Landesgartenschau, Weil am Rhein Building, Germany Architecture

Landesgartenschau, Germany

Exhibition space, restaurant, offices – design by Zaha Hadid Architects

6 Feb 2014

Landscape Formation One

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects

Location: Weil am Rhein, Germany

Regional Garden Show Centre

The project was designed to serve as an event and exhibition space for the garden festival in Weil am Rhein 1999. The suggested structure does not sit in the landscape as an isolated object, but emerges from the fluid geometry of the surrounding network of paths.

Three of those paths entangle to make the building. Four parallel, partly interwoven spaces are caught in this bundle of paths. One path snuggles up to the south side of the building, another, gently sloping, rises over its back, whereas the third path cuts diagonally through the interior. The main spaces, exhibition hall and cafe, stretch along those routes and allow for plenty of sun light and views from the exterior. Secondary rooms ‘disappear’ within the ‘root’ of the building. A terrace including a covered performance space is located to the south of the cafe.

The centre for environmental research is situated north of the exhibition hall, half submerged into the ground in order to take advantage of the isolating quality of the earth itself. On the other side the exhibition hall acts as a buffer zone, which allows a passive use of solar energy in winter. The sunken beam of the centre of environmental research becomes an open mezzanine in the exhibition hall.

Landesgartenschau – Building Information

Architects: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher, Mayer Bahrle
Project Architect: Markus Dochantschi,
Project Director: Patrik Schumacher
Local Architect: Mayer Bahrle Freie, Architeken DBA [Lorrach, Germany]
Consultants: Structure, GS Projekt, Luigi Martino [Germany, Italy]
M/E: Kuttenbaum energietehnik [Lorrach, Germany
Heating conditioning: Delzer Kybernetik [Lorrach, Germany]
Acoustic: Ehrsaum und Pannach [Lorrach, Germany]