It was 2006 when the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Museum was inaugurated in Stuttgart, Germany. In particular within what has since become one of the main tourist attractions of the area, the architects, Ben van Berkel and Carolin Bos, wanted to design two very special lifts, which have become the symbol of the structure.
It is an absolutely unique system as it was designed specifically for the museum. Not surprisingly, every visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum can only start from there; it is a journey in a silver “capsule” with a futuristic design (the shiny silver metal outside the cabins and the Alcantara padding inside guarantee a classy environment). The curved surfaces all around are reminiscent of the bodywork of a racing car.
The lift cabins are therefore real “time machines” since once at the top, visitors land in 1886, the year in which the automobile was invented.
• The ascent of the elevator takes 25 seconds
• Each elevator system car carries up to 25 people
• On a busy day with over 4,000 visitors, the three plants travel almost 44 kilometres, equal to around 8,000 kilometers out of 225,000 journeys in 2022
Analyzing these figures in detail, the three rigs together have made – since 2006 – about three times around the world.
Furthermore, through a large panoramic window, visitors can admire the opposite wall of the atrium and the Legend rooms, as if looking through a windshield. During the ride, short videos can be seen on the walls from projectors installed at the top of the elevator car (the display uses 30 different details from historical photographs to illustrate the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand). The visual experience is accompanied by the sounds of the engines of vehicles from the history of mobility.
