, or Breviary of Alaric.
• Alaric II eases up on his persecution of Catholics who oppose his Arian beliefs and authorizes a Catholic council at Agde.
  

Commerce