Mercedes Benz Center Vehicle Showroom And Service Center

The Design of the Mercedes Benz Centre for Excellence was based on a breif set out by Daimler Benz, Stuttgart Germany, augmented by my client Deisel and Motor Engineering PLC, their agents in Srilanka. DIMO PLC, were very specific on their requirement for a building that had a strong local flavour, which befitted their reputation as a leading Srilankan Corporate, established as a family business over half a century ago, by the late father of Ranjith Pandithage the present Chairman. The building needed to be 'state of the art' and technology driven befitting its use as a Sales and service Center, highlighting the luxury Mercedes Brand, yet with a comfortable scale conducive to its local context, suited to exhibition of the brand, both indoors and outdoors.The clients breif also included a 400pax expandable Auditorium, and a brand museum for 12 vintage cars.

The 5 acre site for the project was first confirmed by me, before being purchased and is situated in a rundown, yet important part of Colombo City, being located at an entry gateway to the city. The company also owned the property opposite where we were to design and build a simillar facility Tata brand, which the company also represented locally. The 2 buildings were designed to reinforce each others presence together with DIMO's brand image as a leading g technology driver.

The Mercedes Benz Center for Excellence is designed to achieve a project scale in keeping with itse surrounding urban scape. Conceptually Consistung of an elevated pavillion showcasing the brand, with the single storey, Service building located to the rear of the site, and accessed via a separate entry at the lower, road intersection. he main entry point to the Showroom is designed as an elevated platform, accessed from the higher end of the access road. The 3 storey entry pavillion is scaled down using the steep roof pitch to highlight and capture the enclosed spaces viz a vis the Showroom, Museum and Auditorium, as part of one larger volume. The garden pavilion concept is reinforced by the use of cantilevered fare-face concrete planters, which cantilever out fringing the podium edges.

The Showroom pavillion sits on a podium, which is a series of terraced outdoor exhibition spaces, which flow up to 2 overhead levels via ramps, giving free reign to multiple level outdoor vehicle exhibition and public movement. Indoor pavilions open out to these exhibition spaces adding interest to public movement within the building.

The building is rated LEED Gold(Leadership in Energy Efficent Design) and is designed with the aim of incorporating sustainable, energy efficient features that are self regulating. Thus the near 1km of planter boxes cantilevered to fringe exhibition terraces were designed for storm water run off, and pre-regulated drip irrigation, using harvested storm water. Specific roofs were designed to hold Solar panels for renewable power, of which the building generates 1Mega Watt. The design of the West facing, Showroom incorporates specifically designed shading devices for sun protection, and high spec, double glazed, coated glazed systems for reduced solar gain. Natural light from North and East through clerestory skylight windows, sculpt the interior and the prime exhibits of the Showroom and Museum.

From the earliest spatial conceptualisation the building was designed to reflect the existing adhoc, low scale of the immediate urban environment. The site selection of which we were a part of, and the designed building was considered as an opportunity to upgrade the surrounding urban scape. Iam proud to note that the impact of the building has been very positive even from the general population of the area, who have little or no interest in a luxury vehicle brand but are nevertheless proud of the building.

We are presently working on the sister project for DIMO the Tata, Sales and Service Center directly opposite, which is a design extension of the 'garden pavillion' concept with much more pedestrian access. We envisage the 2 buildings complementing each other creating a green, pedestrianised edge and public space to the fronting roadway.