Proposal for a (rather gigantic) 100,000 sf Mercedes-Benz museum with an Imax theater and a 50,000 sf restoration shop to be located on the docks of South Boston.

Impressions of the site: a wasteland of huge proportions of an inherent simple bigness; a man-made emptiness scattered with large objects; a site in waiting.

The scale and proportions of the museum, and the new urban plan, relate to the existing man-made context: big, undecorated, and simple.

The organization and location of the museum respond to a need for urban regeneration: to reactivate the former working docks and add life to this empty place. Thus, the museum head - the Imax theater, the “egg” - sits in a newly designed “central park,” while the rest of the museum rises up off the ground to allow the restoration shop underneath to connect to the docks where ships will disembark cars.

This is a sustainable, working museum, where you can learn about all the pieces, methods, and people involved in making this moving machine come to life.

MUSEUM EXHIBIT CONCEPT
A matrix of cars, organized in one direction by systems or material components - motor, electrical, glass, rubber, upholstery, frame, body/whole - and by TIME in the other direction. Thus the finished car would be in the brightest spot, along the southern facade.

This idea came out of a visit to the Mercedes-Benz restoration workshop in Western Mass., upon witnessing the amount of specific care and knowledge that is put into these individual components. This also opens the car museum to a host of potential new visitors: people interested in craft and construction, separate of cars.

To further support the assembly educational aspect, the museum has a glass floor view into the active restoration workshop below.

This sea of cars, as a plane, rises up off the ground, to suggest power / drive. Above the cars float other educational exhibits.

SOLAR HEATING CONCEPT
The southern facade is a “double skin” facade which catches the sun’s warmth and distributes it through spaces around the columns - which are there to make the “sea of cars” appear light and floating. In the summer, the facade opens up to the cooling breeze. The north wall, by contrast, is a barrier blocking the cold winter winds.