Content

Central facilities and language centre, Fachhochschule Weihenstephan

Innovative, largedimension timber construction with rod-shaped and flat construction elements

address of building

Freising/DE

Client

Bayrisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst, München (Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts)

Architects

Florian Nagler Architekten, München/D

Structural design

merz kley partner ZT GmbH, dornbirn; Brandl + Eltsching, Freising

completion

2005

The new institute buildings for the Fachhochschule Weihenstephan(a university of applied sciences) in the Pappelallee includelecture halls and seminar rooms, plus central facilities,a language centre and the IT centre. They are located on theformer site of the state-owned Weihenstephan dairy. The buildingthat forms the ‘backbone’ of the complex is 140 metres long, with two storeys. It was designed to suit the topography of the site; the plot slopes slightly from north to south, in a transverse alignment to the road. The main access route – consisting of a series of ramps with parallel stairs – follows the slope. Another access space, which is partitioned off behind a larchwood espalier wall, serves the language and IT centre, which faces southwards and has some two-storey sections. The lecture halls and seminar rooms are simple individual units aligned east to west which join onto the north section of the ‘backbone’ building. Massive pillars and supports made of laminated larchwood provide the load-bearing structure for the two-storey block and for the adjoining single-storey lecture halls. The span orientation of each matches the orientation of its facade. All the facades are fully glazed and have larchwood cladding. The closed transverse walls and the inner walls, which have a wood veneer covering, give the individualconstruction elements additional rigidity, while the glass facades are light and delicate steel constructions mounted on the timber supports. The use of untreated wood for cladding and for the slatted blinds that provide external sun protection is well suited to the departments of agriculture and horticulture located nearby. Quite apart from its size, this project’s use of a combinationof rod-shaped and flat construction elements brings a new and innovate element to modern wood construction.

Kategorija: Bildung, Familiar Material