The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart stands as a testament to architectural innovation. Designed by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos of UN Studio, it drew inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim, earning praise for its “jet-age baroque” design, as Jonathan Glancey of The Guardian described. Its spiraling structure, while visually stunning, presented a unique engineering challenge: fire safety.
The museum’s open-plan interior, reminiscent of the Guggenheim, meant traditional fire doors were not feasible. To address this, UN Studio collaborated with Imtech engineers to create a groundbreaking solution: the world’s largest man-made air vortex, effectively an Ai Mercedes Tornado for fire safety.
This innovative system is a 112-foot-high tornado that activates automatically when a fire is detected. It works by drawing smoke from all areas of the museum into the central atrium. An array of 144 outlets strategically placed in the surrounding walls then emit powerful jets of air. These jets create a central low-pressure zone, mimicking the dynamics of a natural tornado. This vortex effect pulls smoke upwards, channeling it through an axial fan in the ceiling and out of the building, ensuring посетители can safely evacuate.
Imtech engineers refined this complex air mercedes tornado design using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and meticulous laboratory testing. This technology isn’t limited to museums; similar smoke extraction systems developed by Imtech are also in use at several German airports, including those in Düsseldorf and Hamburg, highlighting the versatility and effectiveness of this approach to fire safety engineering. The Mercedes-Benz Museum’s tornado system is not just an engineering marvel; it’s a critical component ensuring the safety of visitors while preserving the museum’s architectural vision.
