Ben van Berkel (born 1957) is a Dutch architect, working in the architectural practice

UNStudio.

studied architecture at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, and at the Architectural

Association in London, receiving the AA Diploma with Honours in 1987

In 1988 he and his wife, Caroline Bos, set up an architectural practice in Amsterdam
named Van Berkel & Bos Architectuurbureau
(1993)
1991-1996
1995-1998
Mobile Forces (1994)
differentiating four themes that
together constitute a modest
repertoire of new architectural
definitions: Mobile Forces, Crossing
Points, Storing the Detail and
Corporate Compactness. All projects
are headed under one of these
categories. In our electronic age the
old architectural definitions have lost
much relevance; even the building
processes themselves are changing,
making it necessary to look afresh at
the potential meanings of
architecture. Presenting such views
in conjunction with the projects in this
pioneering way
1993-1998
In 1998 van Berkel and Bos relaunched their practice as UNStudio, the UN standing for
"United Net". UNStudio presents itself as a network of specialists in architecture, urban
development and infrastructure.
 1999

Architects are going to be the fashion designers of the future, dressing events to come and
holding up a mirror to the world. The re-thinking of public imagination, public space and
public forces transforms architects into public scientists. Their imagination is informed as
much by the semi-conscious preoccupations of collective vision, such as glamour,
mediation, advertising and celebrity, as by the specifics of the discipline.
MOVE examines the architect's new role in an environment of technological, public and
economic change. The redefinition of organizational structures was the common thread
running through the original three books.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum sets up an interface for a series of radical spatial
principles in order to create a completely new typology.
The Mercedes-Benz World
is therefore split into three
parts: the New
Mercedes-Benz Museum,
the Mercedes-Benz
Center
companys original plant
in Untertrkheim.
The structure of the MB Museum is based on a trefoil; both in its internal
organization and in its outward expression this geometry responds to the car-
driven context of the museum. Inside, walking down the ramps of the Museum,
surrounded by cars of different ages and types, the visitor is reminded of
driving down the highway. Outside, the smooth curves of the building echo the
rounded vernacular of nearby industrial and event spaces, such as the soccer
stadium, the Mercedes-Benz test course, and the gas and oil tanks along the
river, as well as the recurrent loops of the road system on site.
 Visitors enter the building from the northwest
corner. The entrance lobby introduces to the
visitor the organizational system of the
Museum, which entails the distribution of the
two types of exhibitions over three leaves,
which are connected to a central stem in the
form of an atrium. The entrance lobby, besides
practical functions, contains an escalator that
leads down to the ground level, and three lifts
that take visitors up to the top of the building.
The visitor proceeds through the Museum from
top to bottom; during the ride up the atrium,
visitors are provided with a multimedia Pre
show presentation. The two aspects of the
museological arrangement, the collection of
cars and trucks and the Myths, are ordered
chronologically from top to bottom, starting with
the three oldest cars at the top
From this starting point at the top, the +eight level, the visitor may take one of two
spiraling ramps down; the first chain linking the collection of cars and trucks, and
the second the connecting Mythos rooms, which are the secondary displays
related to the history of Mercedes Benz. The two spiraling trajectories cross each
other continuously, mimicking the interweaving strands of a DNA helix, thus
making it possible for the visitor to change trajectories..
The downward incline of the two
interlocking trajectories is confined to
the ramps at the perimeter of the
building only; the platforms that function
as display areas themselves are level,
with the slow gradients of the walkways
bridging the height differences between
them. The platforms, the leaves of the
trefoil, are arranged around the central
stem of the atrium in This structure
generates exciting spatial
constellations, enabling a wide range of
look-through options, shortcuts,
enclosed and open spaces, and the
potential for continuity and cross-
references in the various displays
 2002

UNStudio UNFold (2002)This book

documents a number of UNStudio
projects and takes critical stock of a
welter of previously unpublished
designs. In this new book UN Studio
have draped a personal layer over the
analytical UNFold immerses the reader
in the firm's design process.
Ponte Parodi (2000)
multi-functional waterfront piazza
UNStudio, Design Models (2006)
Design Models is the complete
monograph of UNStudios output. The
book begins with an essay that sets out
the principles of their design models,
five conceptual methods that serve as
the point of departure for their broad
array of project types. Divided by
design model, the books main section
presents 00 concepts and buildings,
presented in detail: from the initial,
generative diagram through the digital-
modelling process, to construction and
final outcome. Bookending the projects
is a second essay, After Image, which
contemplates the role and
representation of contemporary
architecture in todays visual and
information culture.
Music theatre
ASSYMMETRIC CURVE
HOLLOW CORE
DEEP-PLANNING