in

Building simply

Christian Schittich (Ed.)

Birkhuser
Edition Detail

in Building simply

in

Building simply
Christian Schittich (Ed.)
With essays contributed by
Florian Musso
Christoph Affentranger
Martin Rauch
Stefan Schfer

Edition Detail Institut fr internationale

Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG
Mnchen
Birkhuser Publishers for Architecture
Basel Boston Berlin

Editor: Christian Schittich

Project Manager: Andrea Wiegelmann
Editorial Services: Kathrin Draeger, Alexander Felix,
Barbara Murle, Christa Schicker
Translation German/English:
Catherine Anderle-Neill (pp. 56 175)
Translation Engineering GmbH (pp. 8 55)
Drawings: Kathrin Draeger, Norbert Graeser, Susanna Riede,
Sabine Nowak, Andrea Saiko, Nicola Kollmann
DTP: Peter Gensmantel, Cornelia Kohn, Andrea Linke, Roswitha Siegler,
Simone Soesters

A specialist publication from Redaktion DETAIL

This book is a cooperation between
DETAIL Review of Architecture and
Birkhuser Publishers for Architecture
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ISBN-10: 3-7643-7271-0
ISBN-13: 978-3-7643-7271-2
987654321

Contents

Building simply
Christian Schittich

House in Matosinhos
Eduardo Souto de Moura, Porto

110

Simply good
Florian Musso

10

Wine Store in Vauvert, France

Perraudin Architectes, Vauvert

114

Building simply with Wood

Christoph Affentranger

26

Cemetery in Galicia
Csar Portela, Pontevedra

118

Build Simply with Loam

Martin Rauch

36

Cemetery Extension with Chapel

in Batschuns
Marte.Marte Architekten, Weiler

122

House in Oldenburg
LIN Finn Geipel, Giulia Andi, Berlin / Paris

126

56

Bridge Construction in Zwischenwasser

Marte.Marte Architekten, Weiler

130

Log Bridge in Alto Adige

monovolume, Innsbruck

58

Landing Stage in Alicante Harbour

Javier Garca-Solera Vera, Alicante

132

Weekend House in Vallemaggia

Roberto Briccola, Giubiasco

62

Service Pavilion in Brest

Defrain-Souquet Architectes, Paris

138

Holiday Cabins in Mirasaka, Japan

The Architecture Factory, Tokyo

66

Store and Studio in Hagi, Japan

Sambuichi Architects, Hiroshima

142

Sauna in Finland
Jaakko Keppo, Helsinki

70

House in Chur
Patrick Gartmann, Chur

146

Market Hall in Aarau

Miller & Maranta, Basle

74

Building and Construction Centre

in Munich
Hild und K Architekten, Munich

152

Model Workshop in Wolfratshausen

Allmann Sattler Wappner Architekten,
Munich

158

Tea Ceremony House in Yugawara

Terunobu Fujimori + Atelier Ohshima,
Tokyo

164

Subject index/Architects

168

Authors

174

Bibliography

175

Illustration credits

176

Build Simply with Steel

Stefan Schfer

Projects

44

Carpentry Works in Feldkirch

Walter Unterrainer, Feldkirch

78

Petanque Centre in The Hague

Arconiko Architecten, Rotterdam

82

Temporary Cultural Centre in Munich

Florian Nagler Architekten, Munich

86

House in Dortmund
Archifactory.de, Bochum

92

House in Dresden
dd1 Architekten, Dresden

98

Urban Development near Cdiz

ACTA, Ramn Pico and
Javier Lpez Rivera, Seville
House near Ingolstadt
03 Mnchen, Munich

102
106

Building simply
Christian Schittich

Minimalist tendencies resurface at regular intervals in architecture, bringing with them a return to the simple form.
Today, in a time of pluralistic diversity, these tendencies are
confronted with other, sometimes contradictory movements,
stances and approaches, which exist together in parallel. The
exuberant sculptures of a Frank Gehry or a Zaha Hadid, or
the numerous blobs inspired by biology, stand in contrast to
the retrospective consideration of the simple form, as it
expresses itself everywhere at present in the shape of the
reduced box. At the same time, ornamentation is being rediscovered, supported argumentatively by Sempers clothing
theory, and being staged with relish.
At the same time, such inherently opposing tendencies as
simplicity and decoration quite often appear together in the
works of a particular architect, or even mix in an individual
building. Decorated boxes are an example of this, the most
radical exponent being without a doubt Herzog and de Meurons forestry science library in Eberswalde, whose facade is
completely covered in photographic images. But is it not just
the answer to a screaming world of colourful images, to the
flood of stimuli and sensual impressions, which lead to minimalist trends? Or the answer to an increasingly complex
world, whose deeper lying connections can no longer be
recognised by the individual?
Minimalist trends regularly are often linked to ethical questions or at least to a particular mentality. However, they sometimes arise (as do many of the sculptural forms) purely from
the wish to attract attention or at least to stand out from
the loud, heterogeneous environment.
The formal simplicity resulting from aesthetic endeavours is
rarely also really simple in a technical or economic sense,
however. The perfectly reduced form can often only be
attained with greater effort. This effort can manifest itself in
more extensive design work, but also in an enormous amount
of work on hidden details, as is often found beneath the
smooth outer surface of a multi-layered wall construction
(see also page 10ff.).
In contrast to this, building simply in the sense of traditional
construction methods means, above all, making do with the
locally available materials; that is to fall back on whatever
building materials the landscape has to offer, in order to
save on transport costs and transport energy. It also means,
however, that the load-bearing structure and the construction
should be designed such that the available resources can be
used as economically as possible and, if possible, that the
energy equilibrium is also in order. Building simply in this

sense does not necessarily have to mean doing without all

ornamentation, as is demonstrated by the lovingly decorated
old farmhouses, which are firmly rooted in their surroundings
and whose ornamentation was usually derived from a practical purpose.
The examples in this book are principally concerned with
small and predominantly economical constructions. It lies
in the nature of the matter that many of these have been
designed by very young architects, (some of whom were still
students at the time). Other examples demonstrate that well
established design offices are also taking up the issue.
In some cases, the simplicity of these buildings results
directly from the brief: in the case of an unheated market
hall, for instance, or a workshop building, or a wine store. In
other cases the simplicity is more formal. A further group of
examples stands out as providing particularly economic solutions to the specified requirements. This is demonstrated by
the minimal houses in Andalusia, which the building owners
and occupants were able to construct under the direction of
the architects without having to provide capital resources,
thanks to the simple design and reduced details. The small
houses in Dortmund, Dresden and Ingolstadt are also examples of this.
What they all have in common is their stance, their concentration on the essentials and their renunciation of any unnecessary miscellany.

1.1

Weekend House on Lake Yamanaka, Japan, 2001;

Architect: Kazunari Sakamoto

Simply good
Florian Musso

Temptation
In Peter Weirs film Witness, Harrison Ford plays a divorced
inner-city police officer. In order to protect a murder witness,
a young boy, from his corrupt colleagues, he has to spend
several weeks in an Amish community in Pennsylvania in the
USA. A tense relationship develops with the boys mother, a
widow played by Kelly McGillis. The tension is not primarily
erotic in nature.
The Amish people live according to a fixed regime. They
reject progress. They wish to understand and control their
environment down to the smallest detail. There are no telephones, no cars, no alcohol and no violence. Their communal
life is strictly regulated. Everything has its fixed place.
Modern technology and complex structures are disregarded.
The communities are autonomous units without a superordinate structure. Their religion dictates a simple life. Close to
the earth is close to God. The neighbours get together to
build a barn for a young couple. The men build and the
women embroider. Everyone knows how things work and
they all keep to this.
The frame of the barn is under construction. Kelly McGillis
hands Harrison Ford, who has turned out to be quite a skilled
carpenter, a glass. An opportunity is alluded to: the opportunity of leaving the big city and living a simpler, healthier life.
The satisfaction of understanding something. To have found
an ultimate solution. To have no need to constantly and
painfully redefine oneself and ones world view. To believe in
something. To know what is right. To have a direct connection to food and materials without industrial alienation. To
belong to a community with a fixed structure. To put things to
use rather than use things up.
For a long time, regional conditions have shaped the customary structures. Stones are collected, trees felled and a house
is built. The roofs near the water are made of straw, those in
the woods are made of shingles, in the mountains they are
made of stone and in the desert they are made of loam.
Everyone knows how to build a house. Materials are practically gratis and the building land too. Labour is cheap.
Ornamental elements are time-consuming to make and are
used to characterise something special. The construction
methods used, within the scope of material possibilities, relate
to the climate and geographical conditions of the site. From
functional and climatically influenced buildings, a regional
culture is formed. Culture becomes tradition, the structural
expression of a civilisation rooted to a particular spot.
Neighbourly assistance and an economically necessitated

sustainability are facets of this system in the ideal case.

Knowledge and understanding of the traditional method go
hand in hand with the obligation to behave in accordance
with it. Social control and looking after ones nearest and
dearest are two sides of the same coin. The logic of the location is also the logic of the inaccessibility of other locations.
The narrowness of ones own horizon guarantees the conformity of the local style. Fixed structures stand for restricted
social and spatial mobility and ancient prejudices.
In a society with division of labour, this simplicity is lost. Specialisation allows more efficient production processes. Products are measurably more efficient and are available to broad
groups of the population. The production of items by hand to
meet immediate needs is succeeded by machine production
ahead of demand. The place of production is relocated from
the family to the factory. This also changes attitudes toward
work: the production process for handcrafted works was
comprehensible, whereas the connection to the product is
lost in industry due to specialisation and the division of
labour.
Also from a social point of view, specialisation means that it is
no longer possible to understand all processes. In many
areas a direct connection is no longer present. To have a
world view means falling back on specialists and having faith
in their relevance. The immediate circumstances of life can
be only roughly controlled. An objective increase in prosperity is gained by alienation from the simple life. Simplicity
loses its natural logic. It becomes an option. The impossibility
of the old simplicity leads to the inevitable artificiality of
every new simplicity. This can be justified, but it becomes a
Weltanschauung (world view) and is freed from constraints.
In the long term, labour becomes expensive and is replaced
by machinery. Ornamental elements can be easily manufactured in series production. Decoration is no longer a luxury.
As with simplicity, complexity is an option, and it can no
longer be ignored solely on the grounds of restricted means.
Limits
This book shows a spectrum of selected buildings, which illuminate the subject of simplicity from various possible standpoints. The definition of the term is achieved using examples,
whose similarities clarify the meaning of the term. Their
common and individual backgrounds are important for a
better understanding of the approaches. The meaning of the
term simplicity is also delimited by the concept of non-sim2.1

Barn in the open air museum in land, Sweden

11

2.2

plicity. Simplicity is open to interpretation. It is not viewed as

being positive by everyone or in every situation. It can refer to
normality. In this case, simplicity would be a particular characteristic. The norm would not be simple. On the other hand,
simple can be contrasted with the word complicated. In
place of complicated, which has negative connotations, simplicity could also be seen as the opposite of complex. Complex things can be described simply in order to understand
them better. The norm can be complicated. The simplicity of
normality relates to the pair of opposites: simple and difficult.
It is the simplicity of the least resistance. Linguistically, simplicity refers to sentence structures, choice of words and the
number of words used.
Clear words are joined together to make short sentences.
With simple language, the reader registers the words quickly
and makes the connections between them in the sentence
without difficulty. Simplicity is generally understandable, tangible and clear. A complicated description uses long, convoluted words and employs numerous technical terms and
foreign words without much explanation; it is abstract and
unclear.1
Then there is simple as opposed to compound or with
additions. Simplicity also has something to do with quantity.
A small problem is often easier to solve than a large one.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary also refers to simple as: consisting of one element, all of one kind. Most of the projects
described in this boos are small ones. A structure consisting
of one element or made of materials all of one kind would
be perceived as being simple. A simple hotel is not a
normal house, or one that would satisfy the usual expectation
of standard service. Here, it can be assumed that the prices
lie at the lower end of the usual market price range. The
opposite would be a luxurious palace hotel. A simple man
is not an educated one as opposed to an intellectual. To
make things too simple means to overlook important aspects
in the assessment of the facts. The building owners simplicity is often different to that of the appointed architect.
What does the simplicity of the works compiled in this book
relate to? It is a quiet and refined simplicity, which tries to set
appropriateness in opposition to the loud manifestations of
contemporary architecture. It is a game with options for interpretation; it is encoded on various levels and allows the
author to react sensibly, whilst still being able to set standards in his work. It can differentiate itself from the socially
normal state of things or from the normality of the profession.
The spectrum is relatively widely based. The buildings share
a common origin as part of a modern architecture, in which
different aspects are singled out and developed. These did
not stand under the heading of simplicity in their time. They
were developed in other contexts and they will also be discernable in ever new contexts in the future. Recognisable
parallels are being further developed with the aid of new discoveries and new materials.
At the same time, simple buildings have inherent basic
values. Every action is a reaction to what came before.
Phases of restriction follow phases of opulence, constellation
follows composition, unexpressionism follows expressionism.2 These values become compacted into stances. Some
of these stances are represented in this book. All stances
share the typical perceptions of the period regarding the
solution of structural problems, which are closely linked to the
basic conditions of the time when they were formed.

12

Values
Religion serves as an example of ever recurring concentration on the essentials. Religion forms part of pre-industrialised societies, in which the traditional values were not be
questioned. From the puristic concentration on a single
God, a multinational organisation has developed, in the form
of the church, with a tendency to opulence regarding rites
and the formalisation of beliefs. Time and again, new developments in the form of orders, mendicant orders and reformations have taken place, which are almost always related to
a simplification in favour of a pure doctrine, usually based
on the Bible as the essence of belief. Church buildings are
also interesting as places of worship, since they are in a
position to clarify the subject of structural concentration and
internalisation.
During the protestant reformation in the 16th century, Calvin,
Luther and Zwingli argued for a return to the values defined
in the Bible without concern for the traditions of the church.
Protestantism, being more hostile to matters of the body and
the senses, confronted the opulence of the Roman Catholic
religious practices with a puritanical and practical reduction
to the bare essentials. In contrast to the Catholic belief, the
possibility of purging oneself by means of confession and
absolution does not exist. Thus, for example, Stanislaus van
Moos sees (German) Switzerland as being a country, which,
with its puritanical inheritance and institutionalised protestant work ethic, has long enjoyed a special and unproblematic relationship with modernity.3
The Amish people described in the introduction live within
pre-industrial limitations. Their church is laic, non-liturgical
and Bible oriented. They have strict rules regarding the style,
colour and proportions of their clothing. The men wear
simple, dark coloured suits and full beards with no moustache; the women wear simple, long-sleeved dresses with
bonnets and scarves. Their furniture has prescribed dimensions. The wood is stained a dark colour to conceal the grain.
Door and window frames are predetermined, as well as wall
and curtain colours, cutlery, crockery and bed linen. Voluntary limitations come into being, restricting them to a firmly
established, modest-moral and healthy way of life.
The Shaker sect was less restrictive and more open to development. Shakers try to be economically independent of the
outside world. They are known for their diligence and inventiveness; they regarded work as a service to God and
quested for a combination of simple, excellently handcrafted
and attractive utensils. In their pursuit of economic independence, the circular saw, the ballpoint pen and the flat broom
were invented. It is interesting that the optimisation of handcrafted utensils resulted from religious principles.
Within the Catholic Church, attempts at reformation have
also led to simple building styles. An example of this is
the Fronleichnamskirche (Corpus Christi Church) in Aachen,
Germany, built in 1930 by Rudolf Schwarz. This church
was labelled Gods factory hall by his contemporaries
and is associated with such expressions as poverty and
asceticism, emptiness as the fullness of God, the quiet
presence of God, or room for Christian workers. Rudolf
Schwarz said in 1930, with reference to the loss of the old
architectural iconography, that he wanted to set a dominant
feature in the disorder. Unlike the previously prevailing historicism, Schwarz is not concerned here with making a radical break in the sense of new construction, but with an

extended free space between the mandatory and the permissible, in which the master builder can move.4
Asceticism
The idea of asceticism is common to all the examples. The
renunciation of pleasures that is practised in asceticism has
positive connotations in the system of Christian values due to
the focus on moral, as opposed to sensual, aspects. Giving
up lesser values should enable higher values to be attained.
All people are pledged to asceticism, to the pursuit of Christian perfection and to practising this with constant progression. On earth this perfection can only be a growing one, to
be improved. Its conclusion and full maturity is only achieved
in the next world.5
Before the end of the 19th century, asceticism was related
exclusively to the religiously motivated renunciation of
consumerism, but subsequently financial prudence and
temporary abstinence can be seen to be a result of the
market economy. Asceticism had allowed the clergy to
concentrate on their religion, but the foundation of capitalist
economies lies in investing savings and letting these work
for them. The abstraction of goods in the form of money for
potential consumption makes it possible to do without this
consumption.
In comparison to poverty, asceticism represents the renunciation of consumption by those who could actually afford to
consume. The poverty of the priests robes is a voluntary curtailment, and the refusal to consume a form of luxury. Nonconsumerism is a form of freedom, assuming one has the
means to consume. A choice in consumption also presupposes that the means are available to avoid having to buy the
cheapest goods. Those living a simple life can make a conscious decision in this respect. The new simplicity is characterised by its option to be chosen.
The ascetic moral ideals of the classic utopias create a direct
link between happiness and morality. Individual happiness
subordinates itself to the harmonisation and improvement of
the common welfare.
In a kind of forced economy, a moderation of the pursuit of
happiness takes place as a prerequisite for happiness. The
moderation applies to this life and enables the anticipation of
the next life to be even more euphoric. Ascetic moral ideals
represent the opposite of the mass gratification of a standardised hedonistic structure of needs. The finiteness of
nature, as the area available for the realisation of human happiness, calls the notional boundaries of prosperity to mind.6
Meaning must be found in the limitations, as limitlessness is
out of the question.
Modern
Alison and Peter Smithson see the modern architecture of the
heroic period as being created by machines: it is cubically
formalised, abstract in the interpretation of human activity, a
perfect thing in itself, inserted and not rooted to the site, and
made of radiating building materials. Natural building materials are only used as a substitute for synthetic materials not
yet invented.7
This view distinguishes modern buildings from the historicised buildings of the same epoch. Machines extend the
spectrum of possibilities; the house becomes a machine.
2.2

Fronleichnamskirche (Corpus Christi Church) in Aachen, 1930;

Architect: Rudolf Schwarz

13

2.3

2.4

Like a machine, the house is without style and is governed

by economic and practical considerations. From a historical
point of view, industrialisation resulted from the connection
between the economic interests of the middle classes and
the progressing field of engineering science. Exponents
of new architecture attempt to apply this science to construction.
They are simplified in form compared to other structures of
their epoch, which are designed to a style, heavily influenced
by the rules of engineering and adorned with decorative elements. Flush fitted windows, large format window areas and
window strips define the facades of the Mediterraneaninspired buildings. Functional elements such as balconies,
stairs and exposed bearing structures are compositionally
arranged according to theme.
We know no forms, only construction problems. The form is
not the goal, but the result of our work. There is no form as
such. And Building art is the will of an epoch translated into
space; living, changing, new. Not yesterday, not tomorrow,
only today can be given form. Only this kind of building
forms. Create the form out of the nature of the assignment
with the means of our times. This is our task.8 In this statement by Mies van der Rohe it is clear, that the new construction is seen as the clarification of social development.
Even though Mies assumes more rationalistic stances later
(similar to those of A. Behnes), the relevance of form derived
from technical considerations is invoked as an adaptation to
social reality and modern objectives.
Minimum
Resulting from apparently inadequate living conditions in the
lower classes of society, the cooperative building societies
and in the factory housing of committed employers, a tendency developed after the First World War, which attempted
to formulate an architectural subsistence minimum. In contrast to the free housing market, the most important requirement here is to secure a minimum standard, affording human
dignity and the necessities of life, even where the economic
capability is insufficient. The projects are usually publicly
funded. These approaches can still be discerned in the
requirements of publicly fundable housing today, in which the
desired ideal standard, with regard to function and living
space requirements, is defined in guidelines.
Simple solutions are propagated to achieve a subsistence
minimum. A minimum means by definition that it cannot be
simpler. This also tends to result in reproduction without differentiation, which can be seen in many examples. The simplification of the architectural form corresponds to the
standardisation of the assumed needs. Differences become
noticeable in two fundamental directions, one of which associates the nationalistic-romantic image of the simple life
with the subsistence minimum (cf. Tessenow) and one which
attempts to use the potential for progress in the industrial
manufacture of modern materials and scientific design
methods.
Architects are concerned here with simplicity and direct functionality. A subsistence minimum apartment represents the
orientation towards small construction tasks and satisfying
elementary needs without regard for exercises in style.
Understanding
In contrast to the heroic vision of modernity, simplicity
presents itself, under the premises outlined above, as a rec-

14

onciling link between locally rooted tradition, bound to the

rules of civil engineering, and an internationally operating,
abstract modernity. The aesthetics of the Palais de Bois by
A. and G. Perret at the Porte Maillot in Paris, built in 1924,
arise from the structural layers of wooden rods and contrast a
structural simplification with the simplification of form, without
reference to the repertoire of historicising forms. With its
pragmatic structure, this temporary building is reminiscent of
industrial buildings with optimal natural lighting and structural
design.
In his German building projects and designs, Mies van der
Rohe makes direct links between the materials used and the
architectural form. The office building made of reinforced
concrete, high-rise buildings made of steel and glass and the
brick built houses are all formally derived from the structural
possibilities. The demonstrative display of exquisite natural
stone surfaces shows the effect of materials as a constituent
part of architectural composition.
In le Corbusiers work, the shift of interest from the industrial
phase (although this was often compromised by inferior construction) with its radiating surfaces to the handcraft-dominated works in the Loucheur houses, built in 1929, can be
seen. Here, residential units were produced in series and
combined along a wall made of natural stone to form semidetached houses. The optimisation of the typified industrial
product is contrasted here with the local associations of the
masonry wall made of stone.
In brutalism, whose heyday was between 1953 and 1967,
handcrafted raw (brut in French) materials were often put on
show. The construction phase becomes part of the design
repertoire. Materials come to the fore, which would previously
have been considered unfinished or poor: raw bricks or concrete, unpainted wood, or steel. Not industrially perfect, but
handcrafted and solid, with the visible traces of human
labour. Not smooth and refined, but raw and rough.
The visibility and comprehensibility of how the structure carries the loading, how it functions and how it was constructed
is important here.
In Alison and Peter Smithsons Hunstanton School, built in
1954, the sanitary installations show the route that the water
takes in tubes and open channels. In Without Rhetoric it is
later claimed that the core of the statement must be reached
without rhetorical additions, since the expression of power is
no longer relevant within a society that is opening up in all
directions.9

nois Institute of Technologys10 prospectus shows the mutuality of traditional construction methods and modern
approaches, which have the logic of the structure in
common, developed from the various materials.11 The simplicity of functionalism is bounded by the return to handcrafted and conceptually precise structures, in which clarity
and truth are manifest: Let us lead them into the healthy
world of primitive building methods, where there was meaning in every stroke of an axe, expression in every bite of a
chisel. Where can we find greater structural clarity than in the
wooden building of old? What feeling for material and what
power of expression there is in these buildings!12
Geometric
In Edward L. Barness Heckscher House, built in 1974, the
form of the building has been repeatedly reduced, firstly by
breaking up the system into several tiny building units.
Between the buildings of the hamlet, external space is created, reflecting village life. Secondly, the roof and facade are
uniformly clad using shingles. A reduction down to the symbolically placed image takes place, without being compromised by a self-manifesting construction method. The
geometry of the building with its roof sloping at 45 is as a
child would draw a house. It is not the minimum achievable
roof gradient for the material that is important, nor the structural arrangement dictated by the various demands on individual components, but the unification of the design
components.
This formal simplicity is the antipole to economic structural
simplicity. It is not functionality and the logic of the arrangement that define the essence of the building, but an image
that is also in one way or another habitable and buildable. If
the expression of the logical construction cannot be taken
into consideration in the appearance, there is a danger that
functional and technically suboptimal solutions will be
applied, for the sake of the form.
2.5

Less
In Miess less is more postulate there is also a claim to happiness through asceticism. More concentration and depth
should be achieved by using less elements of form and a
simpler design. The search for clarity finds an answer in the
reduction to skin and bones and the straight lines of their
arrangement. Here, less means a necessary minimum, but
also an achievable optimum. The benevolently ascetic will to
create art allows the work to be seen as both tangible and
metaphysically withdrawn.
Miess interest in traditional building forms is striking. The Illi-

2.3
2.4
2.5

Loucheur houses, design, 1929; Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Terraced housing for war veterans, Raegnitz developement near
Dresden, 1919; Architect: Heinrich Tessenow
Plumbing in the Hunstanton School in Norfolk, 1954; Architects: Alison
and Peter Smithson

15

Regional
Since Russell-Hitchkock and Johnson declared the international style in 1932, architectures regional connection has
become a topic in discussions regarding the style of architecture suitable to industrial society. Conscious concessions
to regional typicality usually involve picking up on historical
manifestations, without being able to incorporate the sense of
the form into the imitation. Glazing bars divided up the
window areas due to the small dimensions of the available
panes. Today these bars are available as an option with
double glazing, placed in the airspace between the panes.
The materials used were dependent on the regional availability. Today, this availability is not always on hand. Stone quarries are being closed, timber is cheaper from abroad. So it is
usually senseless to take on the forms of historically developed building types without questioning their rationale. A
poorly understood copy of old buildings, without clarification
as to the living styles and construction forms of the present,
destroys the spirit of this architecture.
Here, the architecture of economy offers interesting
approaches with reference to the dichotomy of traditional
content and modern form. Particularly in rural areas, little is
superfluous and many things are simply designed. A well
understood interpretation of values and of the method that
forms the foundation of these architectural styles allows for a
procedure that is related to the context and has direct reference to the cultural basis.

2.6

2.7

16

Economical
The economy principle is concerned with achieving as much
as possible on a given budget, or meeting a target using a
minimum of resources, limiting the expenditure of funds,
energy and land. Within the framework of an economically
founded aesthetic, the imperative of using less means can be
extended to all architecture. It can refer to the use of financial
as well as creative means.
In practice, optimisation aimed at achieving the highest possible quality creates problems. Investing the least amount of
money is not synonymous with a formally simple solution. Nor
is simple synonymous with little effort. A simple form can be
a qualitatively stronger resource than one that is complex.
Not everything that looks cheap is cheap. The qualitative
aspect of architecture can indeed be a development goal,
but it is difficult to optimise in the sense of a design economy.
In reality, simple construction posits a particular quality by
means of limitation, but it cannot be linearly extended to
apply to complex solutions. Under favourable circumstances,
simplifying is a means of reducing costs.
Ecology is a special form of economy. It is a biological term
denoting the interdependency of organisms and their environment. Ecology can be interpreted in different ways with
reference to simplicity in architecture. It is generally concerned with an optimisation process, which is related to the
consumption of environmental resources, and in which buildings play an important role. The more technically-orientated
tendency assumes that, thanks to technical developments,
an environmentally friendly life style need not be associated
with having to do without, whereas the religious, technologyhostile and ideological tendency preaches limitation and
economy. Both tendencies are interesting regarding the subject of simplicity.
By the reduction of needs and consumption, the disruption
potential of buildings with regard to equilibrium in the environ-

ment can be reduced. The law of economy should lead to a

specific (passive) architecture that uses resources sparingly.
Technical systems are simplified or omitted. Unfortunately,
ecological approaches are rarely linked to formal reduction
and comprehensible simplicity, as the emphasis is placed
elsewhere and this emphasis also has to be demonstrated.
The subject of economy can also be considered from an ethical standpoint. How much will unwritten generational contracts allow us to consume? How can the satisfaction of using
a well designed product for many years be justified, in comparison with the quick consumption of fashionable consumer
articles, when it goes against all economic reason?
Ordinary
The German-Swiss architecture that represents new simplicity can be seen as setting boundaries in two directions,
distinguishing itself from the opulence of the Ticino architecture in the south, as well as from the technically expressive
German architecture in the north. The relationship between
object and image is abandoned in favour of complete concentration on how the object can be experienced.13
The simple and the banal then become the basis for more
profound experiences. Sensuousness is first made possible
by a desire that is independent of the motives of sensual
stimuli by morality. Concentrating on the object as an entity
of experience intensifies the experience itself. Abstraction
and banality serve as a background to a more profound
experience, which sees itself as a new beginning based on
what went before.
Marcel Meili observed that he possessed an anti-symbolic
reflex: in connection with these intentions, the stylistic limitation, if not to say asceticism, has a meaning in many
projects. But the linguistic rigorousness only barely allows a
glimpse of the process. Ultimately it still remains a morality of
form, in which the aversion to the exquisite and the original
encounters a fascination for brusque directness.14
Arte Povera and Minimal Art illustrate this method. Here
the attempt is made to define basic values within the framework of a new beginning in art. Formed in the early 1960s as
a counter movement to degradation and crisis in the form of
abstract expressionism, it is characterised by freedom from
valuation and by the geometric sequencing of similar, simple,
sometimes banal elements that have been reduced to basic
forms. Germano Celant summarised these attempts with the
term unexpressionism.15
In this case, the banality of the norm is not normality itself.
It develops into a strategy in relation to the extraordinariness
of the ordinary. Where artistic expressionism mutates to
normality, the new simplicity becomes a conclusive reaction. Referring to Celan, Steinmann sees the intrinsic value
of the experience as being an unavoidable consequence:
The observer experiences something, which is the experience itself or is the way in which it is experienced.16 It is not
primary simplicity that is important, therefore, but the background for more profound experiences such as the sensuality
of the materials used. Banality, in this sense, can be seen as
a subversive strategy17, which allows double readability as
an image of normal architecture and as its sublimation.
Clear
Consciously simple building also certainly represents a need
for semiotic clarification. Semiotics is the philosophy of the
meaning of terms. Language has always been both a means

of communication as well as a field of experimentation. In

sub-cultures, words are used outside the original context, for
example dough, bread, gravy for money and cool, wicked,
ace for good.
In this context, simple can also mean that a roof is a roof, a
wall is a wall and a house is a house. A house in the country should be identifiable as such, according to this logic. It
can also mean that if the meaning is unclear it is better to say
nothing. The fundamentals become a moratorium on the path
to generally comprehensible statements.
Small
Many of the buildings described in this book are small, some
very small. The scale opens up possibilities, which would not
arise for large projects. The whole can be developed without
the problems of repetition such as beginning and ending,
and can be an entity in itself. Construction using a single
material is easier. It is also easier to take risks. Simpler technical requirements are made of small buildings in comparison to large ones.
Using simple processes, small elements and structures that
can be erected using hand-construction methods, it is possible for the owner to build it himself. This is evident in timber
construction as well as with recourse to primitive building
methods such as loam construction. This puts the amateur on
the same level as the specialist, who still has to develop the
technology. The self-help aspect is particularly evident in
Walter Segals buildings. He has developed a system that is
available to the layperson and which makes use of small-format, standardised building materials based on the dimensions of the materials available from retail outlets. The form
created in each individual case is accepted as the result.
Large
On a large scale, the routes to simplicity change. Series
products are brought together in uniform images to form
components. The brick structure of a wall does not direct the
attention towards the individual element, it becomes a texture. If the building goes beyond a certain scale, this tactic
can be transferred and applied to the whole building. Various
hierarchical levels of readability are created.
Series production is one of the foundations of industrial efficiency. The repetition allows the optimisation of the manufacturing processes for the individual part. In the same way as
repetition in industrial production enables the production of
large quantities of products, repetition in building facilitates
the comprehension of large buildings. In contrast to industrial
products, which although they are manufactured in series are
sold singly, repetitions in construction are brought together in
a single building. Herein lie the potential and limitations of
repetition. Unification can make a composition more comprehensible only if such a thing exists.
If the repeated element is of high quality and attuned to character and proportions of the building, this can have a positive
influence on the overall quality. The complexity of the sum of
the individual problems is then reduced accordingly. Unification also means treating equally things that are not quite the
same and even things that are different. As with all human
activity, the conciseness lies in achieving a perfect balance
in the judicious degree of utilisation.
2.6

Heckscher House, Mount Desert Island in Maine, 1974;

Architect: Edward Larabee Barnes

17

Norm
Many of the buildings shown here are not normal and often
do not correspond to the norm. Norms allow dependable
statements as to the condition and behaviour of building
components and structures. They are standards that, once
defined, do not adapt to specific situations and which
become out-dated with time. Sticking to the standards simplifies life and offers protection against liability claims.
Increased demands on the performance of building components lead to standardised construction. Standards define
the expected and the safe.
To make headway in the market for quality architecture, an
architect must publish his works. In order to be published,
the building must be interesting. But interesting is not the
expected.
At the same time, as a part of the process of branding, the
architects personal design method or style must be introduced as his trademark, independently of the specific task.
To increase the sententiousness of the desired images, they
are made to look as striking as possible. The ascertainable,
and the purity of the message, play a role here.
Normality on the other hand is related to norms and standards. A critical examination of standards requires thorough
knowledge of their origins. The desire to send a simple message often stands in opposition to standardised construction.
Here also, the scale of the works represents the key to simplicity. Reduced demands and a smaller and more easily calculable risk factor make border experiences possible, which
are problematic in larger projects.

2.7

18

System
Systems (derived from the Greek sunistanai, meaning to
stand together, to combine, to join) are models of reality,
constructed to be as functional as possible. As organising
structures they correspond to the priorities of a designer
or observer in a particular context. The combined components or sub-systems of a system stand together in relationship with each other. If they influence each other the
relationship becomes a connection. The connection of the
elements determines the characteristics of the system.
Conversely, the structure of the system exerts a controlling
influence on the elements. The system makes comprehension possible by the creation of hierarchies. A complex
connection is made comprehensible by displaying its structure, its architecture.
Systems become interesting where the size of a task limits its
manageability. The system is an attempt to formulate complexity ascertainably. The fewer components the system has,
the more time can be spent on solving the individual problems. The quality of detail achievable within a given time is
directly dependent on the number of system components
and the complexity of the connections that exist between the
elements. The larger the series of the designed elements is,
the better the possibilities are for developing original subsystems that are not available on the market and for achieving a more fitting, and therefore more elegant, solution.
Paxtons Crystal Palace shows that the reduction of details
and element types can result in a short construction period
and pertinent details. The whole facade design for the building constructed for Willis Faber Dumas in Ipswich by Foster
Associates (197175) can be described by a single detail
drawing; this detail was developed in cooperation with the
best specialists. New procedures were tested here, such as

independent glazing, glass fins to take up wind loads, and

minimised glass mounting brackets.
The limits of the system ideology emerge where building systems are not used as part of the optimisation of a design, but
where the design arises out of the inherent restrictions of the
use of the system.
Concept
Falling back on existing sub-systems can ease the production process in various ways. A prefabricated window can be
accurately assessed with regard to its performance and functionality. The American 2 x 4 frame construction system enables the stock-keeping of standardised timber sections,
planks and jointing materials. The system is commonly
understood and the calculations can be simplified.
In the field of construction, industrial production applies predominantly to material systems: industrially produced semifinished products and sections are combined to order using
handcraft skills, to form elements of a particular size or to
create buildings. Elements or sub-systems combined to form
functional units can be organised comprehensibly in a concept. They no longer require the understanding of the specific characteristics of the element, but require knowledge of
the integration of the sub-systems in the whole scheme. A
double facade is perceived as a single, homogeneous
design component. As a technical building unit with specific
dimensions, it combines complex individual elements to
create a single formal element. At the same time it is made
up of individual parts that are repeated. The formal and structural complexity is met by integration on the one hand, and
by repetition and creating uniformity on the other.
Clear concepts bring order to a complex problem. The concept is a caricature of the interaction of the systems within
the design. It is not a system in itself, but the plan for its use.
Concepts link formal and structural simplicity to architecture.
In a concept, systems are organised, with high quality detailing, to provide quality of space and comprehensibility. It is
simple architecture, in particular, which gives architecture the
appearance of being an organisational problem.
Poles
The examples published in this book show a spectrum of
possible approaches. They mostly refer to relatively small
and manageable construction projects. Some are provisional
and lay no claim on eternity. Many of the examples are also
influenced by the reducibility of the requirements. Through
the definition of the task or rather the interpretation of this definition by the designer, they provide an opportunity for developing either simple forms or technically simple solutions.
The simple forms are smooth and abstract. By concentrating
on the simplicity of the form, the structure takes a back seat.
Complicated or even technically questionable constructions
are then tolerated. A curtain wall can unify and conciliate a
varying and formally restless facade. This must be designed,
constructed and paid for as an additional layer, however. A
cubic building will seem even more cubic if it has no plinth
detail or parapet sheeting.
The concretely pictorial examples see, in the structure and
materials, a design potential to be integrated. The resulting
architecture is influenced by the construction process, the
materials and the structural requirements.
The possibility of developing a formal logic from the quality of
the material and its assembly is picked up on. The simplicity

of the structure and the readability of the assembly, loadtransmission, moisture protection and other functional
aspects are not concealed. The availability and logic of the
industrially manufactured products are also determining factors in the formalisation process. The outcome of a process
and not a predefined result is what is sought here. The renunciation of radicality in both directions promises good results:
the structural design potential can also be demonstrated
without expressively coming to the fore.
Evasion
Simple construction in the framework of the above mentioned
approaches can only be applied to the objectives relevant in
each case. However, tactics can be distilled, which are
common to several of the examples shown.
Evasion is based on the tactic of avoidance. It presupposes
an exact analysis of the problem that is to be solved, as well
as good knowledge of the possible solutions. Instead of solving a problem by using a (standardised) standard solution,
the particulars of the task and the site are used to arrive at
simpler solutions. To make the same demands of a house
built in southern Europe as of a German house would neither
meet the structural requirements nor be appropriate to the
regional building culture.
For a building with a specific purpose, such as a wine cellar,
the building shell will not have to meet the same requirements as for a residential house; this means that a particular
structural solution can be found to suit the particular agenda
in this case. Fahrs window system in the HL-Technik building
in Munich illustrates an attempt to simplify the window frame
construction. By limiting the fenestration to a tilting window,
which is arrested by means of a sash fastener, the usual
window sashes could be replaced with a simple Z-profile.
Determining the requirements that need to be considered
makes the simple solution possible.
The solution of a structural problem can be its avoidance. A
wall that is offset from the floor needs no plinth. The design
concept for the building, and the materials and details used,
can provide better opportunities for building more simply
than usual. Setting fewer requirements makes it easier to fulfil
these outstandingly. It can also happen, here, that secondary
problems are brought to the fore, which can then be simply
solved. A wall construction can look simpler if it does not
serve a thermal function than if it does. If a supporting structure is replaced by a wall, it is possible to create a simple
wall construction in place of a normal supporting structure.
Material
Martin Tschanz pointed out that simple architecture, in particular, permits unusual materials and unusual uses of materials. This effect, referred to as sensual ambiguity in
connection with German-Swiss architecture, is based on the
concentration on essentials, which has already been mentioned.18 Construction is not a way of conveying meaning.
The attention can be concentrated entirely on this presence.
Exposed materials used on large areas can be tested for
sensuality, or as Christian Sumi formulates it: Away from the
material, towards the effect.19 Here, the familiar or simple
form is experienced in a new material, rather than a new
architecture being formulated from the characteristics of the
2.7

Offices for Willis, Faber Dumas in Ipswich, 197175;

Architect: Norman Foster

19

2.8

new material. It is a case of the gentle perversion of an

ordinary reality.
The use of a uniform covering material for the facade and the
roof can create additional irritations. The conventional use of
different construction details and materials no longer makes
sense in the new context. The use of transparent cladding
materials shifts the category of openings from the windows
to the building skin.
In the context of innovative misappropriation, an apparently
worthless material is refined by means of careful application.
Perfectly aligned cast iron units, similar to the covers of
sewer inspection chambers, become a house facade. Loam
is compacted by ramming to define a place of worship and
tranquillity. A material known for its use in home-made buildings in the third world is modified with concrete, perfectly
implemented, and demonstratively transplanted in the first.
An industrial building system is used in an atypical situation
and takes on a new meaning. The simple serves as a carrier
for the valuable.
Transparent
Transparent building materials have progressed. Using coatings and gas-filled units, triple glazing can achieve the same
insulation values as lightweight, vertically-perforated brick
walls. Point fixings allow glazing to be fitted without frames.
Using laminated glass, shatterproof glazing can be achieved
as well as the exact adjustment of colour and transparency.
Sun protection technology can be provided by spectrally
selective glazing, by vaporisation, or in the form of adjustable
louvres that are variable and maintenance-free, integrated
between the panes.
These developments are important in various respects.
Transparent skins give the impression of a veil, abstract and
freed from their frames. This goes for synthetic cladding
panels as well as for glass facades with point-fixings. They
enable components that appear to be complicated from a
functional and practical point of view to be combined in a
simple volume. The transparency allows various readings: as
an independent volume, for instance, or as the thermally
low-maintenance cover for a comprehensibly portrayed functionality of the building and its components. The uniform skin
of the double facade and atria smoothes and simplifies. The
semi-transparency, comparable with a negligee, which can
be achieved with transparent materials, is a literary interpretation of the facade as a carrier of the interior.
A second aspect is also important. Transparent materials are
necessary in any case to allow daylight into the building. If
then a reduction in the number of different materials is
required to create a simpler design, glass facades present
themselves as an obvious option for achieving uniformity. By
the suppression of parapet details using glazed roofing units
and the avoidance of plinths, the glass cube seems even
more absolute. In the facade of the Allianz Arena in Munich,
the cushion structure of the stadium roof is continued down
over the concrete facade of the stands. The building looks
rather like a lantern. The translucent skin increases the symbolism by creating uniformity in its appearance, but it is not
necessary from a technical point of view.
Through the need for abstraction, facades are simplified and
window openings are more clearly formally defined. They are
often flush with the surface of the facade so that the building
appears homogeneous, without recesses. Sometimes they
are flush to the interior wall, set deep in the embrasure so

20

that they appear as a hole without a frame. Fixed glazed

elements enable simplification by increasing the size of the
uninterrupted window areas and simplify the frame design.
Specialisation
Whereas aspects such as comprehensibility, structural honesty and readability of the functional connections were
related more to the bearing structure until a few decades
ago, the structural properties are diminishing in importance
today, due to increased demands on the performance of the
building envelope and the interior fit-out. After the 1960s and
70s concentration on the auxiliary functions of the facade in
the form of facade grilles, which were justified on the grounds
of sun protection, escape and cleaning access and were
used by Sepp Ruf and Egon Eiermann, for example, that
which is visible has a more symbolic relationship with a
static-structural reality today due to the necessary thermal
separation. Martin Steinmann describes a veiling, which
focuses the covetousness on the veil itself, but on the other
hand leads to the buildings becoming only shells, where that
which is veiled loses meaning.20 Specialisation is used in wall
constructions to improve the performance of the whole construction. Special materials assume specific functions such
as insulation, load-bearing and cladding.
Specialisation is also relevant to the planning process as a
whole. Engineers, project managers and site supervisors
offer parts of the planning process as separate services, and
the design itself is divided into increasingly smaller sections.
Lighting designers, decorators and kitchen studios testify to
an increasingly professional approach by means of specialisation, but also to a latent loss of control over the planning
process on the part of the architect.
In this case, simplicity is based on architectural objectives,
which question such specialisation. By means of simplification and by creating simple themes, the specialisation that
makes experts necessary should be avoided. Thus, questions become important, which relate to the wholeness of the
building and which cannot be segmented and solved by specialists. Fair-faced concrete interiors need no decorator and
solid facade constructions need no facade engineer. The
necessity of the connection to the reality of the building site,
which Martin Steinmann recognises as a feature of the
(simple) German-Swiss architecture, thus becomes comprehensible.21
Solid
Aris Konstantinidiss holiday house in Anavyssos, built in
1961, shows a concrete ceiling placed on top of masonry
walls made of natural stone. The windows and finishings
become secondary, as in Louis Kahns buildings in warmer
parts of the world. This building embodies the archaic and a
simple modernity as few others do. Stone is linked to heaviness and constancy. The surviving witnesses to early human
buildings are almost always made of stone. Natural stone is
heavy. Due to its weight, it was traditionally used near the
quarries and contributed to the regional style of building
forms. The thousand year buildings of the Third Reich in
Germany were built of German stone. The question of constancy is often brought forward as the deciding criteria in the
selection of facade materials.
In existing examples these characteristics can rarely be
proven. The increase in material costs leads to the use of a
minimum thickness of material, often just a few centimetres

thick. Using fragile pins, the thin facing panels are fixed to
the console structures, which are developed according to the
considerations of building physics. Black joints between the
panels stand more for incomprehensible weightlessness and
immateriality than for logical load transfer. Damage due to
vandalism is often found at the base of walls in urban areas
and this bears witness to the fragility of the constructions.
Stone supply contracts are tendered internationally and the
stone is brought from far away: from India, China and Brazil.
The use of the material is not comprehensible, therefore, and
does not correspond to traditional ideas with regard to the
material. This justifiable but unsatisfactory normality can be
avoided in various ways. Increasing the thickness of the cladding material to that of a facing wall, as was done for the new
Pinakothek in Munich, resolves some of the weaknesses but
increases the construction costs. Concrete frameworks infilled with dry stone walling as in Herzog and de Meurons
Casa de Piedra in Tavole built in 1988, or rock-filled gabions
as used in the Dominus winery in Yountville, USA, built in
1997, attempt to re-establish the disputed logic between
material and form, in that the load-bearing function of the
stone is unmistakably relinquished.
The solidity of stone structures is shown to best effect where
the aspect of the complementary division of tasks in modern
building technology can be circumvented. In France in the
1960s, Fernand Pouillon constructed buildings with solid natural stone walls, which also seem to have been financially
competitive in a housing market dominated by prefabricated
building techniques. Building without the use of insulating
materials, in the style practiced by Pouillon, is not an option
today, however. Solutions such as the wine cellar by Gilles
Perraudin, introduced in the examples section (seee page
114ff.), use the opportunity presented by a particular programme to comprehensibly reconcile the archaic tectonics of
stone walls and wooden beams with the functionality of the
building.
A dichotomy between the demand for solidity and a contradictory application also has been observed for artificial stone
masonry. Growing requirements for insulation in external
walls lead to different ways of adjusting masonry construction
to the current needs. Thermal insulation composite systems
are common, which allow the external appearance of a
largely joint-less and solid building unit. The rendering
materials used, however, can no longer absorb sufficient
moisture. The visible coating is a hollow sounding, sealed
membrane, that is exposed to high thermal stresses.
Some manufacturers try to offer stone wall elements with
increasingly improved thermal insulating properties for use in
single layer walls. The thermal performance of theses stones
is improved by the use of insulating inlays and pore-forming
materials. The construction of new buildings using salvaged
bricks, as was seen after the last war, is no longer conceivable with these types of stone, however. They become ever
more vulnerable and can therefore only be reused as building rubble. The system rendering applied to the masonry is
compatible to the masonry and relatively soft. The bricks are
exposed to strong thermal stresses. In attempting to retain
the original quality of the material under changed circumstances, its character as a solid and durable construction
material is lost.
2.8

Holiday House, Anavyssos, Attica, 1961 62;

Architect: Aris Konstantinidis

21

Other constructions envisage external walls made of complementary, structured layers, each serving a different function.
An internal cladding layer is followed by a load-bearing
layer, which is followed by an insulation layer, which is followed by an air space and an external cladding layer. The
cladding in such constructions is often subject to high thermal stresses. This results in the need for expansion joints,
ventilation and drainage openings, fragile wall anchors and
horizontal support brackets. The aging of the insulation
embedded in the middle of the wall cannot be subsequently
checked.
A return to uniform, solid wall construction as an attempt at
achieving simplicity must be considered here. The Brhl
school building in Gebenstorf, designed by Burkhardt Meyer
& Partner and built in 1996, has a solid wall construction
(composite masonry made of facings, lightweight verticallyperforated bricks and air spacing), which is contrasted
with a glazed corridor area. The vocabulary is reduced for
clarification: light and heavy. The brick wall appears to be
solid. The 50 cm-thick wall construction does not meet the
highest insulation requirements (U = 0.38 W/m2K). But then
again, the wall is made only of bricks, mortar and internal
rendering.22
Concrete
Reinforcement, pre-stressed elements and other materials
can be integrated into a concrete component, which from
the outside appears to be a single unit. The consistency of
the concrete can be made to suit the individual demands,
without this being apparent on the exterior. By adding
porous aggregates such as pumice or foamed glass,
light-weight structural concrete with insulating properties
can be produced, which still maintains a residual bearing
capacity. Building services systems such as pipe networks
can be embedded; in this way they are not visible and
have gained meaning in the context of the thermal activation of components. The heat transport media do not only
contribute to the formal simplification of the building by
virtue of their invisibility and the reduction of visible components; they also allow a more relaxed attitude with regard to
the fear of overheating in the summer, which can present a
problem with simpler facade constructions. Since the activated components should be in direct contact with the interior air, interesting arguments arise in favour of leaving
concrete surfaces raw.

2.9

22

Due to developments in formwork techniques directed at

reducing labour costs, the visible surface has developed
from being raw and rough to having a perfectly smooth
appearance, structured only by form anchor holes and formwork joints. Concrete walls tend to be statically over-determined. For normal concrete a single column would usually
suffice to carry the dead load. Newer trials are therefore
directed towards frameless or load-bearing wall constructions on the one hand, or a reduction of the load-bearing
capacity by adding light aggregates on the other. The simplification of the appearance, by making use of the load-bearing function of an element that is required anyway, was the
consequence in the case of frameless load-bearing panels.
By adding light aggregates, the concrete wall can have a
monolithic structure. Some of the costs incurred due to formwork and building physics problems in a layered wall construction are avoided.

The integrative possibilities of in-situ concrete tend to be detrimental to the poetry of comprehensively constructed buildings. Prefabricated parts, on the other hand, are particularly
suitable for series production due to the high cost of moulds.
Industrial production makes high precision prefabrication
possible. Load-bearing structures made of prefabricated
concrete show how the loads are transmitted through largearea bearing surfaces and a clear hierarchy of load-bearing
ceilings. The manufacturing processes can be discerned
from the pattern of the joints. In the Bauzentrum (building and
construction centre) in Munich, the screw connections of the
facade elements enable the fragility of invisible facade
mountings to be avoided (see page 152ff.). Textile reinforcement and high strength concrete open up new possibilities
with regard to the thickness of pre-cast concrete elements for
use as facade cladding.
Wood
Since the primitive hut, wood as a building material has
served as the bending resistant component in buildings.
Today, wood as a construction material is emerging in new
forms. In the Kochenhof housing development in Stuttgart,
which arose as a reaction to the Weissenhof development,
wood still played the role of a countermovement pitting
German wood against modern building materials and
houses built in the international style. But after the war
wooden building components developed to form a wide
range of industrially manufactured products with versatile
application opportunities. The dimensional stability and the
shrinkage and cracking properties have been improved in
the process; also wood can now be bonded to form crosslaminated or parallel-laminated panels and beams, which
can be loaded from all sides.
The American timber construction method known in Europe
as timber frame construction demonstrates a new type of
simplicity.
From the skeleton structures that were common in the 1970s,
such as the prefabricated Huf houses, a structureless construction was developed, whose functional components disappear in the envelope of the wall construction. A wall
rationale takes the place of the skeleton rationale. A functional specification can be prepared for the structure so that
the individual bidders can prefabricate the parts according to
the manufacturing facilities at their disposal.
Laminated timber slabs, board stacks and composite constructions also generate new structural possibilities. CNC
(computerised numerical control) milling cutters enable visually simple (dove-tail) joints to be made, even by smaller
companies, without the need for metal connectors or nails.
Wooden components tend to be limited by fire protection
requirements, weather and acoustics. If these limits are
exceeded, the construction then becomes complicated. In
wooden structures, as with other types of structure, simplicity
is possible where the material is used in accordance with its
characteristics and limitations. The wooden structures shown
here are one to two-storey buildings and have simple requirements.
The market hall in Aarau, (see page 74ff.), is an open, unheated space defined by wall constructions. A sprinkler
system is installed in the roof space. For the crossbeams
2.9

Placing the natural stone blocks: Rsidence Le Parc, 19571962;

Architect: Fernand Pouillon

23

and plinth areas, trust is placed in the weatherproof qualities

of the Douglas fir used for the construction. Freed from
functional restraints, the wall and ceiling structures can be
designed to be clear, simple and elegant. The archaic quality
of the wooden beams in the wine storehouse in Vauvert, (see
page 114ff.), compliments the weight of the natural stone
walls in a classically demonstrative way. The small sauna in
Finland, (see page 70ff.), follows the unbeatable woodenhouse-in-the-woods logic. It reacts to the woods sensitivity to
water with an overhanging roof and demonstrates the hierarchy of its structure openly and comprehensively.
The uncomplicated processing of the wood by means of
sawing, milling and drilling and the many forms of its commercialisation give the architect great autonomy with regard
to the design of the details.
Wood insulates only 3.5 times less efficiently than special
insulating materials and therefore allows penetration of the
thermally specialised layers. Wood is easy to sever and
reconnect, and due to its light weight can be used for do-ityourself construction.
Wood is useful in smaller construction projects where homogeneous building materials are desired. It can be used as a
load-bearing material and for interior and exterior cladding.
Different types of wood with strong grain definition can be
made more uniform by deconstruction / reconstruction, rough
saw-cut finishes and paintwork. The use of wood as a continuous material for both facade and roof can be found in traditional shingle architecture and in newer experiments using
boards.

2.10

24

Steel
Three factors delimit the range of applications for steel in
buildings: fire protection, thermal insulation and small grid
floor-plan arrangements. The restrictions are ascribed to the
character of the material.
The structurally efficient, but heavy and expensive material is
commercially available in the form of profile sections and
sheets. These present a large target area for fire and a relatively small material thickness. Steel is a good conductor of
heat. Partition wall connections present a problem due to the
angled geometry of the profiles.
Economic steel construction has its own logic. According to
European steel construction logic the welding is done in the
factory and the bolting together on site. Head plates, joints
and connections are easy to assemble, geometric but complex. Not without reason were Mies van der Rohes steel structures welded. The sculptural simplicity of his buildings could
not have been achieved with the expressivity of bolted fastenings. He uses the American steel construction logic of welding on site. In contrast to the principle predominant in America,
whereby the structure, facade and interior fittings are kept
separate, he leaves the steel visible where possible and carries over the theme of the buildings structure into the facade.
Steel structures can be left without cladding in warmer
climates, creating structures that give the impression of
being light. In climates with cold winters, the emphasis shifts
from the structure to the building envelope. The artificiality of
the facing arises from the necessity of the envelope. The
load-bearing effect can be made recognisable by using
symbolism in the cladding, in the style of the Mies corner,
or made visible through transparency. Weather resistant
and chrome-nickel steel can be welded on site and used
universally. The bridge extension over the Frdisch, (see

page 130ff.), discussed in this book is a simple Z-section,

drawing no attention to its components. The railings, structural elements and walkway are fused together by virtue of
the uniform material.
Steel construction is commercially successful for light, widespan structures such as business premises. For these buildings, which are usually no more than two storeys high and
have gently sloping roofs, few partition wall connections, and
facades clad completely with metal panels, the above mentioned reservations do not apply. The resulting aesthetic
tends to be pragmatically appropriate to the circumstances
with the aim of reducing costs. Transferring this principle to
housing structures lifts the division between the worlds of
work and leisure somewhat and contrasts the fixed idea of
detached house construction in the suburbs with the austere
logic of factory hall construction, which rejects misplaced
romanticism.
Simply good
So, the search for simplicity turns out to be an ever recurring
new beginning. Reflecting on the essentials is a reaction to
specialisation in an industrially influenced society. Small,
manageable units are promoted, on the one hand, whilst
large units are simplified by systemisation on the other. The
architects need to clearly explain stands vis--vis the interested observers need to understand. Reduction to the
essentials not only decreases the level of complexity of the
structure, but strengthens the role of the architect in the
diverging construction process.
It should be anchored in the architects professional philosophy to search for the simplest solution to a given problem,
not acting as a cost-reducing service provider but as an
expert employed by the developer to protect his interests
within the framework of a definite concept. If the term simplicity is viewed broadly enough, it is concerned with the
visual and financial economy of means whilst striving to
reach a given goal.
The pursuit of simplicity is based on a normal state of affairs.
Architecture has to do with normal banality on occasion, but
not with normality. It attempts to break the mould of normality
using intelligence and care. It will always remain an elite
endeavour. Since the problems to be solved are so complex,
simplicity can only be formulated as an unattainable goal.
Differences exist in the degree to which the term simplicity is
intellectualised. Generally speaking, simplicity is always intellectualised, as the old simplicity can not be recreated. In this
sense, art can not be avoided, but it can be good or bad.
Ultimately, simplicity is a question of carefully planned action.
Peter C. von Seidlein states the common aspect of his buildings as being: The irrefutable desire to use new discoveries,
new materials, and that means nothing more than to follow
forward-thrusting technology with reason, the first principle
of human actions.23

2.9

Bibliography
1
Langer, Inghard; Schulz von Thun, Friedemann; Tausch, Reinhard:
Sich verstndlich ausdrcken. Munich 1993
2
Celant, Germano: Unexpressionism, Art Beyond the Contemporary.
New York 1988
3
von Moos, Stanislaus: Recycling Max Bill. In: Minimal Tradition. Baden
1996, p. 9
4
Pehnt, Wolfgang; Strohl, Hilde: Rudolf Schwarz, Architekt einer
anderen Moderne. Ostfildern-Ruit 1997, p. 74 and Oellers, Adam C.:
Rudolf Schwarz und die Geschichte der Aachener Kunstgewerbeschule. In: Mavoll sein heit sinnvoll ordnen. Catalogue Aachen 1997,
p. 6 62 and Schwarz, Rudolf: Fronleichnamskirche. In: Die Schildgenossen, 11, 1931, 3, p. 284
5
Hrmann, Karl: Lexikon der christlichen Moral. Innsbruck 1969
6
Schummer, Joachim: Glck und Ethik, Neue Anstze zur Rehabilitierung der Glcksphilosophie. Wrzburg 1998, p. 8 22
7
Smithson, Alison und Peter: The Heroic Period of Modern Architecture.
Milan 1981, p. 9
8
Mies van der Rohe: Bauen. In: G (Material zur elementaren Gestaltung). No. 2, September 1923, p. 1, Berlin 1923 to 1926
9
Smithson, Alison und Peter: Without Rhetoric, An Architectural
Aesthetic. London 1973
10
School of Architecture Armour Institute, Chicago, since 1940 Illinois
Institute of Technology
11
Bauhaus Archive (publ.): Der vorbildliche Architekt. Mies van der
Rohes Architekturunterricht am Bauhaus und in Chicago 1930-1958.
Berlin 1987, p. 122
12
Speech of address by Mies van der Rohe, at the Amour Institute in
Chicago on 29.11.1930. In: Bauhaus Archive (publ.): Der vorbildliche
Architekt. Mies van der Rohes Architekturunterricht am Bauhaus und
in Chicago 1930-1958. Berlin 1987, p. 128
13
Steinmann, Martin; Disch, Peter (publ.): Neue Architektur in der
deutschen Schweiz. In: Peter Disch: Architektur in der Deutschen
Schweiz 1980 1990. Lugano 1991, p. 17
14
Meili, Marcel: Ein paar Bauten Viele Plne. In: ipid., p. 25
15
Celant, Germano: Unexpressionism, Art Beyond the Contemporary.
New York 1988
16
Steinmann, Martin; Disch, Peter (publ.): Neue Architektur in der
deutschen Schweiz. In: Peter Disch: Architektur in der Deutschen
Schweiz 1980 1990. Lugano 1991, p. 17
17
Bauer, Klaus-Jrgen: Minima Aesthetica, Banalitt als subversive
Strategie der Architektur. Weimar 1997
18
Tschanz, Martin; Disch, Peter (publ.): Sanfte Pervertierungen. In: Daidalos No. 56, Magie der Werkstoffe I. Berlin 1995, p. 88
19
Sumi, Christian: Positive Indifferenz. In: Daidalos No. 56, Magie der
Werkstoffe Teil II. Berlin 1995, p. 26 34
20
Steinmann, Martin; Disch, Peter (publ.): Neue Architektur in der
deutschen Schweiz. In: Peter Disch: Architektur in der Deutschen
Schweiz 19801990. Lugano 1991, p. 15
21
ipid.
22
Deplazes, Andrea: Architektur konstruieren Vom Rohmaterial zum
Bauwerk Ein Handbuch. Basle 2005, p. 309
23
von Seidlein, Peter C.: Zehn Bauten 1957 97 Catalogue.
Augsburg 1997

IIT Architecture and Institute of Design Building (S. R. Crown Hall)

Construction site, 195556; Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

25

Building simply with Wood

Christoph Affentranger

Build Simply Simple to Build?

Building with Twigs and Branches

Building is an activity. But although the meaning of the word

seems clear, it requires some clarification if we are to discover exactly what is meant by Build Simply with Wood.
Does it refer to the form, the architectural statement, the
structure or the construction process? Is it about the simplicity of the requirements or the means?

Wood is a wonderful material. Nature provides it in abundance and animals also put it to use. Beavers can build
dams with it, which can force entire rivers from their beds.
Numerous species of birds build nests made of twigs and
branches, which can be real works of art and which, in some
cases, survive to be hundreds of years old. Wasps masticate
wood to form a paper-like pulp and use it to build perfectly
air-conditioned, highly complex structures. Indeed, the
achievements of the animal world are astonishing: bees build
the cell walls of their honeycomb to an accuracy of less then
0.002 millimetres; the tensile strength of spider silk compared
to its density is three times that of steel and it can stretch by
up to 200 % before breaking (compared to approximately 8 %
for steel).1 By studying nature, people in early history may
have taken on much of this knowledge. For example, the
invention of paper by the Chinese is attributed to their observation of wasps. That there are technical similarities and likenesses in form between the dwellings of simple primitive
communities and those of the animal world is therefore not so
astonishing.
Bare hands are all that a person needs for harvesting and
processing wood. Following natures example, a lattice of
twigs smeared with clay or covered with stretched animal
hides suffices as a durable dwelling. The development of
individual building types first became possible with the
development of tools; even a stone axe suffices. Building with
wood, even in its simplest form, leads to the basic principles
of building with pole-shaped elements (as opposed to building with clay or natural stone, for example, where the formation of plane areas is primary). But the skilled effort involved
in producing such a pole or beam from a thick branch, and
particularly from a log, is relatively great. Thus it is efficient to
use these poles purely at structurally relevant points and to
perform the function of separation by infilling, using, for
example, clay or straw or even leaves. Skeleton structures,
such as the tree houses of the last primitive communities of
New Guinea, were therefore probably one of the earliest
building types. Such houses usually only differ from modern
skeleton structures in the precision of production of straight
beams, planks and panels and in the resulting wider range
of possibilities for creating wind and weather-proofing layers
and nodes. The logic of the structure, however, with its pri-

Building begins in effect with the acquisition or production of

the building materials. In the case of wood, the interaction of
tools and materials, and of material and processing is particularly significant for all that can be labelled simple. Wood
has a linear character by nature and can even be harvested
with bare hands for use as a simple building material, e.g. to
build a yurt made of woven twigs and stretched hide. At the
other end of the technological scale are wood-plastic compound materials, which thanks to injection moulding techniques allow even seemingly amorphous and impossible
forms to be created.
Depending on the tools used from the simple stone axe to
manufacturing installations costing hundreds of millions of
euros, with upstream semi-automatic harvesting machines
and transportation to the factory by lorry the perception of
simplicity can be quite different.
In the following article, the question: what exactly is building
simply with wood? is examined in the light of technological
history. This comes from the deep conviction that the economy of means coupled with intelligence will always eventually
lead to an aesthetically convincing expression too, dependent only on the technology or tools available. Simple building
with wood means, therefore, bringing resources into agreement with an assignment (user requirements) and developing
solutions from this, which will inevitably differ due to the
diversity of cultural, climatic and technical parameters. A
glance at the history of the development of construction with
wood makes these relationships more than obvious. The palette of that, which manifests itself architecturally thanks to
simple construction using wood, is correspondingly broad.
One thing is clear, though: simple building with wood is not
the same as simply building. Building with wood requires
knowledge of the material and the connection methods. The
material can only escape the ravages of time if the designer
is aware of the natural adversaries of wood and implements a
defence strategy.

3.1

Swiss Pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover; architect: Peter Zumthor

27

mary and secondary structural elements, with columns,

bending-resistant nodes, purlins and ridge beams, remains
the same.
The Acquisition and Processing of Wood From the Axe to
the Sawmill

3.2

For thousands of years, until the industrial revolution, the

simple axe was the most important tool for acquiring and
processing wood. However, the axe as a tool has severe limitations. The usefulness of the axe is greatly dependent on the
blade used. A civilisation that has only stone axes will inevitably build with logs of moderate diameter, and the preparation
works must be limited to trimming off branches, at least in
cases where a certain degree of efficiency is required. The
better the technology for producing axe blades was, the
larger the trees were, which could be felled with them. Thus
the dimensions of the dwellings that could be built also
increased. Felling and processing larger trees, to produce
logs large enough for building a log cabin or for the temple
structures of the Asian cultures, requires the use of metal axe
blades. But again, although it is possible in principle to cut a
log into beams or planks using an axe, (which is actually a
tool for splitting), this would require a great deal of effort. But
it is relatively easy to hew a log or branch. This limitation had
an influence on the structural design principles.
The axe was superseded by the saw, which in turn presupposed the acquisition of superior metal processing skills.
The saw enabled trees of any size to be felled, assuming
that the necessary technology was available to transport
the logs economically for further processing, e.g. rafts, and
particularly railways. Cutting the logs into various beams and
planks was then practical and resulted in much less material
waste. The combination of both factors was achieved for the
first time in the first half of the 19th century, when redwoods
were felled for building up a new America. This process of
felling old and large trees in primary forests is still continuing
worldwide today. Without a saw, it would have been possible
although difficult to fell such large trees, but the further
processing of a more than 100 metre-log, with a diameter of
several metres, would have been an impossible task without
a saw and without a downstream transport chain.
A further and even more important side effect of processing
with a saw is the uniformity of the product range. Semi-finished products with uniform dimensions could be made from
even misshapen logs. These products did not have to be
associated with a particular building project; they were also
easier to transport and store and could be fixed on site without extensive reworking. Due to a further development, the
water-driven sawmill, the saw was able to realise its full
potential. Now, nothing stood in the way of the industrialisation of the wood industry.
From the Chalet to the Swiss Style
One important development in modern wooden structures
began in Switzerland. The romantic elevation of the experience of the natural world and of simply being, as JeanJaques Rousseau put it, became a trend within the European
high nobility. They extended their parks to include the element of a farm, in which the nobility could light-heartedly
experience this simplicity for a short time. At first existing
farms were dismantled and then reconstructed in the parks.

28

But the fashion was soon so widespread that several

resourceful Swiss timber builders had the idea of bringing
a kind of idealised farmhouse, the Swiss chalet, onto the
market and advertising it in catalogues. In contrast to the
originals, however, which were erected using the rather
time-consuming and also cumbersome block construction
method, embellished with carvings and paintings, these
timber builders opted for the most up to date semi-finished
products: beams and planks. The construction kit was prepared in Switzerland to order and transported throughout
Europe. The beams were then assembled on site, using a
skeleton construction method known as post-and-beam
(actually a further development of the half-timbering method),
and the house was then clad with horizontal planks (imitating
the blockhouse style) and decorated with ornamental, sawcut elements.
The potential of this building technique, known in Switzerland
as Laubsgeli Stil (fretwork style), was quickly recognised
throughout Europe and reached Scandinavia around 1800
via Germany, where it is known as the Schweizer Stil (Swiss
Style). The post-and-beam method held its place as the
standard construction technique in central Europe until 1980,
when it was relatively quickly displaced by the frame construction method. The construction method has changed relatively little over time, and then mostly with regard to the
dimensions of the beams and planks along with the connecting elements in the nodes, where the nail plate has replaced
the carpenters nail.
The Development of Frame Construction
In Chicago, around 1830, George Washington Snow further
developed the post-and-beam method, which itself had just
come into being, to create the so-called balloon frame. This
nickname referred to the filigree nature of the structural
framework.2 The post-and-beam method differed from halftimbering primarily in the formation of the joints (basically:
wooden tenon vs. iron nail) and therefore in the method of
bracing the skeleton, but the frame construction method represented a small revolution. The skeleton no longer had to be
fixed together in the vertical plane, beam by beam, but could
be constructed horizontally on the floor as whole wall panels,
including the openings, using thin studs, and then erected
wall by wall.
This construction method has been further developed in
many variations and is usually known in the USA today as two
by four (inches). This name refers to the size of the beams,
which equates to around 5 by 10 cm, although there are now
other quite different formats available. The construction is
braced using nailed on planks (sometimes diagonal); this is
not necessary in post-and-beam structures, because thanks
to their bending-resistant nodes, the whole structure performs this function. Thus the areas in between the frame elements can be filled with a variety of different materials
independently of the structure. In addition to the comparatively thin studs, produced as inexpensive semi-finished
products, a second important prerequisite for frame construction was the sinking price of the most important jointing
material, the nail, made of iron (and later of steel). These
3.2
3.3

3.3

The last treehouse people in New Guinea

Window in a traditional farmhouse in Upper Bavaria (Germany)
in block construction

29

were first produced on an industrial scale from around 1790.

This method owes its success to the new economic factors
prevailing at the time, but also ultimately to the simple technology, which allowed even unskilled workers (and not just
carpenters) to erect a house. Frame construction took a relatively long time to find its way back to Europe. Well into the
20th century, in the course of the 1960s, the first manufacturers began to work using the frame construction method in
Switzerland, Southern Germany and Austria, inspired and
fascinated during trips to the USA and Canada. They were
often mocked by the established competition, who were still
heavily influenced by the traditional carpentry method of
post-and-beam construction. The breakthrough did not
happen until the late 80s, however, with the emergence of
construction techniques using prefabricated elements. It then
moved forwards then at great speed, so that within 10 to 15
years the post-and-beam technique had been almost completely displaced as the classical method for timber construction in central Europe.
The Development of Panel-Shaped Composite Wood

3.4

3.5

3.6

3.7

3.8

30

The development of panel-type products made of wood did

not begin in the 20th century. It has been established that the
Egyptians were already gluing veneers together to produce a
kind of plywood around 5000 years ago.3 Although the
emphasis in those days was on the enhancement of noble
woods and the prevention of cracks forming in solid woods,
the introduction of industrially produced plywood sheets
around the year 1890 greatly extended the use of wood as a
raw material.
This development led to a departure from exclusively pole or
beam-type constructions in favour of planar materials. Further
developments quickly followed: the fibre- and particleboards.
These techniques create relatively high quality products from
inferior quality wood and from waste products such as wood
chippings and wanes from other production processes (sawmills, planing, carpentry). It is therefore hardly surprising that
the first boom phase, for particleboards in particular, coincided with the economy of scarcity during and after the 2nd
World War.
But it was not until the second half of the 20th century that,
owing to falling production costs for composite wood boards
and driven by developments in the field of adhesives, large
format boards were used in construction. This was made possible by a combination of the mechanisation and automation
of timber acquisition and processing. This trend is sure to
continue and be reflected once again in timber construction
in the foreseeable future. Products such as oriented-strand
boards (OSB) in construction, and medium density fibreboards (MDF) in interior finishing and furniture making will
belong to the near future in any case. But solid wood slabs
(three-layer slab and logwood for example) could also
increase their market shares. It is justifiable to assume that
building with beams, battens and boards will soon have
served its time in timber construction. The most important
reason for this is the amount of skilled labour required and the
costs associated with this work, which are necessary for the
traditional methods such as logwood, half-timbering or postand-beam construction, but also for frame construction. With
the help of panels, construction processes can be simplified.
A further reason for the decline of this method lies in the
increasing shortage of high quality solid wood for building.

This forces all those involved in the wood chain to make

better use of secondary products such as sawdust or inferior
insect-damaged wood. The spectrum of panels available for
the widest variety of uses and made from various basic
materials, from simple sawdust to solid wood, is constantly
increasing. MDF boards are printed with a variety of patterns
and surface structures for furniture making nowadays, giving
this cheap material the appearance of something exclusive.
Laminates have been common in the parquet flooring industry for quite some time. Wood is imitated, due to either its
price as a raw material and /or its processing costs being too
high. In parts of the USA and Canada this trend goes so far,
that instead of using the traditional solid wood weatherboarding for timber houses, amazingly original-looking synthetic imitations are being used for cladding. But this trend
of material counterfeiting is not unique to our time. From
the Middle Ages through to modern times, Scandinavian and
in particular Swedish architecture has seen numerous building styles, which used paint and wood to copy exclusive
kinds of stone.4 So wood itself was a synthetic imitation at
one time.
Overview of Structural Design Principles
To obtain an overview of the various design principles, a
delimitation must first be established, to avoid confusion of
the terms used. Structural design principles relate to the
structural use of wood, be it in the form of a beam or a panel.
The terminology of the construction processes describes
first and foremost the entire process of the production and
of the joining of wood on site, which are described in the
following section. The structural design principles can be
divided into two groups: for beam-shaped and panel-shaped
materials.

3.9

The beam-type design principles can then be classified as

horizontal or vertical. The horizontal classification includes
only block constructions that are sometimes referred to as
log cabins and take their name from the length of a log,
which is called a Block in German. This construction
method requires a very large quantity of wood, which has the
advantage (when constructed properly) of providing sufficient thermal insulation and is therefore particularly suitable
for wooded, colder and drier regions. The vertical design
principles form a large group. This includes half-timbering
(with diagonal bracing), frame construction (with bracing provided not by the primary beams and studs, but by either
boards or panels fixed to the frame), and the group of skeleton construction methods (with the nodes themselves providing the bracing, e.g. post-and-beam or hall structures, but
also various forms of surface structures).
In contrast to the beam-type design principles, the forces
cannot be transferred to panels at nodes in panel-type structures, but must be transferred linearly. Otherwise the relatively thin panels would be overdimensioned or could break
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9

Alternative joint designs in timber skeleton construction

Joint design in the panel construction method
(timber frame construction, platform-frame construction)
Joint design in post-and-beam construction (rib construction,
balloon-frame construction)
Joint design in board stack construction
Joint design in laminated timber panel construction
Residential tower in timber block construction,
Brixlegg, Austria, 2003; architect: Antonius Lanzinger

31

at the point of loading of insufficiently braced. The advantage

of using panels lies in the fact that they can be designed to
be relatively thin, whilst still able to distribute the load across
the area of the panel, and that they not only perform the function of load-bearing, but the function of partitioning as well.
The panel-type construction principles can be subdivided
into the groups of solid wood construction, where panels of
adequate thickness serve to brace as well as to support the
structure, and the group of spatial truss and panel structures,
where the quantity of material is reduced, but more work is
incurred in the assembly of panels. Ribbed panel structures
or the various types of building unit systems made of composite wood panels are some of the most well known types of
truss and panel structures.
Construction Processes: Ready Steady House
The construction materials and the construction site very
rarely coincide, particularly in the technologically advanced
regions of the world. This is due to the prefabrication of individual components, from door handles to bricks and beams.
The scope even extends to whole houses, whereby the
house is constructed in the workshop and then transported in
one piece to the building site by lorry. Even if this happens to
be the exception, the prefabrication of whole houses, dissected by the planner into separate wall and ceiling sections,
is booming in well-equipped workshops, at least so long as
the cost of transportation does not significantly increase. But
prefabrication in the construction process, whether to measure or of building elements, is not a new phenomenon of the
20th century and it is not restricted to timber construction.
3.10

The history of prefabrication reaches back at least as far as

the period of Greek temple construction, when the quarries
did not simply produce blocks, but cut the stone to order,
accurate to just a few centimetres. Thus the least possible
weight had to be transported. And the catalogue house
was known by the ancient Chinese, for instance. They wrote
down detailed instructions regarding all aspects of the construction and the construction phase, in an attempt to restrict
uncontrolled growth and reduce the costs of temple construction in the empire. When the Vikings settled in Iceland,
they used prefabricated timber components, which they
brought by ship to the virtually treeless island.
Today, in a world in which practically every component is
prefabricated to some degree, this would not really be
described as prefabrication, but as the production of semifinished products. Finding a term for a method, where individual prefabricated wall elements are simply slotted together
in a fixed grid, is a little more difficult, however. The term
elemental construction method would perhaps be suitable
here. If, however, whole walls or ceilings are prefabricated in
the workshop, the answer is clear. The term prefabricated
house construction seems most appropriate in this case.
This method is characterised, amongst other things, by the
construction of one or two storeys per day on site, as the
actual construction time took place in the workshop. The
interesting thing here is that practically any type of design
principle can be used for prefabricated house construction,
with the exception of skeleton and block construction methods. Only the module construction method is even faster
on site. As the name suggests, whole building modules are
prefabricated and stacked on top of each other on the
32

construction site like shoe boxes. This method has the

advantage that, if the modules are cleverly designed, they
can be disassembled later and the house can be relocated.
The price of this convenience is usually paid by the difficulties of achieving continuous cables and pipes, and a doubling of the structurally important elements. This leads to
increased construction costs.
Just one clarification of terminology remains, namely the difference between prefabricated and catalogue houses. A
house that has been partly or wholly constructed in the workshop is not by definition a catalogue house, but basically a
ready-made house.5 The design of a catalogue house is predetermined within narrow limits by the manufacturer. Just a
little leeway remains for the customer, with regard to internal
finishing (kitchen, bathroom, and sometimes room layout). As
a result of repetition, cost savings can be made due to the
absence of costs for the design, which only needs to be
slightly adapted to the customers requirements. In addition,
all the details have already been thoroughly planned and the
construction costs are accurately known. However, the financial difference from building with an architect is not really significant when one considers the independent consultation
that an expert designer can give and the guarantee of quality, for which he is also jointly liable.
A catalogue house can be, but does not necessarily have to
be prefabricated in the workshop. It can also be conventionally built. Conversely, a house can be prefabricated and
delivered to site as a ready-made house, although it has
been designed entirely to the customers requirements and
tailored to the particular site. This classification of terms does
not only apply to timber construction. However, the weight
restrictions on public roads and on site (for the crane) set
much stricter limits for the prefabrication of components
made of concrete and similar materials than is the case for
timber construction.
The trend towards prefabrication is also related to the competitive situation. Young and very well educated graduates
of the various schools for timber construction step into the
market situation with a great deal of knowledge of marketing
and new computer-aided production methods and tend
to suppress the traditional crafts. Using more accurate
machines and an ever increasing proportion of computeraided production processes, precision work is possible, so
that the construction of the house shell is confined to fixing
larger elements together on site within just a few days. Up
until just a few years ago, prefabrication in the construction
industry was generally restricted to semi-finished products
such as beams, panels, bricks and doors, to name but a few.
Because practically every house is unique, it was only worth
using industrialised processes to manufacture larger series in
the case of catalogue houses.
Thanks to better conditions in the area of transport logistics
and improved production technology, i.e. robots, together
with the use of panels, which are much better suited to this
purpose, the off the construction site building process is
the way of the future. As in other areas of industry, traditional
crafts will be increasingly replaced by machines, whose controls can be networked directly with data from the design. A
prerequisite of this, however, is an adequately well devel-

3.11

3.10 Panel construction: Bearth House, Sumvitg 1998;

architects: Bearth + Deplazes
3.11 Construction module block made of wood

33

oped design, carrying right through to the building services

and being finalised before the construction phase begins.
Alterations are still technically possible after production has
started, but are uneconomic.
The Art of the Joint Precision of Mind

3.12

The art of prefabrication lies in the assembly of the individual

parts on site. Architecturally speaking, the technologically
complex linear joint supplants the node, and the plate the
column. This can be used to advantage in the free design of
the floor plan and sections, as forces can be asymmetrically
transmitted both horizontally and vertically by plates. This is
nothing new in itself. Loos, Rietveld, Le Corbusier or Schindler
have used plates to create floating structures, or complicated
arrangements with rooms of different heights. But since every
offset in a floor or ceiling necessitates a separate concreting
operation, an increase in construction time and money occurs,
which would be mocked by any rational construction schedule.
And so the spatial diversity of the old masters, poured in concrete, has never been widely accepted. With the planar elements offered by timber construction companies specialising
in prefabrication (not obvious at first sight), it is possible that
architecture will receive new stimulus in the coming years,
particularly with regard to spatial arrangement at affordable
prices, if placed in the hands of talented designers.
The replacement of poles with plates, and skeleton construction with plate-type construction, however, also changes the
traditional view of wall and ceiling surfaces in timber construction. Joists and columns are replaced by planar materials such as plasterboard, plywood or solid wood panels. So
the architect designs only the surface treatment, the position
of openings and switches, the texture and the tectonics.
Everything else is the job of the timber construction contractor and the engineer. This makes building with wood simpler,
but at the same time forfeits the pioneering spirit and the intimacy of the craft, materials and design, which Peter Zumthor,
for example, has perfectly mastered.
Build Simply with Wood
The question of building simply with wood is, above all, a
question of needs: the requirements of the construction on
the one hand and on the other the technical pre-requisites for
the implementation. The high use of technology is always
profitable where labour costs are high and, in contrast, production costs (capital and energy costs) are relatively low.
But if labour costs are low and sufficient raw materials are
available, then a traditional construction method is often
chosen. As long as energy costs remain as low as they are
today, the degree of prefabrication will increase. If energy
prices rise, then the proximity of the source of raw materials,
in this case forests, and the energy consumed in the production of materials such as composite wood boards will determine the construction costs, and therefore also the choice of
the construction method.
In addition to the question of price, the construction requirements also play an important role. In Switzerland, Southern
3.12 Moving bungalows, USA
3.13 Mazlaria premises and stables, Vrin, 1999; architect:
Gion A. Caminada

34

Germany and Austria, there is a definite trend towards highinsulation houses with minimal energy demand. This requires
the hermetic sealing of the building, which can usually be
better achieved using a construction method based on
boards than using a method such as block construction or
post-and-beam methods, as these also give rise to a large
amount of thermal bridges in relation to the high standards
required.
If the question of building simply is restricted to the appearance of a building alone, then it must be said that what
appears to be simple in the sense of tradition and of customary building methods no longer represents the economic
use of means, in the way that it did for the forerunners. This
is not valid where the economic situation, the relationship
between the price of labour in contrast to the price of building materials, has not changed decisively. But even so,
todays clients have other requirements with regard to spatial
arrangement, building services and living quality than the
clients of yesteryear.
A general return to simple building in the sense of traditional
methods, including the associated form, seems impossible
today: too many of the criteria governing the construction and
the construction processes have changed. In concluding,
therefore, it is almost impossible to define what is typical for
building simply with wood. The eternal question of the criteria
of contemporary construction remains open. Whether a construction solution is simple or complicated is ultimately measured by its progression from the assignment to the goal.

Notes
1
Paalasmaa, Juhani: Animal Architecture, Museum of Finnish
Architecture, Helsinki 1995
2
Giedion, Sigfried: Raum, Zeit, Architektur (Space, Time, Architecture),
Studiopaperback, publ.: Verlag fr Architektur, Artemis, Zrich 1984
3
Cerliani, Christian and Baggenstos, Thomas: Sperrholzarchitektur
(Plywood Architecture), publ.: Baufachverlag, Dietikon 1997
4
Andersson, Henrik und Bedoire, Frederic Swedish Architecture
Drawings 1640 1970, publ.: Byggfrlaget, Stockholm 1986
5
Cf. Jakob, Felix: Vorfabrikation und Fertighaus (Prefabrication and
the Catalogue House). Elective subject dissertation at the ETH Zrich,
Prof. Kramel / tutor Eisinger, Zrich 1998, not published.

3.13

35

Build Simply with Loam

Martin Rauch

In connection with building simply, building with loam is also

becoming topical, particularly from an ecological viewpoint.
The advantages are obvious. Loam is a universally available
and therefore cost-effective material. It is easy to work with,
depending on the type of loam. Loam is a material that takes
the short route, from production through to processing,
through to the end use and then even reuse. The regional differences in processing techniques always correspond to the
properties of the local earth and the economic resources of
the particular region. As the craft of processing is relatively
time-consuming, the cost-efficiency of loam construction usually depends on the available workforce.
Loam is a type of earth. It is formed by the weathering (disintegration) of layers of rock as a result of geological changes
and by erosion caused by water, frost, wind or temperature
changes, for example: The resulting particles of rock are
transported, usually by water but also by wind (loess), and
deposited. The small, broken up pieces are transported by
either water or wind and sedimented or deposited. Our
planet has been continually affected by erosion, and therefore loam is available the world over.
Loam varies considerably according to the region in which
it is found. The proportions of clay, silt, sand and gravel
vary. The percentage of clay should not be too high, through,
or cracles will form as the loam dries. Their proportional
relationships often determine the local, different traditional
loam construction methods. The local type of loam earth
and the easy availability of vegetative construction materials
can be easily traced in the loam buildings still remaining in
the region.
Regional types of construction methods were always simple
buildings types. Huts, houses and palaces, regardless of
status or wealth, were often erected using few tools and man
power alone. On a worldwide scale, loam is one of the most
important building materials almost half of todays world
population live in various types of loam buildings.
In the current climate of specialisation and changing
demands, building generally has become less simple.
Simplicity is often wrongly replaced with norms and complacency, although it actually has nothing to do with these.
Building standards and guidelines define the supposedly
simple solutions as standard. If one attempts to build outside
the scope of these standards, things start to get really complicated. The supposedly simple solutions must be fought for
by gaining individual approvals or using solid arguments.

The history of loam construction

Looking back at the history of loam building in central
Europe, we see that it became less significant during the
course of the industrial revolution and was relegated to being
the building material of the poor. On the other hand, loam
was increasingly used in times of crisis. Particularly after the
1st and 2nd World Wars, in times of emergency, energy
shortage and high unemployment, this locally available material has proved its worth.
Josef Frank1 formulated this phenomenon then as follows:
Loam is not a construction material, but a Weltanschauung
(philosophy of life), and its magical powers are always called
upon in times of great need.2 In 1951 there was even a
German DIN standard entitled Loam buildings, guidelines
for construction, DIN 18951. It was withdrawn in 1956, however, due to lack of interest.
In 1998, the umbrella organisation for loam published a new
set of regulations entitled Regulations of Building with
Loam.3 It is an up-to-date and welcome aid, which is useful
today for carrying out loam building works correctly. This is,
of course, another attempt at standardising loam construction
and integrating it into the simple construction methods.
There is undoubtedly a connection between the oil shock at
the beginning of the 1970s and the renaissance experienced
by this building material in the last 30 years. Today it seems
that, for the first time, it is not economic factors, but an ecological, building biological and aesthetic driving force that is
giving rise to an increasing demand for these building materials. This demand for loam construction is giving new impulse
to its further development, making it possible for loam to
evolve into a modern and forward-looking construction
method.
In the German-speaking countries of Europe, many loam
construction companies and loam material manufacturers
have become active during the last 15 years.4 This is an
important prerequisite for loam construction to become simpler and more generally accepted.
The use of loam construction techniques in projects carried
out in industrial countries sets an example for those countries, in which loam structures are built only out of economic
necessity. This also contributes to traditional loam construction methods gaining added value through the use of technologies tuned to modern needs.
4.1

Reconstruction works at the Labrang Tibetan Monastery, Qinghai,

1995; construction of a rammed loam wall with slipform shuttering

37

4.2

In Europe, a large proportion of historical buildings were constructed using various loam construction techniques. Loam
structures in our part of the world, however are often not
recognisable as such from the outside. The loam has usually
been covered with render or cladding, not only for protection
against weathering, but also deliberately hidden for image
reasons: loam is the building material of the poor. Non-theless, it is well known that loam has excellent qualities regarding interior climate regulation. It is becoming more important
not only due to ecological considerations, but also due to the
increasing demand for a healthy living environment.
Ecological as well as aesthetic considerations are the determining factors for the use of the various loam construction
techniques. Architectural principles appropriate to the materials used demand that a loam house should be noticeable
and recognisable as a loam structure, even from the outside,
notwithstanding its exposure to the elements. Due to these
considerations and the desire to put the material on display,
material mixes and technologies were developed, which
allow the external faces of loam structures to cope with the
most varied weather conditions. The surface changes its
character according to the weather conditions. An important
and essential prerequisite for the future of the material is that
loam construction, and all that is associated with it, should be
taught in civil engineering and architectural faculties and
integrated into the teaching process. At present, only a few
isolated seminars are being organised on the initiative of the
teaching staff themselves. The application of modern loam
construction must be further developed; it must be learnt and
taught once more.
Loam Techniques
Loam rendering
Probably the simplest way to include loam in the conventional
construction process is to use it for rendering conventional
wall structures. Thus, most loam materials used in Europe
today are applied as loam rendering. Loam render usually
consists of a 2 to 1 mixture of sand and loam with the addition of fibres, usually of plant extraction. The quality of the
loam render, with regard to its strength, moisture regulation,
appearance and colour, depends on an optimal grain size
distribution, the grain size and properties of the sand, and
the use of fat clay (with no additives) and lean loam (with low
clay content).
A skilled loam builder can doubtless prepare a good loam
render using local loam and sand to achieve an acceptable
quality of rendering. However, the preparation of large
quantities of material without the use of appropriate machinery is arduous and in the end effect also costly. High labour
costs and predictable product quality make the use of
pre-prepared products an economic necessity and these
are now quite common.
Loam render, ready-mixed by the manufacturer and packaged in paper sacks or big bags, is transported to site in
either dry or earth-moist form, where it is mixed with water
and thrown on to the wall, then levelled and smoothed.
Today skilled workers are producing loam rendering on a
grand scale, on both private and public buildings, using
modern machinery and rendering technology. Loam render
can be applied, either by hand or using the usual rendering
machines, to all common rendering bases, such as concrete,
masonry or building panels.

38

4.3

Further advantages of loam rendering include better acoustics in the rooms, and low dust levels due to the low electrostatic charges in loam. It is also reputed that, when properly
applied, loam can absorb odours and provide a certain
amount of protection against high-frequency electromagnetic
fields, such as those produced by mobile phone networks.
In buildings with internal loam plastering, the air moisture
regulation is three times better than in brickwork or concrete
structures with conventional plastering. Due to the compensational regulation of the air humidity, the internal air temperature can be reduced by 2 to 3C in winter, leading to
considerable heat energy savings without any loss of comfort. The loam rendering thus forms a kind of third human
skin (with clothing being the second). Loam is a pure and
antiseptic material, which is also used in healing therapies,
for example. Prejudices against the use of earth or dirt as a
building material are unfounded.
The range of finishes extends from roughly textured to very
fine, smooth and sharp-edged surfaces; these can be naturally coloured, mixed with coloured loam, or subsequently
painted using natural paint. Applying loam rendering to
normal brickwork, with the intension of improving the internal
climate and acoustics, is probably the simplest method of
integrating loam into a building. A loam paint finish is often
applied to conventional buildings for colouration or to create
a more naturally coloured ambience. Loam paints are largegrained natural paints, to which cellulose is often added to
improve their workability and strength.
Howsoever the final surface is formed, pure untreated loam
mortar surfaces are often more difficult to apply, more sensitive and also softer. In subsequent restoration works, however, they are unbeatable. Partial improvements can be
carried out by simply rewetting the damaged area of loam
rendering, without entire wall areas having to be reworked.
Also, any rendering material removed can be immediately
reused and reapplied.
Loam and wood construction
The most common and traditionally established use of loam
can be found in half-timbered houses throughout Europe.
Here the spaces in the supporting timber truss are wattled
using stiff sticks and willow twigs. The resulting lattice, or
wattle, is then filled from both sides with a loam-straw mix.
The surfaces are carefully finished using loam rendering. On
external surfaces is often used a fine lime rendering technique for rain protection.
In the not too distant past, grave mistakes have been made
whilst carrying out restoration and conversion works to these
historical buildings, also in connection with the use of newer
building materials; sometimes this has resulted in historically
valuable structures being seriously damaged. Consequently,
loam-appropriate rehabilitation works were enacted and
promoted for listed half-timbered buildings, and this has contributed decidedly to the revitalisation of loam building techniques and their continued development. These measures
have brought in new contracts for loam construction companies. This has enabled them to gain experience and bring
this to bear, along with new developments, in new construction projects. The light loam technique, which uses a mixture
4.2
4.3

Building site in Mali, 1999

Teachers houses for Gando in Burkina Faso, West Africa, 2003;
architect: Dibedo Francis Kr

39

of loam slurries and light additives of plant or mineral extraction, should be mentioned as an example in this context.
Light additives can be: straw, wood chippings, wood shavings, cork granules, expanded clay or pumice gravel. They
are conserved and protected from fire by the surrounding
loam slurry.
The apparent density of dried light loam constructions lies
between 500 and 1200 kg/m3. Light loam mixes have very
good heat insulation properties; therefore additional insulation layers are usually not required. The dried light loam mixtures are relatively soft and cannot carry static loads. These
are therefore usually used as wall filling and insulating elements within a wooden truss structure. Loam rendering on
external or internal walls hardens the wall surface and provides optimal wind resistance and low vapour diffusion resistance in an ecologically beneficial way.
4.4

Loam post-and-beam construction

In a loam post-and-beam structure, the ceiling and roof loads
are carried by posts made of wood, metal or concrete. Loam
walls can be subsequently constructed as non-load-bearing
partition walls. The loam brick construction and rammed loam
construction methods are particularly suited to this purpose.
Industrially manufactured, unfired loam bricks in various formats can also be used together with loam mortar to create
fair-faced walls in loam post-and-beam structures. Compared
to fired hollow bricks, these provide more heat storage
capacity, better air humidity equilibrium in the rooms and the
assurance that valuable primary energy has been saved.
Loam construction without machinery
The wet loam method described below is suitable for the
construction of load-bearing walls as well as for infilling
truss frameworks, as it can be used in various ways. The
malleable loam mixture is laid in layers, 50 to 80 cm thick,
and each layer is compacted by hand or using a club. For
centuries now, residential houses with several stories have
been constructed in North Yemen and whole villages in
Africa have been built using this wet loam method (Zabur
technique). The advantage of this loam construction technique is that absolutely no tools are required and the soft
loam can be layered directly into the wall construction
without interim storage.
Loam cob construction (Lehmwellerbau)
A similar wet loam technique, which has been used since the
Middle Ages, from central Germany and Austria through to
Hungary, is known as loam cob construction. This involves
loam being extracted in the late autumn and stored in loose
piles to be made mellow by the winter frost; it is then spread
out and softened by pouring on water and stamped to make
sludge. Then it is mixed with cut straw. The cob mixture is
subsequently packed onto the base walls in layers using a
pitchfork and compacted by pounding. After it has started to
dry it is shaped using a special spade to make vertical cuts.
The wall surface is then prepared for the subsequent application of loam rendering by punching holes and pushing
stones into it.
Thin loam loaf construction (Dnner Lehmbrotbauweise)
At the beginning of the 20th century a missionary, inspired by
the Zabur technique, developed a method adapted to
German conditions: the thin loam loaf construction method.
40

This technique involves kneading the prepared loam to form

loam loaves, which are then laid in masonry bond on top of
each other without mortar and finally rendered with loam.
Prior to 1930, several residential developments were constructed on the smallest of budgets using this method; the
works were carried out by unemployed workers organised in
workers homesteads.
Since this loam construction technique is very labour-intensive, the maxim of the Egyptian loam architect Hassan Fathy
is also validated here: one man alone cannot build a house,
10 men can build 10 houses.5
Loam brick construction
Loam brick construction is the most practised method worldwide and can be found everywhere. Regional differences are
only evident in the format and the degree of mechanisation.
The simplest method involves preparing the loam where it is
extracted by mixing it with water until it becomes malleable.
The clumps of loam are then pressed into wooden forms
lined with sand and smoothed off.
The loam bricks are then taken out of the forms on the
ground and left to dry in the sun and wind. In mechanical
production methods, the loam-sand mix can be pressed in
earth-moist condition using a hand-operated lever press, or
be formed into bricks using a fully automatic hydraulic press.
In the south-west of the USA, where the tradition of loam
brick construction has continued to the present day, many
companies came into existence in the 1970s, which manufactured loam bricks (adobe) industrially.
In Europe, several small brickworks have switched off their
kilns and are producing loam bricks, loam wall systems and
ready-mixed loams for wall rendering and for floors, mostly
using their existing plant. Small brickworks in particular are in
a position to fight against the extremely fierce competition in
the construction industry by exploiting this market niche.
They can also use this gap in the market to develop and
manufacture new loam products.
Rammed loam construction method
The rammed loam construction method is also widespread
and is thousands of years old. Crumbly, earth-moist and relatively lean loam is tipped into a slipform in layers and compacted by ramming. Since waiting for the loam to dry is not
necessary, the ramming process can be carried out continuously. One advantage of the rammed loam method is that the
mixture of loam, sand and gravel that often occurs naturally is
most suited to this technique. This makes it possible to use
50 to 100% of the excavated material (without humus).
Rammed loam constructions are very solid and are loadbearing (see Fig. 4.4). They are particularly suitable for loadbearing loam structures. They can also be used for technical
or decorative purposes in connection with heating systems or
as heat storage walls in greenhouses.
Inevitably, large volumes of earth have to be processed by
machine on site, or are prepared off-site in a permanent
mixing plant and transported to the construction site. Loam
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8

Rammed loam wall with stone strips

formwork system and completed wall
Rammed loam with mortar strips (Cemetery Extension with Chapel,
Batschuns, architects: Marte. Marte Architekten, see page 122ff.)
Surface texture of earth-moist, hand-compacted loam
Rammed loam with stone strips
Surface texture of rammed loam

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

41

4.9

has the advantage, here, that prepared moist loam can be

kept for weeks or even years. The quality of the material is
only improved by storing (aging).
Rammed loam construction is an example of decentralised
material production, i.e. the construction material is produced
directly on the construction site. This approach is associated
with relatively high expenditure of human labour, which
cannot be rationalised enough to compete with todays comparatively widespread assembly construction method using
industrially manufactured components. The labour costs in
particular are considerably higher, as a rule, depending on
the location of the site. It is necessary, therefore, to bring the
added ecological and aesthetic value of rammed clay structures to the fore.
Prefabricated rammed loam walls are being increasingly
used, which are transported to site whole or in segments and
lifted into place using a crane. This has achieved, first and
foremost, a wider range of possible applications, but no cost
reduction.
Surface appearance, erosion properties, weather resistance
Loam and building materials bound with loam are, in principle, water soluble. If they are mixed with sufficient water, the
stiffness that was caused by dryness is revoked and the
material becomes plastic and malleable again. In this
respect, loam is the only construction material that can be
reused with no limitations and no loss of quality. This water
solubility is repeatedly cited as being a disadvantage of
loam. Many trials and developments are directed towards
divesting loam of its water solubility and making it more
weather resistant. Loam itself has an equilibrium moisture
content of 6 % to 7 %. This means that it is drier than wood;
however, it has the ability to take up moisture quickly but also
to release it again immediately. Despite this ability to absorb
water, moisture penetration from above, from inside the building and from the foundations must be carefully avoided when
building with loam. In many cases, this creeping damp is
responsible for the morbid condition often observed in old
loam structures.
The surface requirements regarding exposure to driving rain
and possibly frost can be met by the careful selection of
materials, mixes and processing, together with the provision
of constructional protection measures. The effects of erosion
are dependent on the wall height and the weather and wind
loading. Light rain has little impact, as the loam can absorb
this moisture well and release it again quickly during the following rain-free period. If the loam surface is exposed to
heavy rain, however, the loam should not absorb all the moisture. The water or moisture that is not absorbed by the loam
wall then runs off along the surface of the wall. These small
streams have a washing-out effect on the loam surface.
Small loam particles and sands are loosened by this water
and washed out. Larger mineral additives (stones) are set in
the stronger and drier core of the wall and are therefore
fixed. These act as small erosion brakes, similar to large
stones in the bed of a stream. The action of driving rain is
usually of very short duration and therefore has little effect.
The above-mentioned natural erosion brakes are adequate
in this case.
Heavy rainfalls of longer duration necessitate additional
measures to control the flow of runoff water. Horizontal strips
of mortar, stone or metal must be built into the wall at spacings of 25 to 30 cm as erosion brakes. Such inserts prevent

42

deep channelling erosion of the loam wall during continuous

rain. In the case of fire, rammed loam as a mineral material
mix also demonstrates fire-retardant properties and extraordinary stability at high temperatures.
Loam walls have very good noise insulation properties due to
their high density and the thickness of the walls, which is usually required for structural reasons. Due to its porosity and
elasticity, loam affords relatively good sound absorption.
Considering projects that have been carried out, but above
all judging by the ever increasing demand, the time seems to
be ripe for large and numerous rammed clay projects in the
communal as well as the private sector. However, these
projects generally fail due to a lack of financially viability and
of suitably skilled craftsmen and building contractors. Even
though there is no industrial lobby for this building material, it
is still desirable that in the future loam should be considered
neither as a building material for cheap dwellings nor as an
elite material. Building with loam should become routine once
again, so that modern loam construction will be possible in
the future.
Until now, the main application of loam as a building material
in central Europe has been in the construction of cheap
housing. The language of the material has been hidden
behind facades. In order to exploit the full potential of this
material, however, it is this very language that must be made
visible. With its multiplicity of possibilities, it presents a challenge to architects, building owners and craftsmen alike.
Indeed, loam seems to be a building material that virtually
demands creative action with regard to both engineering and
aesthetics. It is a building material that, strictly speaking, is
limitlessly available; it boasts a long tradition and, being
applied in a contemporary way, is becoming more fashionable again.
Going back to loam construction should not be seen as
being anachronistic in the sense of going back to nature
or loss of awareness of life; rather, it means going back to
reason. We should be aware that building with loam has
nothing to do with experimentation; quite the reverse: loam
can be readily employed as a building material using tried
and tested techniques to meet todays construction requirements. It not only has good thermal and moisture regulating
characteristics, but also an unsurpassed positive energy balance. And last but not least, loam can be recycled and disposed of without difficulty.

Comments
1
Frank, Josef, born 1885 in Baden near Vienna, died 1967 in Stockholm. Frank was an important influence in the development of a nondogmatic modernity in Austria and was in charge of the International
Werkbundsiedlung housing developement in Vienna from 1930 1932.
2
In: Exhibition catalogue Lehm Ton Erde (Loam Clay Earth), Martin
Rauch, Kuratorium Palais Liechtenstein; publisher, Lichtenstein 1988
3
Dachverband Lehm (umbrella organisation for loam); Vollhard, Franz;
Roe, Ulrich (publ.). Lehmbau Regeln (Loam Constrction Rules), 2nd
corrected edition, Wiesbaden 2002.
4
Some of the leading manufacturers are: Claytec, Eiwa, Karphosi,
Casadobe
5
Hassan Fathy, born 1900 in Alexandria, died 1989, is the most important Egyptian architect of the 20th century. Hassan Fathys great
achievement was the rediscovery of traditional clay construction methods for modern Egyptian architecture. One of his most socially and
architecturally challenging projects using loam construction techniques is the Dar-Al-Islam village, which was built in 1980 in New
Mexico, USA.

4.10

4.9

Chapel of Reconciliation, walls made of rammed loam, Berlin 2000;

Architects: reitermann/sassenroth architekten
4.10 Target tower made of rammed loam, sports facility in Sihlhlzli, 2002;
Architects: Roger Boltshauser Architekten

43

Build Simply with Steel

Stefan Schfer

Steel is not a simple material. Many centuries of experience

are brought to bear in the extraction and the quality of iron,
the raw material for making steel. It took many centuries previous to this before the early craftsman was able to extract it
at all, taking a detour via other softer metals such as copper.
The oldest known objects made from iron are approximately
6000 years old. Iron smelting in Europe began around 700
BC with the Celts.
Today steel is a material, whose technical and mechanical
properties are commonly known. It is suited to many different
applications due to its widespread availability and comparative ease of further processing. Simple processing techniques, low weight in comparison to loading capacity, a wide
range of processing possibilities, simple installation principles and of course the aesthetic appearance are all benefits
that speak for the use of steel.
Essentially, steel products can be used for a remarkably
varied range of applications, as almost all structural components of a building can be made from it. Steel foundations,
columns, ceilings, roofs, facades, cladding and fittings can
all be easily produced. The numerous semi-finished products
that are cheaply and readily available as prefabricated
goods are also advantageous. In many different applications,
steel demonstrates better qualities, such as tensile and
bending strength, than other materials such as wood,
masonry or concrete, which have a higher self-weight. Furthermore, there are various treatment options which enable
steel products to be employed with improved qualities appropriate to their use. For instance, specific temperature treatment during the production process can significantly
increase the strength of steel.
Amongst the greatest weaknesses of the material are its low
heat resistance in the case of fire, even temperatures of
500 C cause complete loss of material strength and its tendency to corrode under the influence of oxygen and water.
Appropriate measures must be taken during construction,
which permanently inhibit the immediate effects of heat or
water on steel products. The price of crude steel has
increased rapidly in recent years due to the large demand in
the Southeast Asian construction industry. This has led to an
increase in the market price of steel products in Europe.
However, only one third of the total price of the end product
is accounted for by material costs as opposed to two thirds,
which are contributed by processing costs. This relativises
the price increase effect.
The spectrum of simple applications for steel is vast, but
what does simplicity mean in terms of steel construction?

From a technical viewpoint it can be interpreted as the

evaluation of the production processes, the ease of processing or the variety of applications. In the specific field of construction, we assume that relatively less work is involved
during the entire construction process (design, manufacture,
installation, maintenance). This ultimately results in comparatively lower economic investment. Simple also means,
therefore, cost-effective and on schedule. An important
aspect here is the principle of carrying out a project using
the least number of contracting companies possible. Ideally,
appropriate simple solutions can be carried out by a single
contractor.
Further ways of approaching simple construction with steel
are using simple details, easily solvable problems of building
physics, simple design concepts, simple installation, simple
use, etc. The consideration of simple design details can
mean different things to the reader, as details perceived to
be simple in an architectural sense can sometimes be difficult to construct.
Overall it is clear that steel develops its own tectonic language, like no other material, due to its structural properties.
In the following sections I would like to deal with the simple
components of these material-specific properties.
Steel The Material
Steel is made from pig iron, which contains 3.5 4.5 percent
carbon. This causes the iron to be brittle and soften immediately on heating. In order to make steel, the carbon content
must be reduced to less than 1 percent. Thus steel is an
iron-carbon alloy. To convert pig iron to steel, undesirable constituents such as phosphor, sulphur, silicon, oxygen and manganese must also be reduced through refining processes.
Due to its low carbon content (< 1 percent) steel is very ductile in contrast to cast iron, which can only be used in civil
engineering for particular applications. The material properties of steel can be selectively influenced by changing its
chemical structure and by means of external heat treatments.
Steel is a very sustainable, durable material that is environmentally harmless. Steel products are continually reused
within a global recycling process; non-reusable products are
melted down and reused in the production of new products
without any material loss. Common types of steel are structural steels for steel construction works, weather-proof steels,

5.1

Roof extension, Stuttgart, 2005; architect: Hartwig N. Schneider

45

concrete reinforcing steels, prestressing steels, rust-proof

stainless steels, high-temperature steel and others.1
Production, Common Products

5.2

Steel can be cold and hot-formed, mechanically worked, and

is very amenable to welding. Knowledge of the market price
for various products is an important prerequisite to ensure an
economic construction, as even different products with the
same steel weight often vary in price. Semi-finished products
are available in coils (flat steel in rolls) and as linear profiles
created by rolling. When selecting steel sections, not only the
product price should be taken into account, but also the
amount of work that then needs to be done in the workshop
and during installation.
There are more than 70,000 rolled steel products. The most
important of these can be found in Fig. 5.3 (Available Forms
of Steel)2. When selecting suitable sections it is advisable to
use the standard steel section tables, which list the more
common sections. As a rule, all the essential details can be
taken from these tables, such as steel weight per metre,
cross-sectional parameters and helpful geometric data.
Rolled products have very accurate dimensions and the
quality is therefore very consistent. In addition to rolled products with standard cross-sections (circular, square, profiled)
there are also special sections, but these are only economically viable for large orders. There are separate tables for
smaller cross-sections.
There are also thin steels with plate-like dimensions, the socalled sheet steels. These are categorised as thin sheet
(0.35 to 3.0 mm thick), medium plate (3.0 to 4.75 mm thick)
and thick plate (greater than 4.75 mm thick). As a rule, steel
strips from the coils, up to 1 m wide, are processed for material thicknesses of up to 0.75 mm. Standard sheets are available with dimensions up to approximately 2 x 4 mm.
Other available forms of functional, flat steel products are:
Grid (orthogonal nested bearing and filler bars made of
steel, stainless steel or aluminium)
Perforated sheets (holes with d < 1 mm to approx. 500 mm,
made of thin sheet, punched or milled)
Metallic mesh (round or flat, interwoven wires, strands, or
ropes)
Multi-layer sheets (plastic core lined with surface layers of
light metal)
Sandwich panels (composite elements each made of 2
shear-resistant top sheets with profiled steel sheets and a
multifunctional polyurethane foam insulating core)
Expanded metal or expanded grating (semi-finished steel
with flat rhombic shaped openings made by offset cuts in
subsequently expanded plates or strips).3,4
Concepts and Structures
The design and technical constraints for simple steel structures are notably different to those for massive constructions.
The significantly superior weight to bearing capacity ratio
alone makes additional structural components possible on
otherwise low load-bearing foundations. Over 40 years ago,
Henry Buckminster Fuller compared the weights of common
5.2
5.3

46

Loft Cube, Berlin, 2003; design: Werner Aisslinger; architects: and8

Architekten
Available forms of rolled steel for steel construction

building structures with those of ocean-going ships and

determined that using common building materials and comparatively low material loads our buildings are evidently too
heavily built.
In the Loftcube in Berlin project (see Fig. 5.2), several
important conceptual advantages of steel construction are
used at the same time. The apartment consists of modules
that can be connected together using bridging elements to
form larger units and has a variable finishing system. The
size of the individual components is restricted to container
dimensions. The whole construction can be erected, more
quickly than a typical prefabricated house, in two to three
days including completion of the interior. It would take the
same time to dismantle the Cube and move it to another location by helicopter it would even be possible to transport it in
one piece. The facade panels made of glass-fibre reinforced
plastic are simply attached to the structure using quickrelease fasteners and can be easily replaced if required. Due
to their good heat conduction properties, steel surfaces feel

cool to the touch. This is one of the reasons why steel bathtubs are increasingly being replaced with plastic ones.
Hence, it is not really possible to create a warm, homely
atmosphere with a steel interior.
The material-related manufacturing and installation procedures for simple steel structures enable the definition of elements, which remain a structural unit from the semi-finished
product stage, through further processing and on to installation, and which benefit the construction process. As a rule,
these elements are still recognisable once installed. A further
advantage is the diversity of possible detail solutions in the
installation process and the positive mechanical connections
thus made possible. Due to the excellent compatibility of
steel with other materials and with the possible joining techniques (adhesive joining, e.g. welding and gluing; positive fitting, e.g. push-in method; positive connections, e.g. using
screws, rivets, clamps), the installation process can continue
without interruptions, e.g. without waiting for mineral construction materials to set. Some installation situations arising
during transportation are also easier to deal with.

5.3
Available forms of rolled steel for construction
Flat products (sheet, strip), width 600 mm
Thin sheet
thickness 0.35 3.0 mm

DIN 1541

Medium plate
Thick plate
Wide flat steel

thickness 3.0 4.75 mm

thickness > 4.75 mm
width1501250 mm

DIN 1542
DIN 1543
thickness 4 mm (all four sides hot rolled), DIN 59200, EURO-STANDARD 91

Steel bars:
Description
T-section

Abbreviation

Typewriter

Notes, Standards

Dimensions in mm
Height
Width
20140
20140

Sectional steel
Description
U-section
Narrow flange
steel beam
Medium width
flange beam
Wide flange beam

Abbreviation

Typewriter

Notes, Standards

U
I

Dimensions in mm
Height
Width
80400
45110
80600
42215

PE

IPE*

80600

46228

HE (PB)

HE

961008

100402

untreated = black sheet; with surface finish

e.g. aluminium coating; hot dip galvanised;
hot dip galvanised + synthetic coating = coil coated
Floor plates, 320 mm (checker plates and tear plates)

deep beam or wide flange, radiused edges; DIN EN 10055

sharp-edged section; DIN 59051
U-section
U
U
30 65
1542
taper flange, radiused edges; DIN 1026, EURO-STANDARD 2462
Z-section
Z
Z
30160
3870
parallel flange, radiused edges; DIN 1027
Angle steel

L
20200
20100
equal flange, DIN 1028; EURO-STANDARD 5665; unequal flange
DIN 1029, EURO-STANDARD 5765, radiused edges, sharp-edged
sections; DIN 1022
Steel bars also include round-1, rectangular-2, hexagonal and special sections. 1) DIN 1013, EURO-STANDARD 60 2) DIN 1014, EURO-STANDARD 59

In the HE-B series, for 100-300 mm the height and width are the same,
above this the width remains constant at 300 mm. This is
almost the same for the HE-A and HE-M series.
Hollow sections:
Description
Hollow section

Abbreviation

taper flange, radiused edges; DIN 1026, EURO-STANDARD 2462

taper flange, radiused edges; DIN 1025, p. 1
DIN 1025, p. 5, EURO-STANDARD 1957
special section PE a, o, v, to factory standards
parallel flange, radiused edges, several types:
particularly light; factory standard HEAA
light: DIN 1025, p. 3, EURO-STANDARD 5362, HE-A (PBI)
normal: DIN 1025, p. 2, EURO-STANDARD 5362, HE-B (PB)
reinforced: DIN 1025, p. 4, EURO-STANDARD 5362, HE-M (PBv)
HD, HL, HX, PBS, HE-AA

Typewriter

Dimensions Wall thickness, s Notes, Standards

in mm
in mm
O
circular hollow diameter D
2.3100
section
21.31219
Hollow section

square hollow edge length 2.010

hot formed DIN EN 10210, cold formed DIN EN 10219
section
20400
rectangular
50 30 to
2.016
Hollow section
hollow section 500 300
Cold sections: sections made of flat rolled steel with almost uniform wall thickness. Formed by rolling (thickness > 0.48.0 mm) and bending (thickness up to
20 mm). DIN 59413, DASt-Ri 016 (German Committee for Steel Construction Guidelines), and factory standards. Large variety of forms and dimensions.
Trapezoidal sections: made of thin sheet rolled profile panels with high load-bearing capacity. Width 5001050 mm, section height 10200 mm, sheet thickness 0.651.50 mm), panel length up to 22000 mm. See Stahlbau-Arbeitshilfe (steel construction practical guide) 44 and 44.2. DIN 18807, Part 1 to 3, publ.
June 1987.
Wires, ropes, bundles: high strength, bending resistant ropes are made by twisting or bundling together a number of thin wires (usually with diameters of
0.15 0.35 mm).They are used in tension, e.g. for bridges, suspended ceilings and cable restraints for masts, aerials, chimneys, etc.; DIN 3051.
DIN = German Standard For British Standards see www.bsonline.bsi-global.com

47

5.4

The desire for individuality and independence from well-trodden pilgrim paths is pursued with the concept of a backpack
bridge (see Fig. 5.4). The foldable walkway, which can carry
2 people across a span of 10 m, can be simply unfolded on
site and put into place without the need for further bearing
anchorage. For the most part, the nodes of the trussed construction are simply jointed using locking cotter pins through
drilled holes; the folding procedure can thus be carried out
on site using the simplest of tools. Other materials besides
metals would also be conceivable as the primary building
material, e.g. carbon fibre reinforced plastics or bamboo.
The typical cost-effective spans of steel structures favour
larger column-free rooms with generally more slender material sections. The number of detail abutments required is thus
effectively reduced.
An important factor in simplifying structural systems is the
consideration of internal forces. Unfavourable stresses (e.g.
bending or buckling) necessitate a much greater, and therefore more costly, material input than normally stressed component sections. Some types of statically determined bearing
structures, (e.g. truss systems, tensegrity systems), are
favourable for material-saving uses. The comparatively high
ductility of load-bearing steel components tends to result in
significant deformations of slender structural steel members.
These deformations may not necessarily cause the collapse
of the structure, but could render it unusable at the very least.
The walkway made of steel and glass in Stuttgart (see
Fig. 5.9) employs statically utilised rectangular chords and
struts in addition to diagonally laid tie rods within the boxshaped walkway section. The extremely slender tie rods
made of simple narrow rectangular sections are in tension
under all loading conditions, owing to the selected static
system, and therefore require little material. At the node connections, the whole cross-sectional area can be welded on.
It is also important to ensure that the installation procedures
for such structures do not reverse the internal stresses and
thus possibly damage the components.
Further conceptual endeavours to simplify steel structures are
to be found in the optimisation of the relationship between
span widths, self-weight, deformation (ceilings, facades) and
the integration of steel fixture elements in the structure.
Another aspect is the minimisation of the processing works
required (e.g. drilling screw holes, notching edges, etc.) and
the immediate use of prefabricated, semi-finished products.
Series Production and Prefabricated Systems
The advantages of prefabricated system parts used in simple
structures are clear. They offer:
one-stop service
cost-effective solutions
adherence to delivery dates
simple, quick installation
high quality processing and quality assurance.
Although the designer is tied by the manufacturing-related
system constraints, the advantages of system building still
definitely win through. If the available building systems for
steel structures are investigated during the early design
stages and the potential suppliers can be involved in the
design process, significant competitive advantages can
result. However, individual systems have significant differences depending on the manufacturer (grid dimensions,

48

load-bearing capacity, sections, lengths, self-weight, delivery

periods, etc.). The building systems standardisation of
span widths, connections, profile cross-sections and details,
however, makes the production process much easier.
There are usually even integrated systems available for
specific building uses, such as complete solutions for multistorey car parks or office buildings. These often have the
disadvantage that one is restricted to the particular interior
finishing standards provided by the manufacturer. The preconception that prefabricated systems have a somewhat
temporary look, or that they are inflexible, however, is not
justified. With modern design and production methods
(e.g. CAD, CNC, laser technology), it is already possible to
produce logistically complex individual designs with grid
spacings of just a few cm.
During an Architecture Week in Freiburg (see Fig. 5.5, 5.6),
a temporary architecture tent was erected as a central
meeting place and for hosting exhibitions and presentations.
With its simplicity of form in conjunction with its external skin,
it is the quintessential abstract house. The construction consists of a double-skin circumferential framework, which can
function as an accessible exhibition area capable of accommodating technical installations and which encloses the
actual flexible main space. The bearing structure is made of
newly developed building components with a grid of 2.57 x
2.57 m and is compatible with conventional scaffolding parts.
The external skin is made of aluminium-metallised, impregnated fabric sheets and is secured against wind lift by
ground anchors. The costs incurred remained low and the
installation schedule was adhered to within the shortest
given times.

5.5

5.6

Construction Methods
Steel construction is to a large extent an elemental building
system, which usually produces a grid-based building structure. The floor system used in the structure determines primarily the efficiency of the floor plan design the necessary
column spacing and arrangement of main and secondary
beams can then be deduced (see Fig. 5.7). Larger spacing
between the columns generally leads to comparatively high
costs. In this respect, it can be shown that the lower the
number of load-bearing elements is and the shorter the load
transmission distances are, the more economical a steel
structure becomes. Vertical members should generally run in
a straight line and transmit the loads directly to the foundations. Stacked columns should be exactly congruent. For
technical reasons, rectangular sections are preferable to
round sections, as the geometry of the connections is easier
to manage even though this sometimes goes against the
design spirit. However, the basic rule still applies that, in
order to minimise material costs, a double T section is better
suited for structural elements that are predominantly in bending, whereas round, point-symmetric sections are better
where mostly normal loading applies. The construction methods can be categorised as follows:

5.4

Backpack Bridge; 1999; design and structural design: Q-Lab,

Maximilian Ruettiger; student thesis at the Munich University of
Applied Sciences
5.5, 5.6 Architecture Tent in Freiburg; 1998; architects: GJL Architekten,
Andreas Grube, Hans Jakel, Jrgen Lffler, Karl Langensteiner

49

 Post and beam construction (stacked columns, flexible

bearing joints)
Steel frame construction (columns and floor beams with
bending-resistant joints)
Module construction (prefabricated room units)
Sandwich construction (load-bearing laminar components)
Composite structures (usually using reinforced concrete
with load-bearing bond)
Module construction ranks relatively highly from the simplicity
point of view, as the modules have a high degree of prefabrication and only need to be unloaded on site. Sandwich constructions can also usually be quickly installed on site without
input from several different companies. Composite structures
tend to be disadvantageous, as the bonding with concrete
usually has to take place on site using in-situ concrete. This
necessitates extensive preliminary works and the coordination of several different trades (steel fixers, concrete workers), which often results in difficulties with meeting deadlines.
All types of structures must be sufficiently braced against
external horizontal forces (e.g. wind loading) using horizontal
or vertical bracing, sheets or box sections. The correct
choice of bracing is of great importance for the structure and
can dominate the entire design. The type of bracing also,
influences the building use, its appearance and efficiency,
and the construction process. The bracing elements should
be positioned such that they cannot cause any constraining
forces to develop when temperature changes occur. The aim
should be to place bracing members as centrally as possible
in the floor plan.
5.7

5.8
Column positions

Advantages

External

very dominant design element in the building

elevation
fire protection measures can sometimes be omitte
separation of facade and bearing structure
columns do not disrupt the internal space

Internal

uniform temperature distribution

therefore no heat bridges
separation of facade and bearing structure
no exposure to corrosion

Integrated

columns do not encroach on internal space

fewer fire protection measures, as usually
only the inner flange needs protecting
most effective use of space

Column positions

Disadvantages

External

different temperature-dependent deformations

in the inner and outer construction
heat bridges
special isolation and sealing measures requiredwhere members pass through the facade

Internal

the column takes up valuable space in the interior

passive fire protection measures are usually
necessary up to F 90
possible restrictions regarding partition wall
locations

Integrated

unequal temperature exposure (internal external)

creates bending stresses in the columns
sealing problems in the area of connections to the
facade
extensive isolation measures required

50

Basic Building Physics (heat, noise, fire and moisture

protection)
Heat protection
Due to its good heat conductivity, steel is a very poor heat
insulation material that forms undesirable thermal bridges in
internal/external connecting elements. Steel structures therefore require thermal separation to prevent unwanted heat
transfer.
Noise insulation
The noise insulating properties of structural components is
determined by their mass and the composition of their layers.
As a basic rule, several construction layers provide better
noise insulation than a single layer of the same weight (see
Fig. 5.10). The most important point is that the surfaces and
connections of the partitioning elements must be perfectly
sealed. Here lies one of the great intrinsic strengths of steel
structures, which demonstrate higher fitting precision at the
critical joints due to their industrially prefabricated elements.
A steel frame structure infilled with heavy slabs or masonry
work achieves the same level of noise protection as a conventional massive structure. Measures to help protect against
unfavourable impact-sound insulation include the provision of
sufficient weight per unit area for surfaces and the careful
noise insulation of multi-layer stratified structures such as
floating floors.
Fire protection
A coherent fire protection concept prohibits or delays the
start or spread of fires. It also facilitates the required emergency rescue measures. The level of security achieved is the

sum of all the preventative and protective fire protection

measures (see Fig. 5.11). As mentioned above, the critical
temperature for steel, approximately 500 C, brings about a
drastic reduction in the modulus of elasticity and the elastic
limit higher temperatures deprive unprotected steel structures of their designed load-transfer capability. From a fire
protection point of view, structural systems are preferred,
which can transfer the resulting internal forces by utilising
plastic load-bearing reserves. From a technical point of view,
there is the possibility of providing sections at risk with fire
protection covering (box-shaped cladding or coated sections). The question of surface quality often arises with regard
to coated sections, but there are now fire protection coatings
available in various performance categories (F 30, F 60,
F 90), which give an acceptable surface finish.
Moisture protection
The influence of moisture on steel parts should be avoided as
far as possible. As a general rule, it should be ensured that
component layers of external walls with higher vapour diffusion resistance and lower heat insulation should lie on the
warmer side of the component. Sufficient sealing at the installation abutments should prevent uncomfortable draughts and
the unfavourable convection of water vapour through the
joints.5

5.9

Rw (dB)
15

10

Surfaces

5
spacing between layers d2 (cm)

5.10

10

12

14

5.11
Fire resistance
class

Fire resistance
duration
(minutes)

Requirements
to be met

F 30
F 60

30
60

fire retardant

F 90
F 120
F 180

90
120
180

Material grade
A

There are three principles regarding corrosion protection:

approved description
incombustible building materials

B1
B2
B3

When processing metals with different chemical valances for

use in one structure, the danger of oxidation acid corrosion
must be precluded. Within an area that is exposed to rain,
the rainwater must not be allowed to subsequently flow over
less noble metals. A copper surface laid above a zinc surface will inevitably lead to corrosion damage. Materials that
are not detrimental to zinc include aluminium, lead, stainless
steel and galvanised steel (although rust run-off traces are
possible at unprotected cut edges). Mineral materials such
as cement, gypsum or lime also have a corrosive effect on
metals when moisture is present. Suitable separating layers
must be provided in this case.

fire resistant

A1
A2
B

Steel is rarely used in its pure form, without surface protection. Carefully planned and implemented steel surface coatings are characterised by a long service life and few
deficiencies in quality. Hot-dip galvanised surfaces perform
very well and have extremely favourable cost-benefit values
in every day use. Compared to concrete, wood or masonry, a
steel component requires relatively more initial investment for
surface protection, but remains comparatively maintenance
free in the long term.

combustible building materials

highly flammable building materials
moderately flammable building materials
slightly flammable building materials

Naturally protected surfaces

e.g. aluminium, stainless steel, zinc, tin, copper and titanium,
do not require additional protection measures under normal
weather conditions, as they possess self-generating and
5.7
5.8
5.9

Common column grids in steel construction

Advantages and disadvantages of different column positions
Walkway made of steel and glass, 2003, Stuttgart; architects:
Architekten 3P
5.10 Noise insulation in double shell construction compared to single shell
of same weight
5.11 Fire resistance grades of building components

51

regenerative passive layers. In the case of low alloy steels,

some quickly start to form rust on the surface, but over time
the rusting process gradually ceases (e.g. COR-TEN). The
corroded surface forms a weatherproof layer that protects the
steel beneath it. Buildings made of such pre-rusted steel,
however, must always be allowed to dry out again after wetting. Rainwater containing rust particles must be carefully
drained, as neighbouring components are subject to the
latent danger of rust-staining due to corrosion products being
washed over them.
The archaeological museum in Kalkriese (see Fig. 5.13),
which marks the location in the Teutoburg Forest of the historical battle between the Germanic tribes and the Roman
legions (the battle of Varus), is set within the arena of an
overall landscaping design concept. Steel plates and poles,
all covered in natural rust, document the historical locations
and paths. The museum affords a three-dimensional overview of the site. It has a steel load-bearing structure, which
remains visible. The steel plate cladding is only surfaceblasted, but it gains a natural protective rusted appearance
dependent on the weather conditions. The surface of the
buildings facade harmonises with the colour of the raw sheet
pile walls (marking the lower-lying sections of the grounds),
the steel paving plates and marking poles.
Coatings made of metal plating
An electroplating process causes the electrochemical deposition of protective metals such as zinc. The original metal is
no longer visible, but since the protective layers are thin it
remains susceptible to mechanical damage, particularly at
open edges, perforations and welded joints. Freshly galvanised surfaces must be given further treatment, or alternatively exposed to the weather for several months, before they
can receive an additional colour coating if desired.
Coating with non-metallic materials
Coated surfaces with non-metallic coatings include mainly
transparent or opaque paints and calandered films with various layer thicknesses (fire protection coating). Polyester is
usually used for this purpose.
The widely used stove-enamel coatings are enamels, whose
molecules cross-link when heated to 80 350C due to chemical reactions between polyester and melamine resin. They
form a shiny, mechanically resilient and corrosion resistant
surface. Stove-enamelled components are easy to handle,
robust and have a very long service life.6
Facade concepts
Due to stricter regulations (complex consideration of physical
parameters, energy saving regulations: ENEV), the technical
and climatic demands on facades in their capacity as physically effective building envelopes are ever increasing. The
appearance and manufacturing of the facades can be
simple, but the way they function and their material structure
can be extremely complex. A positive effect of this is that
good quality high-tech systems, such as the assembly of an
insulating double glazing unit, have now become relatively
inexpensive standard products. Opportunities for simple
solutions present themselves mainly in situations where only
the optical and/or simple partitioning aspects of the facade
are important.
From a building physics point of view, facade systems can
52

be divided into single or multi-shell systems. The latter can

be constructed with a ventilated or unventilated external
shell. The difference lies in the savings made in the vapour
barrier material layer and in the redundancy of the drying out
effect in multi-layer systems, if moisture once finds its way
into the ventilated facade section. A ventilated construction
requires sufficiently large ventilation openings to separate the
external shell from the underlying layer (> 1/500 of the ventilated area). This enables watervapour which has diffused out
of the interior of the building to be carried away before it can
condense in the flow layer and cause moisture build-up.
Unventilated constructions do not have a separating air layer.
The advantage here lies in the reduced thickness, the
absence of ventilation openings, and the simple construction.
Effective and carefully laid vapour barriers are necessary,
however. The single skin systems are easier to construct.
With just a few exceptions (sandwich panels), the demands
on the external skin of facade elements are usually limited to
mechanical weather protection, corrosion protection and various mechanical demands related to usage. Outstanding
facade concepts can be created using simple metallic materials steel elements of multifarious types (e.g. steel sheets
covering the entire area, gratings, meshes) integrated into
the building envelope.
There are numerous possibilities for simplifying facade
concepts:
elemental facade construction using replaceable panels
use of the direct glazing principle without intermediate
layers and assuming sufficient precision of the substructure
use of standardised clip, bracket and screw systems
observance of cost-effective span widths
use of series-produced products
customised demand profile (no charge for superfluous
properties)
avoidance of differing materials, taking into account the
galvanic series of metals (contact corrosion)
maintenance-free construction use of dry sealing
simple system structure using multifunctional properties of
skin layers (system building)

5.12

5.13

The church designed by GMP (Gerkan, Marg and Partner) for

the Expo 2000 trade fair in Hannover has a building envelope
made of simple steel elements, (see Fig. 5.12). The system is
based on a spatial cubic grid with 3.40 metre-long sides. Its
steel structure can be quickly and easily assembled or dismantled thanks to a specially developed and patented pushfit joint: the Sigma-Knoten.
Simple facade concepts make extensive use of series produced elements, e.g. metal grating or mesh, which are easy
to fix. The service pavilion in Brest (see p. 138ff.), which
houses public toilets and a tool-storage room, has a diaphanous external facade envelope made of simple metal grating
and affords additional desired views between a sandy beach
and the landscaped grounds of a public park. Due to its
location, the pavilion had to provide two entrances opposite
each other. The greatest possible transparency was

5.12 Christus Pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover; architects: von Gerkan,
Marg und Partner
5.13 Kalkriese Museum, 2001; architects: Gigon/Guyer Architekten

53

achieved through the facade areas. The residential house

in Kobe (see Fig. 5.14, 5.15) is conceptually composed of
individual stacked space cubes, which contain the various
living areas. Consequently, the spatial arrangement can be
distinguished from outside. The external skin is formed with
profiled plates made of simple galvanised steel, painted
red-brown. These characterise the external appearance,
which is broken only by purposefully placed large-format
glass panels. Some deviations from conventional European
detailing can be seen in the detail design, which is explained
by the traditional Japanese simple detail philosophy that differs from our customary standards.7
Information on Simple Construction
Further general information is given below on simplifying the
use of steel in civil engineering.

5.14

5.15

aa

Manufacturing
As a rule, no special equipment is required for the further
processing of steel. Thus even small companies are able to
carry out construction works with steel products. Modern
processing technologies such as CNC milling or laser cutting
are now widely used. Installation utilities planned during the
workshop phase (tightening plates, fastening eyes, etc.)
speed up the installation works on site and are definitely to
be recommended. It is also helpful to agree and modify the
workshop and installation design with the steel fitter, so that it
reflects the architects steel design, but is not necessarily
identical to it.
Installation
High quality and flexible material abutments can be achieved
with welded connections, but this is very difficult under site
conditions. Also, the high welding temperatures damage the
protective coatings applied in the workshop, and these
cannot usually be satisfactorily repaired. It is therefore advisable to use only removable fastenings, e.g. bolts, on construction sites. This also makes the disassembly works at the
end of the structures service life much easier. The installation
works associated with material connections can be minimised by using fewer but larger prefabricated installation
parts. Transportation via public highways is usually the limiting factor that determines the maximum dimensions of the
building components.
Due to the relatively high thermal expansion of steel, a precise fit is not possible during installation if larger temperature
fluctuations occur. Thus it is advisable to plan the works
keeping in mind the seasonal temperatures expected at the
time of installation.
The use of series produced parts renders the design of steel
structures much easier. This has a positive effect on costeffectiveness and the meeting of deadlines. Ideally, standardised fittings should be used at the connection points of
steel nodes and bracing elements instead of designer solutions, which are complicated to manufacture and sometimes
structurally dubious. Where two connecting rods cross, it is
better to offset them from each other than to use grommet
plates with circular holes, which are time-consuming to cut.

5.14, 5.15 Floor plan of ground floor, section and view of residential house
in Kobe, 2001; architect: Toshiaki Kawai

54

Protection of components
Protection measures for the component surfaces are ideally
applied in the workshop under constant, systematic conditions. This ensures the efficient use of machines to guarantee
consistent manufacturing quality. Finished steel parts should
be carefully stored to prevent the intrusion of moisture and to
allow existing moisture to flow away (store in inclined position). It is better to store high quality surfaces face to face.
Adhesive film on the viewed surface should be avoided
(danger of residue). If larger numbers of steel products are
being transported, it is better to support them on suitable pallets. When being moved singly by crane, textile straps should
be used.
Due to the good heat conductivity of steel, which from a
building physics point of view is disadvantageous, thermal
isolation must always be provided for steel parts passing
through the building envelope. This can be achieved using
simple hard plastic elements.

DIN ISO 9044

DIN 18202
DIN 18203-2
DIN V 18230
DIN 18339
DIN 18351

DIN 18516
DIN 24041
DIN 24537
DIN 50923

DIN 50939
DIN 50959

DIN 50961
DIN 55928

As students we were taught to design things as simply as

possible. Achieving simplicity was often difficult though, and
not always obvious. Indeed, the intellectual effort required to
find simple solutions can sometimes exceed that required for
comparatively complex ones. And this is precisely where the
timeless quality of simple things seems to lie.
Bibliography
1
Schaefer, Stefan: Metal Facade Finishings. In: Detail, issue 1/2 2003,
p. 90 102, Munich 2003
2
Deutscher Stahlbau-Verband (publ.): Stahlbau-Taschenkalender
Vorschriften, Normen und Profile. (Steel Construction Pocket Diary
Regulations, Standards and Sections), Cologne 1999
3
Schaefer, Stefan: Diaphanous metals. In: Kaltenbach, Frank (publ.):
Detail Praxis: Translucent Materials, S. 80. Munich 2003
4
Schulitz, Sobek, Habermann: Steel Construction Manual.
Munich 1999
5
Schfer, Stefan: Diaphanous metals. In: Kaltenbach, Frank (publ.):
Detail Praxis: Translucent Materials, S. 80. Munich 2003
6
ipid.
7
Kindmann, Rolf; Krahwinkel, Manuel: Stahl- und Verbundkonstruktionen. (Steel and Composite Structures). Stuttgart, Leipzig 1999
8
Schittich, Christian (publ.): In Detail: Building Skins Concept, Layers,
Materials. Munich 2001
9
Liersch, K.: Belftete Dach- und Wandkonstruktionen. (Ventilated Roof
and Wall Constructions). Wiesbaden, Berlin, several volumes since
1981
10 Petersen, Christian: Stahlbau Grundlagen der Berechnung und baulichen Ausbildung von Stahlbauten. (Principles of the calculations and
structural development of steel structures). 3rd edition, Braunschweig
1997
11 Prouv, Jean: Meister der Blechumformung Das neue Blech. (Masters of Sheet Steel Forming The New Steel Sheet). Cologne 1991
12 Rter, E.: Bauen mit Stahl, Kreative Lsungen praktisch umgesetzt.
(Building with Steel, creative solutions practically implemented).
Berlin, Heidelberg 1997
13 Deutscher Stahlbau-Verband (publ.):Stahlbau-Handbuch. (Steel Construction Hand Book). (Volumes 1 and 2). 3rd edition, Cologne 1993
14 Deutscher Stahlbau-Verband (publ.): Stahlbau Arbeitshilfen. (Steel
Construction Working Guide). Cologne 2004

DIN EN 988
DIN EN ISO 1461
DIN EN ISO 4526
DIN EN ISO 6158
DIN EN ISO 9044
DIN EN 10020
DIN EN 10088
DIN EN 10147
DIN EN 10240

DIN EN 13658
DIN EN 14509

DIN EN 29453
ISO 565
DASt Guildeline 019:

Industrial woven wire cloth Technical requirements

and testing
Dimensional tolerances in building construction
Buildings
Tolerances in building; prefabricated steel components
Structural fire protection in industrial buildings Part 1
General technical specifications in construction contracts; Sheet metal roofing and wall covering work
General technical specifications in construction contracts; Work on non-loadbearing, ventilated at rear,
external vertical enclosures of buildings
Cladding for externals walls
Perforated plates Dimensions
Flooring grids Dimensions and loadbearing capacity
Electroplated coatings Duplex coatings of zinc or zinc
alloy coatings with organic coatings on iron or steel
Draft
Chromating aluminium - Principles and testing
Electrodeposited coatings; corrosive resistance of electrodeposited coatings on iron and steel under different
climatic conditions
Electroplated coatings Zinc coatings on iron and steel
Terms, testing and corrosion resistance
Corrosion protection of steel structures by the application of organic or metallic coatings
Specifications for zinc and zinc alloy rolled flat products
for building
Hot dip galvanized coatings on fabricated iron and steel
articles
Metallic coatings Electroplated coatings of nickel for
engineering purposes
Metallic coatings Electrodeposited coatings of chromium for engineering purposes
Industrial woven wire cloth Technical requirements and
testing
Definition and classification of grades of steel
Stainless steels
Continuously hot-dip zinc coated structural steel sheet
and strip Technical delivery conditions
Internal and/or external protective coatings for steel
tubes - Specification for hot dip galvanized coatings
applied in automatic plants
Metal lath and beads Definitions, requirements and
test methods Draft
Self-supporting double skin metal faced insulating sandwich panels Factory made products Specification
Draft
Solder alloys; Chemical composition and forms of supply
Test sieves metal wire cloth, perforated metal plate
and electroformed sheet nominal sizes of openings
Fire protection for steel and steel composite building
components (for offices and administrative buildings),
Draft, September 2001.

From: Guidelines for the construction of metal roofs, external wall cladding
and steel fixing works Draft (Regulations for the plumbing trade) from the
Central Organisation for Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning

Important Standards
DIN 1055-2
Design Loads for Buildings
DIN ISO 3310
Test sieves Technical requirements and testing
DIN 4102
Fire Behaviour of Building Materials and Building
Components, Parts 14
DIN 4108
Thermal insulation in buildings
DIN 4109
Sound insulation in buildings; requirements and testing
DIN ISO 4782
Metal wire for industrial wire screens and woven wire
cloth
DIN ISO 4783
Industrial wire screens and woven wire cloth
DIN 9430
Aerospace; sampling of semi-finished products in light
metals; wrought aluminium alloys, titanium and titanium
alloys

55

Table of projects according to materials used

Timber

Brickwork and stone

page 58
Log Bridge in Alto Adige
Timber poles /steel

page 92
House in Dortmund
Brickwork/concrete/timber

page 62
Weekend House in Vallemaggia
Timber framework

page 98
House in Dresden
Rendered brickwork

page 66
Holiday Cabins in Mirasaka, Japan
Timber framework

page 102
Urban Development near Cdiz
Rendered brickwork

page 70
Sauna in Finland
Timber framework

page 106
House near Ingolstadt
Rendered brickwork

page 74
Market Hall in Aarau
Laminated timber

page 110
House in Matosinhos
Natural stone/concrete

page 78
Carpentry Works in Feldkirch
Laminated timber/timber panels

page 114
Wine Store in Vauvert, France
Limestone blockwork

page 82
Petanque Centre in The Hague
Lam. timber/polycarbonate panels

page 118
Cemetery in Galicia
Granite slabs

page 86
Temporary Cultural Centre in Munich
Laminated timber/timber panels
page 164
Tea Ceremony House in Yugawara, Japan
Timber/plywood/aluminium
56

Clay

Steel

Concrete

page 122
Cemetery Extension with Chapel
in Batschuns
Rammed clay

page 126
House in Oldenburg
Trapezoidal sheeting/steel

page 142
Store and Studio in Hagi, Japan
In-situ concrete/timber

page 130
Bridge Construction in Zwischenwasser
Weather-resistant steel

page 146
House in Chur
In-situ concrete / light weight concrete

page 132
Landing Stage in Alicante Harbour
Steel/sheeting

page 152
Building and Construction Centre
in Munich
Pre-cast concrete

page 138
Service Pavilion in Brest
Trapezoidal sheeting/steel/steel grating

page 158
Model Workshop in Wolfratshausen
Reinforced concrete/polycarbonate
panels

57

Log Bridge in Alto Adige

Architects: monovolume, Innsbruck
Lukas Burgauner, Patrik Ped and
Timon Tagliacozzo, University of Innsbruck

Stretching across the 28-metre-wide gully, this sturdy bridge

of naturally finished timber poles fits perfectly into the Alpine
landscape. To avoid the flood damage that the old bridge
had repeatedly suffered during the spring thaw, the local
authorities decided that the new structure should span the
entire gully, linking the Schlern natural reserve and the
Tschpitalm alpine hut. Three students from the University of
Innsbruck designed the bridge along the lines of the typical
wooden alpine log cabins of the region, producing an unusually harmonious yet refreshing new feature in the mountainous
landscape.
The construction restricts itself to only two materials. The
structural elements are made exclusively of round, weatherresistant larch poles with connections of galvanized steel.
Designed to resist compression and shearing stresses, it
consists of two parallel arches connected by cross beams.
The timber poles forming the parabolic arches are set out
tangentially. Each member functions as a single-span beam,
cantilevered at one end. The maximum moment is reduced
by the cantilevers, which, together with the necessary steel
cable stays, also create the balustrade at the centre of the
bridge. Tension cables on the underside provide wind bracing. The timber pedestrian ramps are simply bolted to the
structure. The selection of local, untreated timber lends the
bridge a natural, homogeneous quality, allowing it to blend
into its environment, and simultaneously minimises transport
costs. Despite the raw, untreated surfaces of the bridge, its
clarity of detail and constructional simplicity endow it with a
graceful weightlessness.

58

aa

a
Elevation
Plan Section
scale 1:200

59

9
7

2
5

1
6

Elevation

scale 1:20

1 longitudinal and cross beams

270 mm round untreated larch poles
2 cross beam
130 mm larch pole
3 handrail and post
130 mm larch poles
4 decking, screwed,
40 60 mm larch strips
200 40 mm larch planks
5 6 mm galvanized steel stranded cable
6 threaded dowel
7 galvanized steel turnbuckle
8 10 mm galvanized steel woodscrew
9 10 mm galvanized steel nut
10 76.1 10 mm steel tube
11 320 mm steel plate 16 mm thick
12 114.3 11 mm steel tube
13 concrete fill

60

12
10
11

13

Weekend House in Vallemaggia

Architect: Roberto Briccola, Giubiasco

Reflecting the tradition of the Walser Valley granaries, this

small weekend house was designed to blend into the natural
surroundings. Sited on the fringe of the small Ticinese village
of Campo Vallemaggia, the house is reduced to its essence.
The fundamental construction concepts of the granaries have
been adhered to, with the timber structure finding protection
from rising moisture and ravenous rodents due to its elevation
above the ground. The house seems to hover above the
Alpine meadow, raised as it is on four slender corner piles.
The simple cubic form is broken only by the projecting porch
made of welded steel panels, all other openings being deeply
set into the facades.
The ground floor of the compact two storey cottage accommodates the entrance, living and dining areas, with an integrated
kitchenette. The living space extends out via large glazed sliding doors to the sheltered loggia which is cut into the cube,
providing magnificent panoramic views of the surrounding
mountains and adjacent village. From the ground floor a
narrow spiral staircase leads to the upper level which houses
two simple, small bedrooms and a compact bathroom. A storage zone extending along the length of the side wall is concealed behind sliding doors.
Apart from the concrete piles and the raking porch, the house
is constructed entirely of timber, all structural elements being
made of fir. The facades are clad with continuous, horizontal
larch timber boarding and constructed to provide internal ventilation cavities. The larch cladding will, over time, acquire the
inevitable silver-grey patina of naturally weathered timber. The
window framing is finely detailed and the house is lined internally with three-ply laminated fir boarding.

a
b

62

Site plan
scale 1:2500
Floor plans
scale 1:200
Horizontal section
scale 1:20
1 wall construction:
27 mm larch boarding
27 mm battens
100 140 mm fir post
140 mm mineral wool thermal
insulation, vapour barrier
27 mm battens
19 mm three-ply laminated fir
boarding

63

aa

64

bb

Sections scale 1:200

Vertical section scale 1:20
1 plastic membrane
27 mm three-ply laminated fir boarding
100 x 200 mm fir rafters, 160 mm mineral wool
thermal insulation, vapour barrier
19 mm three-ply laminated fir boarding
2 27 mm larch boarding, 27 mm battens
100 140 mm fir post
140 mm mineral wool thermal insulation
vapour barrier, 27 mm battens
19 mm three-ply laminated fir boarding
3 27 mm three-ply laminated fir boarding
100 x 160 mm fir rafters
19 mm three-ply laminated fir boarding
4 27 mm three-ply laminated fir boarding
vapour barrier, 160 mm mineral wool thermal
insulation, 19 mm oriented strand board

65

Holiday Cabins in Mirasaka, Japan

Architects: The Architecture Factory, Tokyo
Tom Heneghan, Kazuhiro Ando, Naoki Kaji

Site plan
scale 1:2000

Nestled on a densely wooded slope, near Mirasaka in the

prefecture of Hiroshima, lies a holiday camp for children.
The development includes seven small cabins and a central
building accommodating a restaurant and bathrooms. The
simple cubic forms of the cabins contrast starkly with the natural environment; the selection of materials and finishes, however, create an unexpectedly harmonious combination. The
cabins are integrated into their natural surroundings by the
use of green-stained cedar boarding which externally clads
the simple timber frame constructions. The roofs are covered
with grey sheet steel, over which pergolas of simply cut and
untreated timber posts provide shade and further scope for
climbing plants.
Each cabin consists of a central room with a small loft,
reached by a wooden ladder. A tiny kitchen and a storage
area are separated from the main room by sliding walls; the
compact bathroom is placed centrally between the two, completing the spatial concept of the cabins. A changing area is
created by sliding the storeroom wall panel across the kitchen.
In Japan, it is customary to remove ones shoes and leave
them in the genkan immediately behind the front door. Here,
there is not enough space for a genkan; instead, a shoe cupboard is provided. It is integrated into the terrace facade and
separates the entrance area from the rest of the veranda.
A wooden ladder from the veranda leads to a viewing bench
on the roof, shielded from the sun by the pergola. Here the
children can spend a few quiet moments hidden in the tree
tops, enjoying the views across the valley. The sheltered,
almost secret quality of the roof look-out is created by raised
side walls, the protective pergola structure above and the
sharply sloping roof beneath ones feet.

4
3

5
7
a

66

9
Axonometrics
not to scale
Floor plan Section
scale 1:100
1 Entrance
2 Genkan shoe
cupboard
3 Main room
4 Store
5 Bathroom
6 Kitchen
7 Terrace
8 Loft
9 Pergola with look-out

aa

67

Detail sections
scale 1:20
1 roof construction:
0.4 mm sheet steel roofing
bituminous membrane
12 mm plywood
100 mm glass-wool thermal insulation
between 45 210 mm rafters
5.5 mm oak-veneered plywood
2 wall construction:
15 mm Japanese cedar tongue and
groove boarding
bituminous membrane
12 mm waterproof-bonded plywood
100 mm glass-wool thermal insulation
between 105 105 mm timber rails
5.5 mm oak-veneered plywood
3 90 45 mm ladder posts

4 50 50 mm ladder rungs
5 pine casement window
with 5 mm glass
6 insect screen
7 floor construction:
15 mm oak tongue and groove boarding
42 mm thermal insulation slabs between
45 45 mm timber battens
12 mm chipboard
8 bench: 30 50 mm pine battens
9 footboard: 90 90 mm cedar rails
10 handrail and posts:
100 100 mm pine rails
11 48.6 mm steel tube
12 4 mm stainless-steel tension cable
13 90 180 mm pine beam

bb

68

b
13

10

12

8
1

11

69

Sauna in Finland
Architect: Jaakko Keppo, Technical University Helsinki

Situated on a lake in the middle of a Finnish forest, this 20 m2

structure comprises a sauna and a relaxation room, joined by
a covered terrace. This terrace, with a view across the lake,
also serves as the entrance to the building. The construction
is intended solely for summer usage and therefore only has
minimal thermal insulation in the roof.
The sauna is the outcome of a student competition at the
University of Helsinki. The manageable dimensions and simple
function of this structure enabled it to be considered as a
study project for the selected building material: locally available native timbers. It provided an opportunity to experiment
with various construction techniques and detailing at full
scale.
Timber, as a renewable resource, is of great cultural and
economic significance in Finland. Apart from aesthetic considerations, the criteria for the design and its realisation were
durability, ecological quality and potential suitability for industrial prefabrication. The innovative use of the native timbers
pine, birch, alder and aspen, was also required.
Elevated above the soft forest floor by reinforced concrete
pad foundations, the rigid laminated pine framework is clearly
visible throughout the building. The spacings between the
frames are clad differently according to the usage of the room.
The panels are made of assorted timber types with different
detailing, allowing various patterns of light to permeate into the
sauna, reminiscent of the way sunlight filters through a forest
of mixed tree species. Hence different zones of the sauna
have different light qualities and atmospheres.
Most timber connections used in this building are concealed
fixings, fitted internally and in fact standard fixings for timber
constructions.

70

Floor plan
section
scale 1:100
1 Sauna
2 Terrace
3 Relaxation room

aa

71

1
Detail sections
scale 1:20

1 roof construction:
bituminous membrane
18 mm birch plywood
45 45 mm pine battens
roof element of 9 mm birch plywood
50 mm thermal insulation between
50 50 mm studs
15 mm birch plywood
2 wall construction (relaxation room):
28 80 mm aspen boards, grooved twice
externally
30 45 mm battens.
15 mm birch plywood, colour waxed
3 wall construction (sauna):
45 60 80 mm graded alder boarding,
jointed with two plywood tongues;
40 60 mm pine strips as bracing
4 76 150 mm laminated pine rigid frame with
20 mm wood dowel concealed fixings
5 sauna door: 45 mm solid pine with 6 mm glass
strips
6 sliding door: glue-bonded elements of
45 45 mm pine and 15 42 mm alder strips
with
15 mm pine tongues
7 30 45 mm open larch grating
8 45 mm glue-bonded pine boarding

bb

72

cc

c
5
7

6
7

aa

73

Market Hall in Aarau

Architects: Miller & Maranta, Basle

Slender vertical timber framing at close intervals provides both

the structural basis and the visual design concept of this new
market hall in the centre of the old Swiss town of Aarau. At first
sight, the irregular flat roofed timber construction, measuring
roughly 20 30 m, appears incompatible with the surrounding
built environment. The bent plan of the building, however, fits
precisely into the large open space at Frberplatz created more
than 20 years ago. The hall plays host all year round to various
cultural events and markets. It was conceived as an open plan
structure with the external cladding having no real thermal function. The two diagonally opposite openings in the north and
south facades can be secured by large sliding gates. The
external laminated timber columns and the alternation of the
open facade in the upper sections of the elevations with the
closed internal cladding of the lower sections, heighten the
effect of the building appearing either massive or transparent
according to the viewers stand point. The timber elements were
treated with a copper-pigmented varnish that lends the structure a light bronze tone, emphasising its sculptural qualities.
The columns are fixed to the horizontal timber roof members
creating the overall structural framework of the hall. The junctions of the louver-like columns and roof beams are rendered
structurally rigid by milled dovetail jointing. The longitudinal
and cross beams meet at the central column, which is constructed of four individual timber members clad with laminated
timber boarding. The entire structure is braced by the fixing of
the central column, the rigid joints of the framework, the resistance to shear of the roof panels and internal cladding. The
horizontal laminated timber rail encircles the entire structure
and reduces the effective height of the facade columns to
approximately half.

74

Site plan
scale 1:3000
Floor plan Sections
scale 1:500

aa

bb

75

2
Sections

scale 1:20
7

1 2 mm copper rainwater box gutter

2 UV-resistant bitum. membrane
on separation layer
27 mm timber boarding
80 120 mm rafters
60 60 300 mm graded
timber bearers
27 mm three-ply laminated
boarding
3 secondary beam
70 450 mm lam. Douglas fir
4 continuous rail
635 70 mm lam. Douglas fir
5 internal cladding, 45 2600 mm
three-ply laminated
Douglas fir boarding
6 facade louver

8
9

10

11

12

100 450 mm laminated

Douglas fir
sliding gate
70 mm five-ply laminated
Douglas fir boarding
sprinkler supply pipe
longitudinal beam
240 1127 mm laminated
Douglas fir
2 sheets 600 15 mm
laminated timber sheeting
glued and bolted
850 850 mm central column
constructed of
4 members 240 240 mm
clad with 45 mm three-ply
laminated timber boarding
column 240 509 mm
laminated timber

2
1

6
7

76

10

9
11

6
12
6

5
7

77

Carpentry Works in Feldkirch

Architect: Walter Unterrainer, Feldkirch

The clear architecture of this new timber manufacturing and

administration building in Feldkirch, Austria is captivating in its
simplicity and purity. The discrete building elements were individually and concisely designed in order to optimise construction processes, to reduce construction costs and also
subsequent production costs. At the northern end, at the junction between the production hall and the administration tract,
an attractive entrance has been created, accentuated by a
cylindrical silo displaying in the companys logo.
The expertise of the carpenters employed by the company
was able to be fully utilised allowing the construction to be
completed on a relatively small budget. The production hall is
laid out on a 2.0 m grid. All beams and columns are of laminated timber, including those bearing the loads from the overhead crane. The crane is able to travel very close to the facade
with the advantage that the productive floor area of the building can be fully optimised. The roof beams are rebated at the
bearing points at the columns, creating an elegant connection
between the two, and accommodating lighting and other technical services. The horizontal shear stresses are born by the
closed facade elements on the east and west elevations, which
consist of composite timber and glass panels. The transparent
north facade allows uninterrupted views into the manufacturing
area and introduces indirect natural lighting; the exclusion of
overhead skylights was decided upon to reduce construction
costs and undesirable heat loss. Along the south face, cementbonded chipboard behind a layer of double glazing provides
a solid thermal mass that regulates the internal climate. The
office tract was built to passive energy standards, any required
heating being provided by the radiant heat from the timber
waste furnace which is integrated into the building.

aa
Sections
Ground floor plan
Upper floor plan
scale 1: 500
1
2
3
4

Entrance
Production hall
Machine hall
Heating

78

5 Double-height
void
6 Archive
7 Corridor
8 Store
9 Changing room / WC
10 Office
11 Meeting room
12 Silo

bb

B
A

3
b

6
12

7
10

11

10

12

79

11

cc

10
c

dd

1 22 mm oriented strand board, vapour barrier

200 mm thermal insulation
22 mm oriented strand board
2 8 mm fibre-cement strip
3 laminated timber framing
4 22 mm oriented strand board
15 mm fibre-cement sheeting
vapour barrier
200 mm thermal insulation
15 mm fibre-cement sheeting
45 mm thermal insulation
2 x 15 mm fibre-cement sheeting
22 mm oriented strand board
5 10 mm steel plate
6 impermeable membrane
2 x 100 mm thermal insulation
vapour barrier, 35 mm timber boarding
7 double glazing in aluminium frame
8 8 mm fibre-cement sheeting
impermeable membrane
50 mm thermal insulation
9 180 mm thermal insulation
10 150 mm thermal insulation
11 impermeable membrane
22 mm oriented strand board
280 mm thermal insulation, vapour barrier
22 mm oriented strand board
12 linoleum, 70 mm screed, seperation layer
30 mm impact-sound insulation
22 mm oriented-strand board
200 mm sound insulation
80 mm stone chippings on sealing layer
22 mm oriented-strand board

80

12

e
3

10

4
3

2
ee

Horizontal sections
Vertical sections
scale 1:20

81

Petanque Centre in The Hague

Architects: Arconiko Architecten, Rotterdam

The desire to play petanque the whole year round was the
driving force for the Jeu de Boules sports club in The Hague
to erect this large-span construction. The purpose-built hall
abuts the existing clubrooms and is directly accessible from
them. Competition regulations for the game of petanque
require a playing field to measure 3 by 15 metres and have a
clear height of 5 metres, hence determining the dimensions of
the hall. It is divided into two areas, each with seven playing
fields, by a three metre wide central strip, which is crowned by
a skylight of polycarbonate panels.
The entire prefabricated load-bearing structure of laminated
timber beams was erected on site in a single day. The
33 metre long building is spanned with only two intermediate
bearing structures located within the central zone. These
inverted V-frames support the main beam, transferring the
loads from the suspended cross beams. The cross beams are
supported in the short elevations by slender 12 cm laminated
timber columns. The hall is roofed with trapezoidal metal
sheeting which cantilevers out to a width of four metres on
each of the shorter sides of the building, protecting these
facades from inclement weather and at the same time reducing the static height of the secondary construction. The interior
and exterior of the building merge together on the short sides,
the facades being glazed in the lower section with large format
panes, above which are translucent polycarbonate partitions
providing indirect and glare-free illumination in the sports hall.
The longer sides are clad with horizontally ribbed metal sheeting in changing profiles, producing a subtle but effective treatment of the facades.
The architects have produced an economical yet attractive
building by the selection of a limited range of materials and
b
their eloquent interaction and detailing.

Sections
Floor plan
scale 1:750
1
2
3
4
5

Entrance
Canteen
Kitchen
New petanque hall
Spectators area

4
aa

2
a

bb

82

83

11

12

4
3

Detail section

scale 1:20

1 roof construction:
bituminous membrane, double layer
60 mm insulation graded to fall
60 mm thermal insulation
vapour barrier
750 x 106 x 0,75 mm galvanized
steel sheeting
2 1.5 mm aluminium sheet fascia
3 120 x 720 mm laminated timber beam
4 fixed glazing
5 70 x 70 x 4 mm steel channel section
6 120 x 320 mm laminated timber column
7 30 mm translucent polycarbonate hollow
cellular panels
8 6 mm float glass
9 40 x 50 mm steel angle
10 sand fill
11 polycarbonate hollow cellular panel skylight
12 200 x 1120 mm laminated timber beam
13 110 x 270 mm laminated timber frame
14 12 mm steel plate
15 concrete paving slabs

13

14

cc

84

10

15

85

Temporary Cultural Centre in Munich

Architect: Florian Nagler Architekten, Munich

Site plan
scale 1:2000
Floor plan Sections
scale 1:400

86

The Munich suburb of Neuperlach, with its multitude of apartment blocks from the 1950s and 1960s, is home to over
100,000 residents who have long bemoaned the lack of adequate cultural infrastructure. This temporary construction was
erected to fill the gap, until a more permanent community
centre could be built.
The architects brief was to design and construct this interim
solution within 10 months, on an exceptionally limited budget.
The cultural centre, noticeable for the cantilevered canopy roof
over the entrance, gives the impression of a stage placed in
the central plaza of Neuperlach originally planned to be the
flourishing hub of the community.
The single storey timber structure is constructed of prefabricated building elements; the square shaped floor plan being
based on a layout of 4 by 6 elements, each of which was limited by transport restrictions to maximum dimensions of 3.5 by
7 metres. The sequential layout of these container elements
produces four equal areas: the open-air entrance zone and
three equally sized internal zones, each made up of a central
open space and adjacent utility rooms. The massive laminated
timber walls of the container elements create double walls with
insulating, sealed cavity spaces at their connection joints.
The interior of the cultural centre is characterised by unembellished, unclad timber construction surfaces. The simplified fitout of the building contrasts with the ingenious layout of the
internal spaces. The central zone provides a hall for 200 people,
which, when opened into the foyer, can accommodate up to
300 people. Conversely, by utilising the sliding walls, the central hall can be divided into three equal-sized rooms. When the
sliding walls are not required they can be folded and recessed
between the walls of the adjacent utility rooms. The glass sliding wall to the foyer can also be fully recessed to accommodate open air functions. A cavity for technical services is
located within the roof space of the utility rooms, made possible by their lower ceiling heights. The central hall and foyer are
naturally and indirectly lit by ten ventilated skylights in a sawtooth roof construction. The illuminated ceiling of polycarbonate hollow-cell panels filters and distributes the daylight
uniformly into the hall space. Timber shutters are incorporated
into the saw-tooth roof to darken the space as desired.
The entire construction was conceived to be dismantled and
reassembled as required, allowing for re-usage in other locations. These considerations, however, caused the requirements
of the building to expand to such an extent that it now
fully complies with all relevant regulations for low-energy
and sound-impact construction, as well as those for public
gatherings.

10

4 5

4 5

10
a

9
3
9

aa
1
2
3
4
5

4
A

Canopy roof
Foyer
Hall section
WC
Services

6
7
8
9
10

Kitchen
Internet caf
Seniors room
Group room
Office / store

bb

87

3
1
2

88

Sections through saw-tooth roof and canopy roof

scale 1:20

11

10

1 ventilated saw-tooth roof:

impermeable membrane
40 mm three-ply timber panel
400 100 mm laminated timber element
2 8 mm acrylic sheeting
3 insect screen
4 mechanised darkening shutters:
40 mm three-ply timber panel
5 illuminated ceiling construction:
polycarbonate hollow cell panels,
45 mm + 80 mm cavity + 45 mm
115 210 mm edge framework, fir
25 60 mm fir cover strip
6 roof construction: 1 % fall
impermeable membrane
50 mm five-ply timber panel
360 100 mm laminated timber cross beam
7 760 100 mm laminated timber main beam
8 760 160 mm laminated timber edge beam
9 160 200 mm laminated timber column
10 sliding glass wall:
8 mm laminated safety glass + 24 mm cavity
+ 8 mm toughened glass
fir frame
11 floor construction internal:
25 mm oriented strand board panel
27 mm impact-sound insulation
separating layer
25 mm timber construction panel
60 360 mm laminated timber ribbed girder
200 mm mineral wool thermal insulation
25 mm oriented strand board panel
vapour barrier
12 floor construction external:
50 mm laminated fir panel
640 100 mm laminated timber cross beam
13 720 160 mm laminated timber edge beam
14 250 90 12 mm steel angle
15 150 mm prefabricated concrete element

12

14
13

15

89

90

Horizontal section double wall

scale 1:10
1 wall construction:
100 mm laminated fir panel
160 mm enclosed cavity
100 mm laminated fir panel
2 Sliding wall:
80 mm ribbed construction
80 mm mineral wool filler
30 mm three-ply laminated fir
panel cladding
3 20 mm three-ply laminated
fir panel
continuous piano hinge
edge sealant
4 fixed glazing:
8 mm laminated safety glass

6
7

8
9

+ 24 mm cavity
+ 8 mm toughened glass
50 100 mm fir cover strip
opening casement:
8 mm laminated safety glass
+ 24 mm cavity
+ 8 mm toughened glass
fir casement frame
12 mm fir window sill
wall construction (below window):
20 mm three-ply laminated fir panel
120 mm timber ribbed construction
120 mm mineral wool thermal
insulation
vapour barrier
2 12.5 mm plasterboard
66 mm fir door panel
125 mm downpipe

91

House in Dortmund
Architects: Archifactory.de, Bochum

The shimmering silver-grey larch cladding of this house in a

suburban street in Dortmund creates an almost sensual effect.
The scheme comprises the cubic extension of an existing
building; while having building lines compatible with the surrounding structures it is distinguished by its clear form and
elegant facade treatment. The rough-sawn larch panelling is
screwed in random bond to the concrete structure forming
a homogeneous skin in which large glazed openings are set
flush with the facade. The larch boards are mitred at the corners, so that their thickness is not apparent. The house has a
massive, monolithic appearance; there are no projecting
canopies or eaves to diminish this effect and the rainwater
gutters and down pipes are recessed behind the curtain wall
cladding.
The minimalist and economic approach of the architects was
well received by the client. By avoiding an elaborate fit-out it
was possible to reallocate the construction budget: amongst
other measures skirting boards were omitted and ceramic tiles
exchanged for water-resistant wall coatings. The architects
developed a mixed concept of split-levels and traditional level
treatment. From the entrance, the eye is drawn upwards, via a
flight of stairs, to the open living area on the level above. This
double height volume conveys a feeling of spaciousness, and
the split-level layout evokes a sense of flowing transitions. A
solid concrete staircase leans against the rear face of the new
building, connecting the main living area with the garden. In
contrast to the prevailing sense of openness the roof terrace is
screened by storey-height enclosing timber walls, which
ensure the requisite degree of privacy and create an introverted outdoor space. The rooftop facade can be opened by
two doors which, in a closed position, are scarcely visible.

Section Floor plans

Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Second floor plan
Roof floor plan
scale 1:250
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

92

Garage
Living area
Kitchen
Void over living area
Living area / Study
Bedroom
Roof terrace

aa

b
1
3

93

14

6
Vertical section
scale 1:10

10
11

15

12
13

16

cc

1 two layer bituminous membrane

140 200 mm thermal insulation
finished to falls with surface coating
vapour barrier welded bituminous sheeting
bitumen undercoat
200 mm reinforced concrete filigree floor slab
15 mm white gypsum plaster
2 0.8 mm titanium-zinc sheeting bent to shape
3 140 x 150 mm timber plate, splay cut
4 140 x 200 mm timber plate
5 22 x 214 mm sawn larch boarding
50 x 30 mm battens, 30 mm ventilated cavity
moisture-diffusing membrane
60 mm mineral-fibre thermal insulation
between 50 x 60 mm battens
240 mm reinforced concrete wall
6 22 x 214 mm sawn larch boarding,
at 220 mm centres with 6 mm open joints
50 x 30 mm timber battens,
30 mm ventilated cavity
300 mm aerated concrete wall
15 mm white gypsum plaster
7 22 x 214 mm sawn larch boarding
50 x 30 mm battens, 30 mm ventilated cavity
moisture-diffusing membrane
60 mm thermal insulation
concrete lintel,
15 mm white gypsum plaster
8 windproof layer
9 aluminium post-and-rail construction
10 aluminium cover strip with visible screw
fixings
11 door: aluminium frame with double glazing
4 mm toughened glass + 16 mm cavity
+ 4 mm float glass
12 2 mm stainless steel sheet
13 neoprene sealing strip
14 10 mm high gloss anthracite terrazzo
45 mm cement screed
polyethylene separating layer
35 mm impact-sound insulation
200 mm reinforced concrete filigree floor slab
15 mm white gypsum plaster
15 10 mm high gloss anthracite terrazzo
65 mm screed with under-floor heating
25 mm rigid-foam thermal insulation
20 mm polystyrene thermal insulation
200 mm reinforced concrete filigree floor slab
16 exposed concrete stairs

95

Vertical section through roof terrace

with opening flap element
Horizontal section through opening flap element
scale 1:10
1 door to roof terrace: aluminium frame with
double glazing
2 aluminium fascia on
30 x 30 x 3 mm galvanized steel RHS frame
with 20 mm rigid-foam insulation
windproof layer
3 22 x 214 mm sawn larch boarding
80 x 50 mm timber bearers

timber level adjusters

two-layer bituminous membrane
140200 mm thermal insulation
finished to falls,
with surface coating
bituminous vapour barrier
bitumen undercoat
200 mm reinforced concrete filigree floor slab
15 mm white gypsum plaster
4 22 x 234 mm sawn larch boarding
at 240 mm centres
30 x 50 mm timber battens
140 x 140 and 200 x 140 mm timber framing

5
6

7
8
9
10

30 x 50 mm timber battens
22 x 234 mm sawn larch boarding
at 240 mm centres
larch cover strip
opening flap element:
steel RHS frame, mitred and welded,
clad on both faces with larch boarding
30 mm tubular galvanized steel safety rail
140 x 140 x 8 mm steel plate with welded
steel sleeve
8 mm galvanized steel rod welded to
steel frame
8 mm steel rod for fixing flap open at 90

bb

96

10

dd

9
8

dd

97

House in Dresden
Architects: dd1 Architekten, Dresden

With its large areas of glazing, this detached family house situated in Bhlau, a district of Dresden, appears at first sight to
be a more expensive construction than it actually is. Planned
in a deliberately modest, economical form, the unconventional
yet simple detailing enabled a generous and elegant design
to be produced. The compact cuboid is situated amongst a
highly heterogeneous collection of built forms. The elevations
facing the surrounding constructions and the road are essentially closed and introverted, punctuated by a minimum of
windows. The southern elevation, overlooking an adjoining
orchard, is contrastingly open, with many large format windows and is slightly splayed to enhance the visual contact with
the surrounding foliage. The northern side of the ground floor
houses the more internalised functions of the residence: the
open plan kitchen, a small study and WC. The southern side
of this level, with its good views, is allocated to the living area,
which extends over the full 11 metre width of the building.
There is a minimum of floor area lost to circulation space and
the single flight of stairs is bound by two simple walls without
balustrades in line with their simplified design concept, the
architects did without a number of internal finishes such as
skirting boards and staircase handrails. The three bedrooms
are found in the upper level, and the communicating corridor
is lit by a skylight. Daylight is also able to penetrate down to
the entrance area. The house is of brickwork construction with
reinforced concrete floor slabs. On the ground floor, the windows are set flush with the outer face of the building, while
on the upper floor, in contrast, they are deeply recessed and
surrounded by timber reveals. The untreated larch window
frames and other opening elements strike a warm note against
the sand coloured rendering of the facades.

Section
Floor plans
scale 1:250
1
2
3
4
5
6

98

Carport
Living area
Kitchen
Study
Bathroom
Bedroom

aa

1
5

99

4
b

100

Vertical section Horizontal section

scale 1:20
1 22 mm untreated larch three-ply laminated board
30 50 mm battens
60 60 mm counter battens
60 mm polystyrene rigid-foam thermal insulation
2 two layers bituminous roof membrane
140 mm polystyrene rigid-foam thermal insulation
vapour barrier
180 mm reinforced concrete roof slab
graded to falls
10 mm gypsum plaster
3 mineral decorative rendering
mineral light reinforcing mortar
with glass-fibre fabric
120 mm mineral wool thermal insulation
240 mm brickwork
10 mm gypsum plaster

4 49 49 mm side and bottom hung frame, larch

22 mm untreated larch three-ply laminated board
50 mm soft fibreboard, polyethylene
separating layer
22 mm untreated larch three-ply laminated sheeting
5 22 mm untreated larch three-ply laminated sheeting
6 8 mm oak parquet flooring, oiled and waxed
50 mm screed, polyethylene separating layer
40 mm mineral wool impact-sound insulation
200 mm reinforced concrete floor slab
10 mm gypsum plaster
7 two layers bituminous roof membrane
25 mm veneered plywood
on 100 270 mm softwood joists
10 mm cement construction board
on 30 50 mm battens
8 78 68 mm larch window frame
9 double glazing: 8 mm laminated safety glass
+ 16 mm cavity + 5 mm toughened glass

3
5
8

bb

101

Urban Development near Cdiz

Architects: ACTA, Ramn Pico and
Javier Lpez Rivera, Seville

Site plan
scale 1:5000

102

The village of Doa Blanca is situated 30 km east of Cdiz on

former swampland. Built in the 1960s, the village was in need
of urban expansion but lacked the necessary funds. This
development of 25 simple cottages on the southern edge of the
community was made possible by the Andalusian regional
authorities. The philosophy was that even rural residents with
little or no private capital should be in a position to own their
own home. The potential home owners were to provide their
labour and building experience, the communal authorities the
land and materials, and the young architectural office from
Seville the professional planning. The cottages were necessarily designed as simple, owner-built constructions.
The surprisingly unified image of the development is primarily
due to the overall treatment of the clear, cubic forms, being
consistently rendered in white. The completion of this project
was inevitably protracted, the owner-builders only being able to
work in their free time; more than four years were required for
total completion. The flat roofed, box shaped cottages are
placed in orderly rows, interconnected by an encircling wall.
Where more space is required than the 70 m2 provided by
these two storey constructions, one possibility is to incorporate
the upper level terrace into the living space, involving only
minimal structural alterations. Another alternative is to build
within the allocated open area bounded by the communal wall
in order to acquire additional space. The type of built extension is left wholly up to the residents, enabling a natural,
organic development of the community. These white, internalised blocks are particularly appropriate for the arid climate; a
minimum of openings perforate the building envelope, the terrace is protected by fabric sun shades and the entrance is
deeply recessed into the protective mass of the cottage.

Section
Floor plans
Ground floor First floor
scale 1:200

aa

1
2
3
4
5

Kitchen
Bedroom
Living area
Bathroom
Roof-deck

103

104

Sectional details

scale 1:20

1 roof construction:
50 mm gravel bed
polypropylene fabric
30 mm expanded polyethylene
thermal insulation
bituminous roof membrane
with double polyethylene reinforcement
15 mm cement levelling screed
min. 50 mm light weight concrete, 5 % fall
220 mm reinforced concrete-brick slab
40 mm concrete top screed
plaster
2 wall construction:
double layer external render
with smooth elastomer coating,
stone admixture
240 mm vertically perforated brickwork,
every fifth course solid brickwork
50 mm glass wool thermal insulation
15 mm cavity
30 mm vertically perforated brickwork
concrete render, smooth synthetic coating
3 peripheral tie with
vertically perforated brickwork cover
4 50 mm reconstituted stone tread
brickwork steps
120 mm reinforced concrete stair slab
5 25 mm stonework
15 mm mortar bed
150 mm reinforced concrete floor slab
6 matt white ceramic wall tiles
in thin mortar bed
240 mm vertically perforated brickwork,
plaster
7 30 mm limestone window sill with drip-nose
8 timber entrances door

105

House near Ingolstadt

Architects: 03 Mnchen
Andreas Garkisch, Karin Schmid, Michael Wimmer

This austere, grey rendered house with a traditional gabled

roof sets itself apart from the more conventional surrounding
structures by its sheer clarity. A unique object in this residential community, the simple, almost stark design has been
achieved by clear, precise detailing and a deliberately limited
selection of materials and forms.
The form and elevations of the building are direct responses
to the existing conditions on site: a gently sloping block,
wedged between a heavily used through road on one side,
and an almost idyllic landscape of water meadows and old,
established orchards on the other. The street frontage is, logically, inward-looking the house literally turns its back on the
street. The small front garden is bounded by a low-scale
masonry wall and the entrance is protected by a porch construction of in-situ concrete. These elements create a harmonious, coherent ensemble rendered in pale grey.
The life of the house is directed out towards the river and
meadows behind. The building opens out to the landscape on
both levels through storey-high timber framed windows, which
even wrap themselves around the corners of the house, the
living areas thereby becoming light open spaces with direct
contact to the natural environment.
It was necessary to protect the house from potential flooding,
as the river has been known to overflow its banks and even
occasionally to encroach onto the actual site. The house is
heated using wood pellets, an oil tank in the cellar being considered impractical. The building is thrust upward, displayed
on a platform, as it were, by the cellar storey, which remains
windowless on the river side. This platform is also the terrace
for the ground floor, enhancing and extending the living areas
out into the landscape beyond.

6
2

106

10

Site plan
scale 1:2500
Floor plan Sections
scale 1:250
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Garage
Terrace
Living room
Dining room
Pantry
Garderobe
Kitchen
Study
Bedroom
Bathroom

aa

bb

107

2
3

4
6

5
10

108

Details

scale 1:20

1 roof construction:
roof tiles
30 50 mm battens and counter battens
roof membrane, 22 mm timber boarding
40 mm cavity, 200 mm thermal insulation
vapour barrier, battens
12 mm plasterboard
2 120 120 mm purlin
3 cover brickwork with stainless steel tie
4 porch roof construction:
metal sheeting
separation layer
30 mm insulation with grade
vapour barrier
200 mm reinforced concrete roof slab
drainage via waterspout
5 porch wall construction:

10

240 mm in-situ concrete

6 22 mm parquet flooring
60 mm screed
polyethylene separation membrane
40 mm sound-impact insulation
160 mm reinforced concrete floor slab
7 10 mm slate pavers, adhesive fixed
60 mm screed
polyethylene separation membrane
70 mm thermal and sound-impact insulation
160 mm reinforced concrete floor slab, painted
8 40 mm timber decking
40 mm timber framing
220 mm reinforced concrete floor slab, with fall
drainage via waterspout
9 365 mm masonry, rendered
10 double glazing (4mm + 16mm cavity + 4mm),
in oak framework
11 60 60 mm steel column

11

109

House in Matosinhos
Architect: Eduardo Souto de Moura, Porto

The historic old town of Matosinhos in Portugal is distinguished

by its narrow, walled streets. This new house, enclosed by a
perimeter wall built of large granite blocks, blends perfectly
into the urban character of this small traditional fishing port
near Porto, at the mouth of the river Douro. The existing
peripheral walls of natural stonework completely encompass
the site and were utilised by the architect as the external wall
for his design. Stones were replaced, where necessary, in the
wall and its line was straightened; the new reinforced concrete
walls of the house were placed hard up against this boundary,
separated from it only by 40 mm of thermal insulation.
Although the site has an unusual triangular form, the house
itself has a simple layout, complemented by two courtyard
areas and the garage; the different zones are separated from
each other by parallel, white rendered concrete walls. The
bathrooms, kitchen and two small utility rooms are located in a
tract adjacent to the entrance area. While this area and the circulation corridor are lit only by one small window in the kitchen
and various skylights, further natural lighting and ventilation
are provided by the sliding glazed panels which open into the
courtyard terrace area. The house opens out to the terrace
and pool via a facade of storey-high glass, shaded by internally fixed timber louvers.
The architect confined himself to the barest minimum of materials for the interior: white rendered reinforced concrete walls
that emphasise the effects of the direct sunlight; dark pine
floor boards and wooden furniture complete the charming,
informal character of the building. The floor of the bathroom is
tiled in slate. The deceptive simplicity of the construction and
the effective utilisation of a limited number of materials are
what make this residence so attractive.

Floor plan scale 1:500

Sections scale 1:200
1
2
3
4

House
Courtyard terrace
Courtyard with swimming pool
Garage

110

aa

c
d

bb

cc

111

ee

1
10

Facade sections
scale 1:20

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

dd

zinc sheet capping

30 mm thermal insulation
timber louver sunscreen
timber framed sliding window
glazing: 8 mm + 8 mm cavity + 6 mm
120 mm granite slab
floor construction:
40 mm pine floor board
60 mm battens
45 mm screed
240 mm reinforced concrete floor slab
gravel base layer
8 wall construction:
300 mm granite
40 mm thermal insulation
160 mm reinforced concrete
20 mm plaster
9 glazing: 4 mm + 6 mm cavity + 4 mm
10 roof construction:
50 mm gravel layer
40 mm thermal insulation
impermeable membrane
20 mm graded screed
100 mm lightweight concrete
220 mm reinforced concrete roof slab
10 mm plaster

113

Wine Store in Vauvert, France

Architects: Perraudin Architectes, Vauvert

This wine storage facility, which is situated in the wine district

near Nmes, in the middle of the Camargue region, is designed
by the French architect Gilles Perraudin. Perraudin has long
concerned himself with the environmentally sound usage of
natural resources in architecture and construction. Economic
building forms and naturally available energy sources for
the running and operation of buildings play principle roles in
his concept. His selection of materials is usually confined to
naturally found, predominantly renewable resources, such as
timber, earth and locally available stone, which are justifiable
by their longevity and ability to be recycled.
He has accommodated these principles and ideals into this
wine store, which is subject to the uncompromising climate
of the Mediterranean. To offset extreme differences of temperature, which would be problematic for the storage of wine,
the structure was designed with substantial thermal mass.
The internal and external walls are constructed with a dry
stone walling technique using solid limestone blocks, each
being 52 cm thick and weighing up to 2.5 tonnes. The mass
of the stones functions like an enormous refrigeration unit,
absorbing heat during the day and giving it off at night to the
fresh sea breezes. The heavy roof, extensively planted, is also
conceived as a climatic buffer; rainwater collects in the substrate base, which further cools the building by evaporation.
The encircling water trough fulfils the same purpose in the
same way.
The high costs of the stone were compensated by the uncomplicated structure and short construction period of this austere,
almost archaic building. The entire building process was completed in only one month.

Floor plan
scale 1:500
Axonometric,
not to scale
1
2
3
4

114

Reception
Office
Wine store
Courtyard

115

116

3
4

Axonometric, not to scale

Vertical section scale 1:20

5
1 roof construction:
200 mm substrate layer
root-resistant layer
5 mm bituminous membrane
19 mm plywood
2 gravel bed for drainage
3 2 mm aluminium sheet cover
4 100 240 mm timber edge beam
5 10 mm polycarbonate hollow cellular slab
6 100 240 mm timber beams
7 1050 2100 520 mm limestone block

8 timber frame
9 2 5 mm laminated safety glass
10 floor construction:
20 mm reconstructed stone paving
30 mm screed, bonded to slab
100 mm fibre-reinforced concrete floor slab
11 metal grating
12 bituminous impermeable coating
13 50 mm base layer
14 50 mm fibre-reinforced concrete
water trough

10

11

12

13

14

117

Cemetery in Galicia
Architect: Csar Portela, Pontevedra

1
2
3

118

Reminiscent of fallen rocks or flotsam washed up by the tide,

granite cubes line the winding path through a cemetery in
Galicia. Built of solid stone slabs held together only by gravity
and a thin layer of mortar, they demonstrate an old Galician
building tradition that was in danger of dying out, but which
has been revived by Csar Portela. Simple forms and construction techniques were consciously chosen for this architectural design: a harmonious place in tune with the natural
surroundings and free from unnecessary embellishments. The
rocky cliffs and broad expanse of sea provided the inspiration
for the granite cubes. The locals call this stretch of coast Finisterre, or Lands end, the north western corner of the Iberian Peninsula and westernmost point of the European
mainland. So far, sixteen of these chambers have been constructed, each accessible from the seaward side and measuring 3.3 metres in height and 5 metres in length. These simple
cubic shapes each provide space for 12 graves; access to the
interior is via a covered entrance protecting the visitor from the
elements and providing the privacy necessary in such a place.
Walls, floors and ceilings are all constructed of solid slabs of
grey Mondariz granite, approximately 200 mm thick and
720 mm wide, which was quarried locally. The need for additional bracing for the walls is obviated by the sheer weight of
the heavy roof slab resting on them. Extensive surface treatment was also deemed unnecessary due to the high density of
the stone: water cannot easily penetrate it, which prevents
vegetation from taking hold on the rough flamed surfaces.
Each burial chamber rests on a rubble stone plinth which in
turn is set on a concrete slab foundation. The resulting height
difference is overcome by front steps that are hewn from a
single solid block of granite.
Three of the granite cubes are grouped together access to
them is from the slope behind. These three cubes contain a
chapel and an autopsy room. Curved walls clad with Corten
steel extend the simple spaces created by the stone blocks
and create subtle illumination effects that are appropriate for
religious functions.
The landscape design is also heavily based upon natural
stonework. Large granite pavers are laid in a traditional
manner for the paths, and the retaining walls, built of rubble
stone, have benches integrated into them. The conscious
selection of a limited number of locally available materials produces a restful sense of being at one with nature; a desirable
atmosphere for a place of contemplation on this site sloping
down to the sea.

a
10

9
d

14
15

b
11

13

12

d
8

1
2
3
4
5

c
2
Burial chamber

Chapel

Site plan
scale 1:2500
Floor plans
scale 1:100

Autopsy room

main entrance
forecourt
chapel
autopsy room
planned burial
chambers
6 burial chambers

7 viewing point
8 granite floor slab
9 200 mm flamed grey
Mondariz granite
10 solid granite block
steps
11 pre-cast concrete
coffin niche
12 granite benches
13 storeroom
14 cool room
15 bier

119

120

Sections

scale 1:50

6 wall construction:
5 mm Corten steel
cement render
60 mm masonry
plaster
7 solid granite bench
8 Corten steel ventilation grate
9 rubble stone masonry plinth
10 pre-cast concrete coffin
niches
11 solid granite block steps
12 20 mm granite cover panel
13 wall construction:
painted exterior render
110 mm concrete block
500 mm cavity
14 sodium bicarbonate
15 drainage filter shaft

1 200 mm flamed grey Mondariz granite

with mortar joints
2 skylight:
0.7 mm lead flashing
2 20 mm composite wood board
3 2 4 mm laminated safety glass
4 wall construction:
5 mm Corten steel
galvanized tubular steel construction
5 mm Corten steel
5 floor construction:
180 mm grey Mondariz granite
mortar bed
200 mm reinforced concrete slab
gravel bed
subsoil

3
2

7
5

bb

aa

10

13

12

14
11

15
dd

cc

121

Cemetery Extension with Chapel

in Batschuns
Architects: Marte.Marte Architekten, Weiler

Site plan
scale 1:1250
Floor plan Sections
scale 1:200
1
2
3
4

Chapel
Cemetery extension
Cemetery
Existing church by Holzmeister

This new cemetery chapel and associated enclosure wall in

Batschuns, Austria appear almost incongruent in their simplicity, placed adjacent to the 1920s Holzmeister church. The
requirements of economy and design have been satisfied by
using a modern pis type of structure made of rammed clay.
The lively texture and colouration achieved with this material
contrasts with the minimal, powerful forms: the play of light
emphasises the sensuous quality of the surfaces.
The almost spartan construction of the chapel is only relieved
by a strip of oak set into the wall internally, suggesting the
form of a cross when viewed in association with the horizontal
bands of rammed earth. Light enters through a narrow opening in the roof and a slit in the wall just above the level of the
floor, which prevents any sense of heaviness.
The clay, without any chemical additives, was laid in roughly
12 cm layers between formwork and compacted with
hand-held machines. The majority of the building work was
carried out by local inhabitants further enabling costs to
be kept down.
The reinforced concrete architrave and steel lintel over the
light opening are fully recessed into the clay walls, ensuring a
homogeneous image free from visual interruptions, and the
jointing is such that any additional sealants are made redundant. Consistent with this approach, the underside of the
timber roof construction is clad with clay construction panels
and finished with a fine clay render. The rammed clay floor
was treated with wax and polished in order to make it generally robust and in particular more resistant to water damage. In
view of the inevitable surface erosion caused by rain, a slight
over-dimensioning of the clay walls was advisable to ensure
the required longevity.

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123

Vertical section through chapel

Horizontal section through door
scale 1:20

13
11

14

12

15
1

16

6
9
10

124

1
2
3
4
5

450 mm rammed clay external wall

205 120 mm reinforced concrete beam
80 80 mm oak scantling
rammed concrete, coloured with clay
roof construction:
40 mm gravel
two layers impermeable membrane
19 mm three-ply laminated timber sheeting
50 50 80 mm timber bearers
40 mm three-ply laminated timber sheeting
20 mm clay construction panel
6 floor construction:
120 mm rammed clay floor
100 mm layer compacted foamed-glass
granules
7 200 300 mm reinforced
concrete beam

8 door construction:
2 layers 24 mm oak boarding,
tongue and groove
42 mm cavity
9 oak threshold on
200 100 7 mm steel RHS
10 240 10 mm stainless-steel cover plate
11 3 mm sheet steel cover
12 2 mm sheet copper gutter lining
13 double glazing (8 mm + 12 mm cavity +
6 mm)
14 2 mm sheet steel, adhesive fixed to glass
15 bituminous sealing membrane with slate
chippings
16 lighting element
17 240 80 mm oak door frame
18 fine mix clay seal

18
8
1

17
cc

125

House in Oldenburg
Architects: LIN Finn Geipel, Giulia Andi, Berlin / Paris

Site plan
scale 1:1000
Section
Floor plans
scale 1:400

126

This pure, reduced metal cube stands out from the crowd,
located as it is in Oldenburg amongst typical northern German
domestic architecture. The building is home to a family of four
but is designed more like a simple hall. The clients desire for
as much space and as many rooms as possible on a limited
budget led the architects to consider a concept using economical, industrialized steel construction techniques. The
result is a single large space with an integrated smaller tract
for individual room requirements.
The building is constructed of standard prefabricated steel
sections which span the 22 by 9 m open space and is set on a
concrete slab which extends 1.5 metres in all directions from
the external walls. The facade is clad with corrugated steel
sheeting, fixed to light-weight concrete filler element which
also counteract the longitudinal shear stresses.
The living and dining space extends over the entire length of
the building on the western side an unbroken band of French
windows open out to the garden beyond. The internal room
tract on the eastern side accommodates a galley kitchen, two
bathrooms, three compact bedrooms and utility rooms; the
construction is of traditional timber framework with timber and
plasterboard cladding. The double floor of the tract houses the
horizontal services, a simpler and more economical solution
than laying them under concrete.
This floor level continues out into the main living area of the
house, creating a long catwalk circulation zone which doubles as a particularly ingenious storage area with built-in drawers. Above the room tract is an open gallery area accessed by
a sliding steel staircase. The gallery, also with full width fenestration, is designed primarily as a reading and quiet zone for
the family.

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127

Horizontal section
Window corner detail
scale 1:20

128

11

10

Section

scale 1:20

1 roof construction:
42 mm trapezoidal steel sheeting
double layer impermeable membrane
120 mm thermal insulation, vapour barrier
100 mm trapezoidal steel sheeting
2 wall construction:
18 mm corrugated steel sheeting
40 60 mm timber framework
40 mm thermal insulation
300 mm light weight concrete
3 300 mm steel -beam
4 120 mm steel pipe
5 french window: double glazing in
aluminium frame (6mm float glass
+ 15 mm cavity + 6 mm toughened glass)
6 casement window: double glazing in
aluminium frame (6mm float glass
+ 15 mm cavity + 6 mm toughened glass)
7 folding shutters:
18 mm perforated corrugated steel sheeting
8 ground floor construction:
55 mm under-floor heating screed
polyethylene membrane
40 mm sound-impact insulation
vapour barrier
200 mm reinforced concrete slab
80 mm peripheral insulation
vapour barrier, base course
9 internal wall construction:
25 mm particle board
100 mm thermal insulation in
100 mm timber frame construction
2 12.5 mm plasterboard
10 double floor construction:
15 mm parquet flooring
separation layer, 45 mm screed
impermeable membrane
25 mm particle board
60 100 mm timber framework
11 2 mm linoleum tread on 25 mm particle board
aluminium cover angle
60 100 mm timber framework
12 12 mm particle board drawer construction
with magnetic closers
13 terrace construction:
120 mm concrete pavers
base course

12
13

129

Bridge Construction in Zwischenwasser

Architects: Marte.Marte Architekten, Weiler

The century old stone bridge spanning the river Frdisch, linking the communities of Zwischenwasser and Sulz, in Austria,
was no longer deemed sufficient or safe for the increasing
motorised and pedestrian traffic. The decision was made to
separate the two forms of traffic by way of a combined bicycle
and pedestrian bridge to run parallel to the existing construction. The result is this slender, rust-red steel construction, contrasting with, but also complementing the historic structure.
The new bridge fully spans the river without the need for intermediate supports, its weight being borne by concrete abutments adjacent to the old bridge. The entire construction is
like a large Z-profile; 30 mm thick pre-oxidized steel panels
are welded together to create a 40 m long structure. The vertical panels create a 1.2 m high balustrade between the users
of the bridge and the river bed. The lower flange of the Z,
treated with a slip-resistant coating, forms the 2.3 m wide
walkway, while the 40 cm wide upper flange serves as a handrail. Bracing is provided by the additional steel elements
welded at the connection points. The selection of weatherresistant steel obviated the need for an elaborate surface
treatment and the associated maintenance costs. Apart from a
minimum of contact points, the old bridge remains structurally
unscathed by the new steel construction. The new walkway
appears to hover, almost weightless above the massive earthbound stone bridge; the slim, but nevertheless visible, space
between the two only serves to emphasise the contrast.
The extensive design effort that went into this clear, reduced
structure are not visible to the naked eye. The integrity and
apparent simplicity of the modern walkway complement and
enhance the archaic beauty of its stone counterpart.

Site plan
scale 1:1000
Section
scale 1: 20
1 30 mm pre-oxidised steel
sheeting panels,
with 3 mm rounded edges
2 50 mm drainage drilling
3 walkway slip-resistant surface:
epoxy tar with quartz sand
4 road surface:
2.5 % cross fall
30 mm asphalt
80 mm base course
gravel fill
5 reinforced concrete edge beam
6 limestone masonry

130

6
3

5
6

131

Landing Stage in Alicante Harbour

Architect: Javier Garca-Solera Vera, Alicante

This landing stage pavilion in the Alicante harbour was inspired

by the precision and lightness of yacht building design. Its elegant simplicity is the result of the careful combination of materials and meticulous detailing. The original brief required the
construction of a quay with a building to house a ticket office,
a shop and a waiting room. The architects, inspired by the
pavilions exposed, seaside location, extended their design to
include a caf.
The pavilion is located directly on the waterfront, adjacent to
the landing stage, but by adopting low-scale horizontal lines
allows unobstructed views from the seaside promenade
behind. The attractive sun deck cantilevers out over the water
from the edge of the quay and presents a fine view of the harbour and city. The open terrace merges with the sheltered
waiting room providing the ideal location from which to
absorb the atmosphere of the harbour and to enjoy a coffee
while the closed rooms of the construction: the bar, WC and
ticket office, are all located along the landward side of the
pavilion.
The steel skeleton frame structure is constructed of painted
standard profiles; all construction elements, whether of timber
or steel, were prefabricated and assembled on site, keeping
manufacturing costs to a minimum. The edge detailing of the
roof creates a neat horizontal channel profile. The cantilevering of the pavilion out over the water is addressed by a concrete strut fixed to the quay below. The facade, where closed,
is clad with aluminium sheeting; while in contrast, the flooring,
fittings and finishings are all of varnished timber. The roof over
the terrace consists simply of a grid of adjustable aluminium
louvers that elegantly dissolves the division between inside
and outside.
a
Site plan
scale 1:1500
Floor plan
Section East elevation
scale 1:200
1
2
3
4
5
6

Terrace
Corridor
WC
Ticket office
Bar
Pantry

3
a

132

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133

Sectional detail
scale 1:20

4
10

134

Sectional detail

scale 1:20

1 200 mm steel -beam, painted

2 roof construction:
15 mm corrugated galvanized steel sheeting
bituminous sealing layer
15 mm plywood sheeting
with phenolic-resin coating
50 120 mm timber supporting grid
60 mm thermal insulation
12 mm okoum-veneered plywood
3 15 mm moulded aluminium sheeting
16 mm plywood
160 50 mm timber posts
60 mm thermal insulation

11

19 mm okoum-veneered plywood
4 19 mm eyong-veneered plywood
with phenolic-resin coating
45 50 mm timber bearers
50 100 mm steel RHS, painted
5 550 mm steel -beam, painted
6 polyester rainwater gutter
7 2 5 mm laminated glass sliding element
8 bench: 40 40 mm stainless-steel SHS
welded to 5 50 mm steel plates
9 220 40 mm iroko boarding, varnished
10 160 mm steel -beam
11 anodized aluminium louvers,
electrically operated
12 200 mm steel -beam, cropped and painted

12

135

Horizontal section
scale 1:20

1 200 mm steel -column, painted

2 15 250 mm stainless-steel plate
3 2 100 mm steel channel sections,
painted
4 bench: 40 40 mm stainless-steel SHS
welded to 5 50 mm steel plates
5 19 mm okoum-veneered plywood
180 50 mm timber posts
60 mm thermal insulation
19 mm okoum-veneered plywood
6 15 mm moulded aluminium sheeting
16 mm plywood
160 50 mm timber posts
60 mm thermal insulation
19 mm okoum-veneered plywood

6
5
2

136

Service Pavilion in Brest

Architects: Defrain-Souquet Architectes, Paris

aa

East elevation
Sections
Floor plan
scale 1:100

138

Although the brief for this service pavilion in Brest was originally quite simple, the final result is elegantly conceived, intelligently detailed and demonstrates an astute selection of
materials. The walls of the pavilion initially appear secure,
even impenetrable from a distance; in conjunction with the
sheet steel roof they present a pure cuboid object placed at
the very edge of the shore. The reality is quite different, as
indicated by the daylight shimmering through the walls.
Constructed of vertical stainless-steel gratings with concealed
fixings on steel frames, the wall construction is designed to
prevent vandalism and graffiti. An open passageway through
the middle of the building creates a visual link between the
landscaped area and the shore beyond. Both the transparent
outer walling and the passageway contribute to a sensation of
openness and improved safety for the pavilion users. An additional safety measure is that access to the toilets is provided
from both sides of the building.
Set within a newly landscaped area, the pavilion forms one
element of a scheme to rejuvenate and upgrade a neglected
stretch of the coast, the bay Moulin Blanc, near Brest.
Although Moulin Blanc represents the only sandy beach
in the area, and offers a picturesque view of the city of Brest,
it has been a place to be avoided rather than sought out.
Wedged between the yacht marina, motorway and railway
lines, it has long been neglected and was overdue for a
transformation.
In 2000 the young architectural team of Franois Defrain and
Olivier Souquet, based in Paris, was contracted to redesign
this location. By re-routing a road, an area of almost one hectare was created. In addition to the pavilion, accommodating
public toilets and a space for equipment, the architects provided various other facilities, including a boule ground, an
open-air theatre, and greenhouses for the planned botanical
gardens. The load-bearing structure consists of 11 steel
frames at 1.5 m centres. The slightly curved aluminiumcoated, ribbed sheet-metal roof is concealed behind a peripheral parapet of double T-beam construction. Lateral wind
bracing is provided by steel plates welded beneath the purlins. The masonry walls surrounding the toilets and distribution
room are free-standing within the steel structure.
The pure, reduced detailing, the cleverly designed eaves and
the conscious selection of robust materials and connections
provide a minimum of opportunity for vandalism. Simultaneously, however, an elegant building has been created, which
harmonises with and enhances its environment.

d
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b
e

139

2
1

11

5
6

10

12
cc
Horizontal sections
Vertical sections
scale 1:20

13
6
5

14

6
1 200 mm steel -beam, coated
2 1 mm sheet steel, coated
3 88 25 mm aluminium-coated ribbed
steel sheeting
curved to 27 m radius
4 120 60 10 mm steel T-section, coated
5 75 65 8 mm steel angle, coated
6 50 50 mm stainless-steel SHS
7 3 mm stainless-steel sheeting, welded to
frame
8 stainless-steel grating (35 35 mm mesh),
with concealed screw fixings to steel frame
9 steel frame, coated:
120 60 10 mm steel T-section posts
120 90 10 mm steel T-section rails
10 100 mm masonry, with slurry finish
11 60 mm PVC rainwater downpipe
12 40 40 mm steel SHS
13 150 mm masonry, with slurry finish
14 steel anchor plate
15 6 mm steel plate, welded to anchor plate
16 50 50 mm steel SHS
17 fluorescent tube under central purlin

140

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1
16

17

8
9
13

15
14

ff

141

Store and Studio in Hagi

Architects: Sambuichi Architects, Hiroshima

Section upper floor plan

scale 1:250
1
2
3
4

Raw materials
Studio area
Finished products
Fired wares

A clear pure layout and the use of very few simple materials
create a particularly sensuous quality in this ceramic studio
and storage building in Japan. Half buried into the site, this
warehouse, which belongs to a well-known and deeply traditional Japanese ceramics firm, is strictly divided according to
the various stages of the production process. The spaces for
raw materials and semi-finished products are located on the
lower level while the fired wares, as well as those being
painted and glazed, are accommodated on the upper level.
The positive/negative principle underlying the moulding process for ceramics is applied to the construction concept of the
building, particularly to the concrete elements. The goal is at
all times the economical and environmentally aware management of materials. A central aspect of the design is the relationship between formwork sizes and poured concrete, and
the idea of reusing the formwork elements as construction
materials. The dimensions of the concrete surfaces were,
therefore, carefully coordinated with those of openings, such
that the cedar panelled formwork could later be used as storey
high timber shutters for doors and windows. Internal formwork
was recycled to create lightweight partitions or inbuilt fittings,
and the panels for the soffit on the upper floor were reused as
the floor finish.
The juxtaposition of positive and negative forms creates an
astonishing effect: the surfaces of two quite different materials
concrete and wood resemble each other, with not only the
profile of the boarding but also the grain of the wood recurring
in the concrete wall surfaces.
Over the course of time, there will also be a greater correspondence in the colouration: the initially fresh, light brown of
the untreated timber will weather to a natural grey, comparable
with that of the concrete the man-made and the organic
building materials then imitating each other not only in texture
but also in colour.

4
2

1
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142

143

2
1

Vertical section
scale 1:20

144

1 6 mm stainless-steel sheet
2 roof construction:
extensive planting
50 mm topsoil
2 mm bituminous sealing layer
30 mm thermal insulation
250 mm reinforced concrete
3 pivoting shutters reused from wall
formwork:
12 mm cedar boarding
50 30 mm timber bearers
12 mm cedar boarding
4 sliding door: stainless-steel frame
with 8 mm laminated safety glass
5 floor construction reused from
soffit formwork:
12 mm cedar board
50 30 mm timber bearers
threshold: 105 45 mm and
100 40 mm timber scantlings
250 mm reinforced concrete
6 100 mm concrete paving slabs
7 gravel bed
8 floor construction:
350 mm reinforced concrete slab
50 mm cement layer
40 mm thermal insulation
150 mm bed of gravel
polyethylene sheeting
9 stainless-steel door hinge

145

House in Chur
Architect: Patrick Gartmann, Chur

Site plan scale 1:1500

146

This single family house stands like a rock overlooking Chur,

at the base of Montalin in Switzerland. The entire building
envelope is constructed of a single layer of concrete; both the
interior and exterior surfaces openly demonstrate their structural consistency. The mandatory thermal insulation, normally
requiring multi-layered building techniques, is achieved here
with a single, massive layer of specially developed insulating
concrete. The building material is not only climate regulating
and load-bearing, but also allows for a simplified construction
process due to its monolithic form.
This house is a three storey cuboid set on a steeply sloping
site. The main approach at street level is via a partially roofed
courtyard leading directly into the entrance and living areas
on the upper level, which are lit by two large format windows.
The bedroom and en-suite bathroom, only separated from
one another by a sliding translucent glass wall, are also on
this level. The concrete flooring on the upper level is sanded
and oiled. The two lower levels are reached by a single flight
of stairs.
The intermediate level is conceived as a mezzanine, accommodating only a study and a compact, self-contained
apartment with private access. The lower level of the residence opens out to a generous dining area with integrated
kitchen, which stretches across the entire width of the building. This space is connected via large sliding glass doors to
the terrace and garden with panoramic views. The floor surfaces of the two lower levels demonstrate a unique form of
recycling timber beams originating from the Swiss pavilion
in the Expo 2000 in Hanover have been used. All other timber
fittings are of solid walnut and the window frames are of
solid larch timber.
The predominant building material is, of course, concrete.
Insulating concrete was used for both the 45 cm wide loadbearing external walls and the 60 cm thick roof slab (with heat
transition co-efficient values of 0.58 and 0.40 W/m2K respectively). In order to increase the porosity and hence the insulation capacity of the concrete, it was decided to replace the
traditional gravel and sand aggregates with light-weight
aggregates of expanded clay and aerated ground glass.
These aggregates also created a homogeneous surface with
fine pores, but simultaneously reduced the load-bearing
capacity of the concrete. The selection of this construction
technique when compared with a more traditional approach
including a variety of trades and processes simplified the
technical planning and greatly reduced construction time on
site. Detailed planning was restricted to the internal fit-out only,
after the removal of the concrete formwork.

147

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Sections Floor plans

scale 1:250
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Courtyard
Entrance
Living room
Bedroom
Bathroom
Study
Apartment
Dining/kitchen
Services
Terrace

bb

2
3

5
4
a

10

149

Vertical section
scale 1:20

1
7

11

10

150

2
1 2-component roof sealant
2 600650 mm insulating concrete,
graded
3 450 mm insulating concrete
4 fixed glazing (12 mm toughened
glass + 10 mm cavity + 8 mm float
glass)
5 floor construction second floor:
300 mm reinforced concrete slab,
white coloured and surface
sanded,
with under-floor heating
6 timber casement window

7 20 mm stainless-steel spout
8 floor construction first floor:
30 180 mm larch boarding
50 mm battens on fabric
220 mm reinforced concrete slab
9 floor construction ground floor:
30 180 mm larch boarding
50 mm battens on fabric
200 mm reinforced concrete slab
100 mm polystyrene thermal
insulation
10 glass sliding door in timber frame
11 heating and service conduit

10

151

Building and Construction Centre

in Munich
Architects: Hild und K Architekten, Munich

Immediately adjacent to the new international Expo centre in

Munichs outer suburb of Riem, a long narrow site has been
developed as a municipal exhibition centre for companies
wishing to present their building products to private clients.
This monumental building, which commands an exhibition
space of over 3,000 m2, achieves its clarity of form through the
reduction of materials and elements. The six storey-high building flanks the end of a private multi-storey car park, which was
completed by the same architects a year earlier. The two solid
buildings complement each other in both mass and material
selection, namely pre-cast concrete elements. The elevational
treatment is, however, quite different representing the functions lying below the surface. An economical and practical
reason for the material selection in this case was that the client
is a manufacturer of pre-cast concrete panels. Not only was it
therefore possible to reduce costs and construction time, but
also the number of trades required on site. The philosophy of
pre-cast concrete building elements was explored right up to,
and including, the window frames; the traditional relationships
of facades and their openings are redefined with this
approach. The reveals, which contrast only slightly in colour
with the facade panels, are monumentalised and acquire new
proportions. The single flight of stairs located behind the street
facade is concealed with pre-cast panels set into the otherwise
large-format glazed elevation, the closed panels revealing the
location of the stairs more eloquently than any open glazing.
The users are aware of the buildings internal height at all
times, due to the large open volume adjacent to the stairs.
The rear elevation presents a more traditional approach with
rows of slender office windows recessed behind escape
balconies.

Site plan
scale 1:2000
1 Building Centre
2 Multi-storey car park
designed by Hild und K

152

153

a
5
2

4
3

1
b

b
a

154

Floor plans
Ground floor
Fourth floor
Sections
scale 1:750
Assembly hall
Cafeteria
Exhibition space
Seminar room
Emergency escape
balcony
6 Ventilation element

1
2
3
4
5

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bb

155

10

3
1

156

10

Window details
scale 1:20

5
4

11

1 wall construction:
120 mm pre-cast concrete wall panel,
with Kiefersfelden cement
and 3% black pigment,
surface structured before hardening,
butt jointed with black sealant strip
120 mm compression resistant thermal
insulation
240 mm pre-cast concrete panel,
filled with 240 mm in situ concrete strips
2 200 210 mm pre-cast concrete bearer,
with Burglengenfelder cement
3 5360 2310 mm glazing in concrete
window frames:
8 mm toughened glass + 16 mm cavity +
16 mm laminated safety glass
4 glass pane bearing
radial hinged bearing,
stainless steel, in
rectangular block
5 screw fixing to securing bar
6 120 mm pre-cast concrete facade element
screw-fixed to concrete bearer
7 black sealant strip,
expansion-filled joints
8 200 mm pre-cast concrete parapet
9 extensive planting
10 80 10 mm steel RHS welded balustrade
11 280 mm in situ reinforced concrete slab

157

Model Workshop in Wolfratshausen

Architects: Allmann Sattler Wappner, Munich

This simple yet ingenious model workshop in Wolfratshausen

is elevated above the long, narrow site on which it is placed.
The plan of the building is slightly conical, following the site
boundaries, and the ridge beam complies with the situation
too, rising slightly on its route from west to east.
The all encompassing translucent building envelope is clad
with polycarbonate panels and stretches over roof and
facades; the building appears to hover above the stairwell,
adjacent store rooms and circular concrete columns. It is
these columns which indicate the structural system hidden
behind the facade with the exception of the roof structure all
structural elements are of reinforced concrete and internally
visible. The concrete building core is thermally insulated and
protected from the elements by the uninsulated polycarbonate
envelope outside. It is this separation of load bearing structure
and building skin which allowed the development of a clearcut, homogeneous treatment for the facades and roof.
The upper level of the southern side accommodates utility
rooms, paint shop, stairwell and goods lift. The associated
circulation space is lit by skylights set into the open, uninsulated roof frame above. The roof cladding elements made of
corrugated polycarbonate panels lend the filtered daylight a
particularly pleasing quality: white, uniform and indirect. The
offices for the workshop are located behind the two gable
facades; recessed behind storey-high glazing, they retain
visual contact with the individual workshops set between,
through the integration of large format windows set into the
adjustable timber partition walling. This creates a continuous,
visual axis through the entire length of the upper level. The
need for the subdivision of the building into individual fire compartments was thus avoided.

Site plan
scale 1:2000
Floor plans Sections
scale 1:500
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Car parking
Entrance
Goods lift
Store
Office
Workshop
Kitchenette
Paint shop

aa

158

bb

2
3

b
4

8
a

159

Detail section
scale 1: 20

c
1

160

1 roof construction:
51 mm corrugated polycarbonate panels
100 x 100 mm timber battens
340 x 100 mm rafters
2 skylight, toughened glass
3 25 mm timber construction boarding
100 mm rigid foam thermal insulation
350 mm reinforced concrete roof slab
4 wall construction:
51 mm corrugated polycarbonate panels
100 x 100 mm laminated timber scantlings
timber-fibre sandwich panels with
60 mm rigid-foam core thermal insulation
between
120 x 100 mm laminated timber scantlings
250 mm reinforced concrete
5 30 mm industrial screed
400 mm reinforced concrete floor slab
timber-fibre sandwich panels with
60 mm rigid-foam core thermal insulation
6 steel -beam base plates for facade
columns
7 120 mm reinforced concrete slab, machine
trowelled
8 sliding door:
51 mm corrugated polycarbonate panels in
steel frame
9 19 mm timber construction boarding
10 60 mm steel T-profile cantilevered bracket
11 double glazing: 6 mm + 12 mm cavity +
6 mm in
anodised aluminium frame
12 350 mm concrete column

10
11

12

161

162

2
Details

3
4

cc

scale 1:20

1 roof construction:
51 mm corrugated polycarbonate panels
100 x 100 mm timber battens
150 x 220 mm ridge purlin
340 x 100 mm rafters
2 sliding window double glazing: 6 mm + 12 mm
cavity + 6 mm in anodised aluminium frame
3 60 mm steel T-profile cantilevered bracket
welded to 75 x 150 mm steel angle
4 anodised aluminium cover plate
5 wall construction: 51 mm corrugated polycarbonate panels; timber battens
100 x 100 mm laminated timber scantlings
timber-fibre sandwich panels with
60 mm rigid-foam core thermal insulation
between 120 x 100 mm laminated timber
scantlings, 250 mm reinforced concrete

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163

Tea Ceremony House in Yugawara, Japan

Architects: Ohshima Atelier, Tokyo
Terunobu Fujimori and Nobumichi Ohshima

This small, compact tea ceremony house appears to crouch

down under its roof, almost as if it were trying to hide in the
nearby forest. Complementing a house and ceramic workshop
in Yugawara, the building has a background just as unusual
as its appearance. The construction was to be completed as
quickly as possible, making standard construction techniques
impractical; the building was reduced to its essentials and the
architect called in the services of stage designers. Accustomed as they were to dealing with economical materials,
simple construction techniques and tight schedules, the stage
designers were more than capable of developing pre-fabricated wall elements, which could be transported directly to
site for assembly.
Simplified by a basic fit-out concept, the building structure
could be completed in less than half a day by only seven
people and the budget kept to a reasonable level in spite of
the high-strength aluminium floor elements. Both internal and
external wall surfaces were rendered with gypsum plaster, the
outer walls having received a pigment additive, and the roof
was clad with cedar shingles. The overall concept of unadorned simplicity was carried through the entire construction,
layout and interior fit-out. The customary interior fittings, wash
area and traditional tatami mats were excluded in order to
create a peaceful and harmonious ambience. The quality of
this interior space is fashioned solely by the light entering the
building from the single window and the skylight above. The
hearth for the tea ceremony is placed immediately in front of
the window, allowing guests to enjoy the view.
This tea ceremony house has been dubbed Ichiya-tei, One
Night Hut, by the owner; this refers to a Japanese legend in
which a warlord erected an entire fortress in a single night.
Site plan
scale 1:750
Section Floor plan Elevations
scale 1:200
1
2
3
4

Residence
Studio
Workshop
Tea ceremony house

2
3

164

aa

165

3
4

Section

scale 1:5

1 skylight with double glazing

2 6 mm cedar roof shingles
bituminous membrane
9 mm plywood, 18 60 mm
cedar strip, 2.3 mm flat steel
0.35 mm metal sheeting
bituminous membrane,12 mm
plywood, 38 89 mm fir frame
30 mm thermal insulation
12 mm plywood, 9 mm render

166

3 9 mm render, 12 mm plywood
38 89 mm douglas fir frame
30 mm thermal insulation
12 mm plywood, 9 mm render
4 6 mm rattan matting, 8 mm felt
5.5 mm linden plywood
12 mm under-floor heating
15 mm plywood
30 mm thermal insulation
15 mm plywood, 9 mm render
5 100 30 x 3 mm aluminium tube
6 oak column

Log Bridge in Alto Adige

Weekend House in
Vallemaggia

Holiday Cabins in Mirasaka,

Japan

Sauna in Finland

Client: Municipality of Kastelruth

Architects: monovolume,
Innsbruck; Lukas Burgauner, Patrik
Ped, Timon Tagliacozzo, Fritz
Starke, Bozen
Contractor: Rier Carpentry Works,
Kastelruth
Span: 28 m
Quantity of timber: approx. 12.6 m
Construction time: 3/7 to 11/8/2000
Construction cost: approx. 29,500

Client: Roberto Briccola, Giubiasco

Architect: Roberto Briccola,
Giubiasco
Structural engineering: Flavio
Bonalumi, Giubiasco
Timber construction: Alpina SA,
Grono
Planning time: 2 months
Construction time: 1 month
Date of completion: 1998
Floor area: 48 m2
Construction cost: 140,000 CHF

Client: Hiroshima Prefecture,

Mirasaka Town
Architects: The Architecture
Factory, Tokyo; Tom Heneghan,
Kazuhiro Ando, Naoki Kaji
Structural engineering:
Kozosekkei-sha
Construction time: 10/1996
to 2/1997
Floor areas: Type S: 30 m2,
Type M: 38 m2, Type L: 49 m2
Construction cost: 7,000,000 JPY

rbriccola@ticino.com

heneghan@arch.usyd.edu.au

Roberto Briccola
Born 1959 in Giubiasco; 1984
degree at the Federal Institute of
Technology, Zurich; from 1986 own
practice in Giubiasco.

Tom Heneghan
Born 1951 in London; 1975 degree
at The Architectural Association,
London; 1976 to 1990 teaching
position as Unit Master at the AA;
from 1990 own practice The
Architecture Factory in Tokyo;
Professor of Architecture at the
University of Sydney.

Client: Marja Kanervo

Architect: Jaakko Keppo, University
of Technology, Helsinki
Project management: Professor Jan
Sderlund, Seppo Hkli
With: Pasi Aaltonen, Jari Frondelius,
Sami Horto, Arno Juntunen, Mikko
Kivinen, Jari Laiho, Tommi
Lehtimki, Kimmo Lylykangas,
Sasu Marila, Tuula Nrhinen, Aarre
Ollila, Jussi Rty, Pekka Salminen,
Seppo Sillanp, Teemu Tuomi,
Camilla Winsten
Structural engineering: Hannu Hirsi
Construction time: 1994 to 1995
Total floor area: 20 m2

mail@monovolume.cc
www.monovolume.cc
Lukas Burgauner
Born 1974 in Bozen; from 1993
architectural studies at the Faculty
of Architecture at the University of
Innsbruck and at the Escuela
Tcnica Superior Arquitectura,
Seville.
Patrik Ped
Born 1973 in Bozen; from 1993
architectural studies at the Faculty
of Architecture at the University of
Innsbruck and at La Sapienza,
Rome; 2000 employed by Volker
Giencke, Graz.
Timon Tagliacozzo
Born 1973 in Bozen; from 1993
architectural studies at the Faculty
of Architecture at the University of
Innsbruck; 2000 and 2001
employed by Carpus & Partner in
Aachen.
2001 establishment of monovolume

168

keppo@afks.fi
www.afks.fi
Jaakko Keppo
Born 1969; degree at the University
of Technology, Helsinki; from 1998
free-lance work with Jari Frondelius; from 2003 partnership with
Jari Frondelius and Juha Salmenper as Architects Frondelius +
Keppo + Salmenper in Helsinki.

Market Hall in Aarau

Carpentry Works in Feldkirch

Petanque Centre in The

Hague

Temporary Cultural Centre in

Munich

Client: Municipality of Aarau,

Department of Construction
Architects: Miller & Maranta, Basle;
Quintus Miller and Paola Maranta
With: Peter Baumberger, Sabine
Rosenthaler, Andr Hubschwerlin
Structural engineering: Conzett
Bronzini Gartmann, Chur
Construction time: 2001 to 2002
Total floor area: 454 m2
Construction cost: 2,625,000 CHF

Client: LOT Holzbau, Feldkirch

Architect: Walter Unterrainer
With: Christof Heim
Structural engineering: Merz,
Kaufmann & Partner, Dornbirn
Master builder: Hilti & Jehle,
Feldkirch
Construction Time: 1999 to 2000
Total floor area:
Hall: 480 m2; Office 344 m2
Construction cost: 545,000

Client: De Goede Worp, Jeu de

Boule-club
Architects: Arconiko Architecten,
Rotterdam; Frido van Nieuwamerongen, Jan Koelink, Gerd
Streng
With: Michiel Pouderoijen
Structural engineering: AB7,
Zevenbergen
Construction time: 2001 to 2002
Total floor area: 710 m2
Construction cost: 209,000

info@millermaranta.ch
www.millermaranta.ch

office@architekt-unterrainer.com

Client: City of Munich, Dept. of

Cultural Development; Hagen Kling,
Albert Fittkau, Gerda Reidinger
Architects: Florian Nagler Architekten, Munich
With: Stefan Lambertz,
Matthias Mller, Almut Schwabe,
Janina Binder
Project management: City of
Munich, Dept. of Construction; Uwe
Krschner, Ursula Backhaus
Structural engineering: W. Brandl,
Freising, with Merz Kaufmann
Partner GmbH, Dornbirn
General contractor: Kaufmann Holz
AG, Reuthe
Construction time: 8 to 11/2001
Total floor area: 773 m2
Construction cost: 1.5 million

Quintus Miller
Born 1961 in Aarau; 1987 degree at
the Federal Institute of Technology,
Zurich; 2000 and 2001 guest
professor at the Federal Institute of
Technology, Lausanne; from 2004
member of the Building Commission for the city of Lucerne; from
2005 member of the Commission
for Historical Preservation for the
city of Zurich.
Paola Maranta
Born 1959 in Chur; 1986 degree at
the Federal Institute of Technology,
Zurich; 1990 Master of Business
Administration at the Institute for
Management Development in
Lausanne; 2000 and 2001 guest
professor at the Federal Institute of
Technology, Lausanne.
1994 establishment of Miller &
Maranta

Walter Unterrainer
Born 1952 in Innsbruck; studied
architecture in Innsbruck; from
1980 own studio in Feldkirch;
founding member of the group
Voralberger Bauknstler; numerous
projects in timber construction
techniques with a maximum of
pre-fabrication; from 1984
specializing in low-energy
architecture; from 1991 specializing
in new pre-fabrication techniques
of timber construction; from 1994
lecturer for design and construction
at the University of Applied
Sciences, Liechtenstein; international workshops in London,
Aachen, Stockholm, Tallinn,
Bologna, Vienna, Glasgow, Skopje,
Ljubljana and Kiev.

arconiko@arconiko.com
www.arconiko.com
Frido van Nieuwamerongen
Born 1961 in Hengelo; 1986 degree
at the University of Technology,
Delft; 1986 to 1993 employed by
Benthem Crouwel Architects
Amsterdam; from 1990 Arconiko
Architecten, Rotterdam.
Jan Koelink
Born 1960 in Kortenhoef; 1988
degree at the University of
Technology, Delft; 1988 to 1989
employed by Van Velzen La Feber
Architects, Schiedam; 1989 to 1991
employed by Henk Klunder
Architects, Rotterdam; 1992 to
1998 guest lecturer at the
University of Technology, Delft;
1990 to 2003 Arconiko Architecten,
Rotterdam; from 2003 senior
architect at Royal Haskoning,
Rotterdam.
Gerd Streng
Born 1970 in Worms; 1999 degree
at the University of Technology,
Darmstadt; from1999 architect at
Arconiko Architecten, Rotterdam.

www.nagler-architekten.de
info@nagler-architekten.de
Florian Nagler
Born 1967 in Munich; 1987 studied
art history and Bavarian history in
Munich; 1987 to 1989 carpentry
apprenticeship; 1994 degree at the
University of Kaiserslautern; 1996 to
1999 own practice in Stuttgart;
2000 and 2001 locum professor at
the University of Wuppertal; from
2001 partnership with Barbara
Nagler, Munich; 2002 guest
professor at the Royal Danish
Academy in Copenhagen.

169

House in Dortmund

House in Dresden

Urban Development near

Cadiz

House near Ingolstadt

Client: Sabine Ebeling

Architects: Archifactory.de,
Bochum; Matthias Herrmann,
Matthias Koch
With: Till Roggel
Structural engineering: Assmann
Beraten und Planen, Dortmund
Construction time: 9/2000 to 3/2001
Total floor area: 215 m2
Construction cost: 217,000 (total)
Construction cost/m2: 1,496

Client: Gnther family

Architects: dd1 Architekten,
Dresden; Eckhard Helfrich,
Lars-Olaf Schmidt, Rainer W. Strauss
Project management: Andreas
Schwarzenberger
Structural engineering: Ingenieurbro Kling, Dresden
Construction time: 10/2001 to 7/2002
Total floor area: 306 m2
Living area: 156 m2
Net floor area: 238 m2
Construction cost: 224,000 (total)

Client: Consejera de Obras

Pblicas, Junta de Andaluca
Ayuntamiento del Puerto de Santa
Mara (Cdiz)
Architects: ACTA; Ramn Pico
Valimaa and Javier Lpez Rivera,
Seville
Project management: Jos A. Lpez
Gutierres, Jos Maria Corbalan
With: Fernando Alda
Structural engineering: Calconsa
Construction date: 2002
Total floor area: 2,149 m2
Construction cost: 907,716,
332/m2

Clients: Petra and Thomas

Schweiger
Architects: 03 Mnchen; Andreas
Garkisch, Karin Schmid, Michael
Wimmer
Project management: Karin Schmid
Structural engineering: Grad
Ingenieurplanung GmbH,
Ingolstadt
Construction time: 9/2002 to 8/2003
Landscape planning: Stefan
Schweiger, Ingolstadt
Living area: 155 m2
Construction cost: 280,000

offica@archifactory.de
www.archifactory.de
Matthias Herrmann
Born 1966 in Tuttlingen; 1992
degree at the University of Applied
Sciences, Bochum; 1992 and 1993
employed by Helge Bofinger; 1995
degree at the University of Dortmund; 1995 employed by Josef
Paul Kleihues.
Matthias Koch
Born 1963; 1985 to 1987 cabinetmaking apprenticeship in
Dortmund; 1993 degree at the
State Academy of Art and Design,
Stuttgart; 1993 to 1995 employed
by Gerber Architects; 1995
employed by Josef Paul Kleihues.
1999 establishment of
Archifactory.de

mail@dd1architekten.de
www.dd1architekten.de

acta@wanadoo.es
Eckhard Helfrich
Born 1968; 1994 degree at the
University of Applied Sciences,
Kaiserslautern; 1997 degree at the
University of Technology, Dresden;
from 2001 teaching position at the
University of Technology and
Economy, Dresden.
Lars-Olaf Schmidt
Born 1967; 1996 degree at the
University of Applied Sciences,
Saarbrcken; 1998 degree at the
University of Technology, Dresden;
from 2001 dd1 Architekten.
Rainer W. Strauss
Born 1965; 1993 degree at the
University of Applied Sciences,
Stuttgart; 1996 degree at the
University of Technology, Dresden.
1997 establishment of dd1
Architekten by E. Helfrich and
R. W. Strauss
2001 partnership extended by
L.- O. Schmidt

170

Ramn Pico Valimaa

Born 1966 in El Puerto de Santa
Mara; 1991 degree at the Escuela
Tcnica Superior de Arquitectura,
Seville; 1993 Master in Proyectos
Integrados de Arquitectura at the
Centro Superior de Arquitectura
Fundacin Antonio Camuas in
Madrid; 1995 to 1997 professor for
building construction and from
1998 for contemporary history at
the Escuela Tcnica Superior de
Arquitectura, Seville.
Javier Lpez Rivera
Born 1966 in Huelva; 1991 degree
at the Escuela Tcnica Superior de
Arquitectura, Seville; 1991 Master in
Proyectos Integrados de Arquitectura at the Centro Superior de
Arquitectura Fundacin Antonio
Camuas in Madrid; 2001 and 2002
professor for statics and mathematics at the Escuela Tcnica Superior
de Arquitectura, Seville.

kontakt@03muenchen.de
www.03muenchen.de
Andreas Garkisch
Born 1967 in Mainz; 1994 degree at
the University of Technology,
Munich; 1992 WEKA Special Award
for Building Simply; 1994 establishment of 02 mnchen with Michael
Wimmer.
Michael Wimmer
Born 1969 in Neumarkt-St.Veit;
1994 degree at the University of
Technology, Munich; 1994
establishment of 02 mnchen with
Andreas Garkisch.
Karin Schmid
Born 1969 in Geisenfeld; 1995
degree at the University of
Technology, Munich; from 2004
teaching position at the University
of Applied Sciences, Munich.
1999 establishment of 03 Mnchen

House in Matosinhos

Wine Store in Vauvert,

France

Cemetery in Galicia

Cemetery Extension with

Chapel in Batschuns

Client: private
Architect: Eduardo Souto de
Moura, Porto
Project management: Silvia Alves
With: Silvia Alves, Joachim Portela,
Mafalda Nunes, Ricardo Meri
Structural engineering:
G.O.P., Lda.
Contractor: Comporto, S.A., Maia
Electrical planning: G.P.I.C. Lda.
Mechanical services: Paulo Queirs
de Faria, Lda.
Construction time: 1998 to 2002
Living area: 215 m2

Client: SCI Domine de la Galine

Architects: Perraudin Architectes,
Vauvert; Gilles Perraudin
Project management: Gilles
Perraudin
Structural engineering: AGIBAT/
MTI, Franois Marre, Lyon
Construction company: SILEX, Vers
Construction date: 1998
Total floor area: 900 m2

Client: Finisterra Town Hall and

Corua County Council
Architect: Csar Portela,
Pontevedra
With: Juan Mosquera, Fabin
Estvez, Serafin Lorenzo
Project management: Marcial
Bajo Snchez
Structural engineering:
Seratin Lorenzo
General contractor: Construcciones Ponciano Nieto Gonzlez,
S.L.
Stonemason: Construcciones
Garcia Justo, S. L.
Landscape architecture: Viveros
Costa Da Morte
Construction date: 1999
Construction cost: 263,900

Client: Municipality of Zwischenwasser, Batschuns

Architects: Marte.Marte Architekten, Weiler
With: Davide Paruta, Alexandra
Fink and Robert Zimmermann
Structural engineering: M + G
Ingenieure, Feldkirch, Josef Galehr
Construction date: 2001
Total floor area: 289 m2
Construction cost: 224.000

souto.moura@mail.telepac.pt
Eduardo Souto de Moura
Bon 1952 in Porto, Portugal: 1980
degree at Escola Superior de Belas
Artes, Porto; 1981 to 1991 assistant
professor at the Faculty of
Architecture of the University of
Porto; 1974 to 1979 collaboration
with lvaro Siza; from 1980 own
practice; guest professor in
Paris-Belleville, Harvard, Dublin,
Zurich and Lausanne.

Perraudinarchitectes@wanadoo.fr
www.perraudin.fr
Gilles Perraudin
Born 1949; 1977 degree at Lcole
dArchitecture de Lyon; 1974 to
1981 lecturer at Lcole
dArchitecture de Lyon; 1990
lecturer at the Oslo School of
Architecture and Design, and the
Rice University, Houston; 1996
lecturer at the Michigan University,
Ann Arbor; 1997 lecturer at the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts,
Copenhagen; from 1996 professor
at Lcole dArchitecture Languedoc-Roussillon.

cesarportela@cesarportela.com
Csar Portela
Born 1937 in Pontevedra, Spain;
1954 Bachelor of Arts at the Valle
Incln Institute of Secondary
Education in Pontevedra; 1966
Degree in Architecture at the
Escuela Tcnica Superior de
Arquitectura in Barcelona; 1968
Doctorate in Architecture at the
Universidad Politcnica in Madrid;
from 1990 Professor of architecture
at the Escuela de Arquitectura in
La Corua.

Bridge Construction in
Zwischenwasser
Client: Municipalities of Sulz and
Zwischenwasser
Architects: Marte.Marte Architekten, Weiler
With: Robert Zimmermann,
Michelangelo Zaffignani, Konrad
Klostermann
Structural engineering: M + G
Ingenieure, Feldkirch, Josef Galehr
Construction date: 1999
Construction cost: 134.000
marte.marte@marte-marte.com
www.marte-marte.com
Bernhard Marte
Born 1966 in Dornbirn; studied
architecture at the University of
Technology, Innsbruck.
Stefan Marte
Born 1967 in Dornbirn; studied
architecture at the University of
Technology, Innsbruck.
1993 establishment of Marte.Marte
Architekten

171

House in Oldenburg

Landing Stage in Alicante

Harbour

Service Pavilion in Brest

Store and Studio in Hagi,

Japan

Client: Kleyer family

Architects: LIN Finn Geipel, Giulia
Andi, Berlin / Paris
Site architects: Wilken, Wedemeyer
& Partner, Oldenburg
Project architect: Ingmar Ahnert
Project mangement: Architekten.
Wedemeyer.Wilken.Partner,
Oldenburg; Michael Peters
Construction time: 2002 to 2003
Living area: 230 m2
Construction cost: 200,000

Client: Autoridad Portuarua de

Alicante
Architect: Javier Garca-Solera
Vera, Alicante
With: Deporah Domingo, Marcos
Gallud and Juan Antonio GarcaSolera Vera
General contractor: Alcaraz Soler
S. L., Alicante
Total floor area: 150 m2
Landing stage area: 800 m2

Client: Municipality of Brest

Architects: Defrain-Souquet
Architectes, Paris; Franois Defrain
and Olivier Souquet
With: Mathieu Chazelle
Landscape architects: Florence
Robert and Charenton le Pont
Construction company: ATPI, Plaisir
Construction time: 1 to 11/2001
Total floor area: 57.4 m2

Client: Kazuiko Miwa, Yamaguchi

Architects: Sambuichi Architects,
Hiroshima; Hiroshi Sambuichi
Project management:
Hiroshi Sambuichi
With: Hidenori Ejima, Manabu
Aritsuka, Tsuyoshi Oda, Masataka
Maehara
Structural engineering:
S./E. Structural Engineers
General contractor:
Yasunari Corporation
Construction time: 11/2001 to
10/2002
Total floor area: 283 m2

jgsold@arquired.es
office@lin-a.com
www.finn-geipel-lin.com
Finn Geipel
Born 1958 in Stuttgart; 1983 own
practice LABFAC Stuttgart with
Bernd Hoge and Jochen Hunger;
1987 own practice LABFAC Paris
with Nicolas Michelin; 2000 own
practice LIN in Berlin and Paris with
Giulia Andi; 1996 to 2000 guest
professor at the cole Spciale
dArchitecture, Paris, cole
Spciale dArchitecture, Paris-Val
de Seine, Columbia University,
New York and at the Escuela
Tcnica Superior de Arquitectura,
Barcelona; from 2000 professor at
the University of Technology,
Berlin.

172

Javier Garca-Solera Vera

Born 1958 in Alicante; 1984 degree
at the Escuela Tcnica Superior de
Arquitectura in Madrid; from 1999
professor for design in Alicante;
from 2002 guest professor at
various universities and schools of
architecture in Spain, Argentina,
Chile, Ecuador, Belgium and Italy.

defrain.souquet.archi@wanadoo.fr
www.deso-architecture.com
Franois Defrain
Born 1966 in Grenoble; 1989
degree at the University of
Architecture, Grenoble; project
management by: SCAU, Francis
Soler, Bertrand Bonnier, Christian
de Portzamparc.
Olivier Souquet
Born 1961 in Paris; 1988 degree at
the University of Architecture,
Paris-Tolbiac; project management
by: Christian Hauvette, Hubert et
Roy, Bical-Courcier-Martinelli,
AREP; since 2001 lecturer for urban
planning at the University of
Architecture, Clermont-Ferrand.
2000 establishment of DefrainSouquet Architectes

samb@d2.dion.ne.jp
Hiroshi Sambuichi
Born 1968 in Japan; 1992 degree
at the University of Technology,
Tokyo; 1992 to 1996 employed by
Ogawa Shinichi Atelier in Hiroshima; from 1997 Sambuichi
Architects.

House in Chur

Building and Construction

Centre in Munich

Model Workshop in Wolfratshausen

Tea Ceremony House in

Yugawara, Japan

Client: Patrick Gartmann

Architect: Patrick Gartmann, Chur
Structural engineering and project
management: Patrick Gartmann
Master builder: Lurati & Co. Chur
Insulating concrete: Liapor Schweiz
Vertriebs GmbH, Olten, (Mr. Meyer)
Concrete manufacture: CalandaBeton AG, Chur (Mr. Capatt)
Construction time: 8 months
Total floor area: 306 m2
Construction cost: 1,000,000 CHF

Client: Regierungsbaumeister
Govermental masterbuilder
Max Aicher, Freilassing
Architects: Hild und K Architekten,
Munich
With: Nina Grohauser, Tom
Thalhofer, Carmen Wolf,
Carolin Sauer
Structural engineering: Haumann
und Fuchs, Traunstein
Construction time: 6 to 12/2003
Total useable area: 2,980 m2

Client: private
Architects: Terunobu Fujimori and
Nobumichi Ohshima (Oshima
Atelier), Kanagawa, Japan
Project management: Morihiro
Hosokawa
General contractor: Jomon
Architecture Group and Haiyuza
Theatre Co. Inc.
Construction time: 2/2003 to 4/2003
Total floor area: 6.4 m2
Construction cost: 7,000,000 JPY

cbg@cbg-ing.ch
www.cbg-ing.ch

architekten@HildundK.de
www.HildundK.de

Clients: Helma and Frieder Grne,

Beuerberg
Architects: Allmann Sattler
Wappner Architekten GmbH,
Munich
With: Kilian Jockisch, Susanne Rath
Project management: H.-C.
Seelbach, Ingenieurbro fr
Bauplanung, Wolfratshausen
Structural engineering: Tischner +
Pache, Ingenieurbro fr Baustatik,
Dachau
Construction time: 2001 to 2002
Total covered area: 612 m2
Construction cost: 0.5 million
(incl. tax)

Patrick Gartmann
Born 1968 in Chur; 1994 degree in
civil engineering and 1998 degree
in architecture at the University of
Technology and Economy, Chur;
1998 and 1999 assistant to Valerio
Olgiati at the Federal Institute of
Technology, Zurich; from 1998
partnership with Jrg Conzett and
Gianfranco Bronzini; 2001 lecturer
for informatics at the University of
Technology and Economy, Chur;
2002 lecturer for construction at the
University of Technology and
Economy, Chur.

Andreas Hild
Born 1961 in Hamburg; 1988
degree at the University of
Techology, Munich; 1992 to 1998
combined office with Tillmann
Kaltwasser in Munich; 1996 to 1998
locum professor at the University of
Kaiserslautern; from 1999
partnership with Dionys Ottl as Hild
und K Architekten; 1999 to 2001
locum professor at the University of
Applied Sciences, Munich; 2003
and 2004 guest professor at the
Institute for Fine Arts, Hamburg.
Dionys Ottl
Born 1964 in Peissenberg; 1995
degree at the University of
Technology, Munich; 1994 to 1998
employed at Hild und Kaltwasser
Architekten; from 1999 partnership
with Andreas Hild as Hild und K
Architekten.

info@allmannsattlerwappner.de
www.allmannsattlerwappner.de

Terunobu Fujimori
Born 1946 in the Prefecture of
Nagano; 1971 degree at the School
of Engineering, Tohoku University;
1978 doctorate at the University of
Tokyo; professor at the University
of Tokyo.
Nobumichi Ohshima
Born 1960 in the Prefecture of
Tottori; 1984 degree at the College
of Art and Design, Musashino Art
University; 1991 establishment of
the Ohshima Atelier; from 2003
lecturer at the Musashino Art
University.

Markus Allmann
Born 1959 in Ludwigshafen; 1986
degree at the University of
Technology, Munich; employed by
Betrix und Consolascio, Zurich.
Amandus Sattler
Born 1957 in Marktredwitz; 1982
founded the study group for art and
architecture, Sprengwerk in
Munich with Ludwig Wappner;
1985 degree at the University of
Technology, Munich; from 1985
free-lance employment.
Ludwig Wappner
Born 1957 in Hsbach; 1985
degree at the University of
Technology, Munich; subsequently
employed by Schmidt-Schicketanz
und Partner, Munich; 1989
assistant to Professor Winkler at the
University of Technology, Munich.

fujimori@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
atelier.ohshima@nifty.ne.jp
http//tampopo-house.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

1987 establishment of Allmann

Sattler architectural office in
Munich, 1993 extended to Allmann
Sattler Wappner Architekten.

173

Authors

Christian Schittich (editor)

Born 1956
studied architecture at the University of Technology, Munich
followed by seven years office experience and work as author;
from 1991 editorial board of DETAIL, Review of Architecture
from 1992 responsible editor, from 1998 editor-in-chief;
author and editor of numerous textbooks and articles.
Florian Musso
Born 1956
studied architecture at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Virginia;
from 1984 to 1989 technical assistant at the Federal Institute of Technology,
Lausanne, the Rhine-Westphalia University of Technology, Aachen and the
Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich;
from 1989 partnership with Claudine Lorenz in Sion, Switzerland and Munich;
1990 to 2000 lecturer for building construction at the University of Applied
Sciences Fribourg, Switzerland;
1998 to 2002 guest professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia;
from 2002 professor for design, construction and material science at the University
of Technology, Munich.
Christoph Affentranger
Born 1965
studied architecture at the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich and at the
University of Technology, Helsinki;
from 1991 own practice; 1996 guest researcher at the University of Architecture, Oslo;
intensive contact with Scandinavian architecture and the theories of timber
construction; numerous lectures, textbooks and publications on both subjects.
Martin Rauch
Born 1958
studied at the Technical College for Ceramics and Kiln Engineering, Stoob, Austria;
studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, specialising in ceramics;
from 1984 independently active in the fields of ceramics and adobe construction
techniques; 1999 foundation of the Loam Clay Earth Architecture GmbH in Schlins;
realization of innovative adobe clay construction projects in Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
Stefan Schfer
Born 1963
studied architecture in Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart; worked as an architect in the
Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Genoa until 1994; from 1994 free-lance architect
in Stuttgart; 1995 to 1998 technical assistant at the Institute for Lightweight
Structures and Conceptual Design in Stuttgart under Werner Sobek;
from 1998 professor at the University of Technology, Darmstadt specialising in
structural design and building construction;
from 2000 own practice Architekten.3P in Stuttgart.
174

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Gtz, Karl-Heinz; Hoor, Dieter; Mhler, Karl;

Natterer, Julius: Design & Construction,
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Architektur, Stuttgart 1988

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Bachmann, Hugo: Hochbau fr Ingenieure,

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Hugues, Theodor; Steiger, Ludwig; Weber,

Johann: Timber Construction, Munich 2002

Becker, Gerd: Tragkonstruktionen des Hochbaues Planen, Entwerfen, Berechnen, Teil 1:

Konstruktionsgrundlagen, Dsseldorf 1983

Pfeifer, Gnter; Liebers, Antje; Reiners, Holger:

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Becker, Gerd: Tragkonstruktionen des Hochbaues Planen, Entwerfen, Berechnen, Teil 2:

Tragwerkselemente, Dsseldorf 1987
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Dierks, Klaus: Baukonstruktion, Dsseldorf 2002

Kreh, Dick; Kreh, Richard: Building with Masonry,

Newtown 2002

Bruckner, Heinrich; Schneider, Ulrich;

Schwimann, Mathias: Lehmbau fr Architekten
und Ingenieure, Neuwied 2002
Kapfinger, Otto; Rauch, Martin: Lehm und
Architektur, Basle 2001
Minke, Gernot: Das neue Lehmbau-Handbuch,
Staufen near Fribourg 2001

Melis, Liesbeth: Parasite Paradise. A Manifesto

for Temporary Architecture and Flexible Urbanism, Rotterdam 2003

Steel

Detail. Review of Architecture +

Construction Details, Simple Forms of Building,
2003/6, 2001/3, 1993/1, 1991/2

Timber

Beall, Christine: Masonry Design and Detailing

for Architects and Contractors, New York,
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Clay

Steingass, Peter: Moderner Lehmbau 2003,

Stuttgart 2003

Pople, Nicolas: Experimental Houses,

New York 2000

Masonry

Hugues, Theodor; Greilich, Klaus; Peter,

Christine: Building with Large Clay Block,
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Disch, Peter; Steinmann, Martin: Neue

Architektur in der deutschen Schweiz,
Lugano 1990

Minke, Gernot: Experimentelles Bauen,

Staufen near Fribourg 1999

Kind-Barkauskas, Friedbert; Kauhsen, Bruno;

Polnyi, Stefan; Brandt, Jrg: Concrete
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Willeitner, Hubert; Schwab, Eckart: Holz

Verwendung im Holzbau, Lausanne 2000

Belz, Walter: Zusammenhnge, Cologne 1993

Deplazes, Andrea: Constructing Architecture,
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Eifert, Helmut; Kaden, Rainer; Rhling, Stefan:

Betonbau, Berlin 2000

Pfeifer, Gnter; Ramcke, Rolf; Achtziger,

Joachim; Zilch, Konrad: Masonry Construction
Manual, Munich 2001
Hugues, Theodor; Greilich, Klaus; Peter,
Christine: Building with Large Clay Blocks,
Munich 2004
Websites (selection)
Global Wood
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Blanc, Alan; McEvoy, Michael: Architecture and

Construction in Steel, London 1992
Brookes, Alan J.: Concepts in cladding: case
studies of jointing for architects and engineers,
London 1985
Schulitz, Helmut C.; Sobek, Werner; Habermann,
Karl J.: Steel Construction Manual, Munich 1999
Le Cuyer, Anette:
Stahl & Co., Basle 2003
Polnyi, Stefan; Walochnik, Wolfgang: Architektur
und Tragwerk, Berlin 2003

Affentranger, Christoph: Neue Holzarchitektur in

Skandinavien, Basle 1997
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Bren von, Charles: Neuer Holzbau in der
Schweiz: Mit Tradition und Erfahrung zu neuen
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Arnold, Rick: Working with Concrete,

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Friedrich-Schoenberger, Mechtild:
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Bennett, David: Exploring Concrete Architecture;

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175

Illustration credits

The authors and editor wish to

extend their sincere thanks to all
those who helped to realize this
book by making illustrations available. All drawings contained in
this volume have been specially
prepared in-house. Photos without
credits are from the architects own
archives or the archives of DETAIL,
Review of Architecture. Despite
intense efforts, it was not possible
to identify the copyright owners
of certain photos and illustrations.
Their rights remain unaffected, however, and we request them to contact us.
From photographers, photo
archives and image agencies:
Affentranger, Christoph, Zug:
p. 33
Alda, Fernando, Seville:
pp. 102105
Ano, Daici, Tokyo: p. 142
Busam, Friedrich/Architekturphoto,
Dsseldorf: pp. 6265
Demailly, Serge, Saint Cyr Sur
Mer: pp. 115117
Demonfaucon, Christophe, Chateaufort: pp. 139141
Dix, Thomas/Architekturphoto,
Dsseldorf: pp. 146151
Enders Ulrike, Hanover: p. 38
Firma Merk, Aichach: p. 32
Freisager, Michael, Baar: p. 43
Gabriel, Andreas, Munich: p. 41
(4.7)
Garve, Roland, Lneburg: p. 28
Halbe, Roland, Stuttgart:
pp. 133137
Hkli, Seppo, Helsinki:
p. 70 bottom
Heinrich, Michael, Munich:
pp. 118119, 153157
Holzherr, Florian, Munich: pp. 159,
161 top
Hunger, Susanne, Freiburg: p. 49
Huthmacher, Werner, Berlin:
pp. 126128
Jnicke, Steffen, Berlin: p. 46
Kaltenbach Frank, Munich: pp. 26,
48
Kappel, Kai, Munich: p. 12
Kr, Dibdo Francis, Berlin:
p. 39
Klomfar, Bruno, Vienna: pp. 42,
122, 125
Kramer, Luuk, Amsterdam:
pp. 8283, 85
Malagamba, Duccio, Barcelona:
pp. 110113
Martinez, Ignacio, Lustenau:
pp. 123124, 130131
Masuda, Akihisa, Tokyo:
pp. 164167

176

Maul, Gernot, Mnster: pp. 9395

Mller-Naumann, Stefan, Munich:
pp. 8791, 161 bottom, 162
Rauch, Martin, Schlins: p. 41 (4.8)
Rosenberg, Simone, Munich:
pp. 106107, 109
Schfer, Stefan, Stuttgart: p. 51
Schittich, Christian, Munich:
pp. 10, 29, 36, 163
Schulitz, Helmut C., Brunswick:
pp. 3435
Shinkenchiku-sha, Tokyo: pp. 8,
6769, 143, 145
Steiner, Petra, Berlin: pp. 9899,
101
Suzuki, Hisao, Barcelona:
pp. 120121
Tiainen, Jussi, Helsinki:
pp. 70 top, 7172
Walti, Ruedi, Basle: pp. 7477
Weissengruber, Matthias, Kennelbach: pp. 78, 8081
Wett, Guenter R., Innsbruck: p. 31
Young, Nigel, Kingston-uponThames: p. 18
From books and journals:
Le Corbusier: Mein Werk. Stuttgart
1960: p. 14 top
Smithson, Alison Margaret: The
Charged Void: Architecture. New
York 2001: p. 15
Barnes, Edward L.: Edward Larabee Barnes, Architect. New York
1994: p. 16
Deutsches Architektur-Museum;
Hellenic Institute of Architecture
(Ed.): 20th Century-Architecture
Greece. Munich/London/New
York 1999: p. 20
Pantin, Montrouge, Boulogne-Billancourt, Meudon-la-Fort: Fernand Pouillon, Architecte. Paris
2003: p. 22
Lambert, Phyllis (Ed.): Mies van
der Rohe in America New York,
Whitney Museum of American
Art. New York/Montreal/Chicago
2001/02: p. 24

Introductory b/w photos of

articles and sections:
p. 8; Weekend House at
Yamanaka Lake, Japan, 2001;
Kazunari Sakamoto Architectural
Laboratory, Tokyo;
p. 10; Barn in the open-air
museum Himmelsberga in land,
Sweden
p. 26; Swiss Pavilion, Expo Hanover; Peter Zumthor, Haldenstein
p. 36; Reconstruction work on the
Tibetan Monastery Labrang, Qinghai, 1995
p. 44; Rooftop extension in
Stuttgart 2001; Hartwig Schneider
Architekten, Stuttgart
Dust-jacket photo:
Store and Studio in Hagi, Japan
Architects: Sambuichi Architects,
Hiroshima
Photo: Shinkenchiku-sha, Tokyo