After just 10 months of planning, the Wangen Tower and Hybrid Flax Pavilion were opened to the public as part of the opening ceremony with prominent figures from culture and politics. The two innovative buildings were planned according to the latest findings in digitalisation and lightweight construction research and show visitors in different ways how bio-based materials can open up new paths for regenerative architecture.
The tower and pavilion were designed by researchers from the IntCDC Cluster of Excellence at the University of Stuttgart and realised in cooperation with local companies.
The Hybrid Flax Pavilion is a central exhibition building on the Landesgartenschau grounds, surrounded by the renaturalised River Argen. The pavilion is the first to showcase a wood-natural fibre hybrid system as an alternative to conventional building methods. The pavilion, combines slender cross-laminated timber with robotically wound flax fibre bodies in a novel, resource-saving load-bearing system made of regional, bio-based building materials with a distinct local connection. Flax was historically processed in the local textile industry, whose old spinning mill site was renovated as part of the Landesgartenschau. The undulating roof, together with the circular floor plan and the centrally located climate garden, offers a space that merges seamlessly into the landscape.
With an impressive height of around 22 metres, the Wangen Tower offers a breathtaking view over the Allgäu and the Alps. It is the world's first accessible tower to use curved cross-laminated timber components that mould themselves as the wood shrinks.
The tower's load bearing, spiralling timber structure offers a unique spatial experience and, with a material thickness of just 130 mm, also represents a slim, resource-saving and at the same time high-performance timber construction.
In the spirit of the two-way transfer of knowledge between research and construction companies, both buildings were realised in collaboration with regional companies. The differentiated and therefore particularly resource-saving, fully dismantlable and reusable constructions were made possible by integrative computer-based planning methods and digital production processes.