未来档案库丨德国丨Peter Haimerl

Architect：Peter Haimerl

Location：Lichtenfels, Germany; | ;View Map

Category：Cultural Centres

Lichtenfels is a former basket weaving town; the artisanal use of wicker has shaped the town, created wealth and enabled the construction of a high-quality town square. Munich architect Peter Haimerl has built the "Archive of the Future" there for entrepreneurs in the field of 3D metal printing technology. With their private commitment, they want to show the transformation of the place from its artisanal character to digitalization: The Archive of the Future is an action and communication space for events and exhibitions, where information is provided about innovations, exchange and initiative are encouraged and future processes are stimulated. The "Archive of the Future" thus translates these transformations of the present into architecture, sculpture and urban space. 

For the baroque town square, Peter Haimerl designed a new building as an all-round glazed steel construction that replaces an existing historical building and uses its renovated cellar vault. It forms the urbanistic conclusion of the main square and the side square and continues an important urban building block at this point, innovatively replacing the closed spatial lines common in historic towns.

With its all-round glazing, minimal frame profiles and canopies as well as the slender metal supports inside, the building is almost invisible amidst the historic half-timbered houses. This glass pavilion is surrounded by two sculptural artificial willow trees made of shiny golden metal, which were developed using a growth algorithm. The basic motif of the willow and basket weaving was transformed into a 3D structure and a mathematical genetic code was developed, which - similar to a real willow - generates structures such as trunks, branches and twigs. The programmed willows were then tested for safe construction using digital and physical models and finally erected on the town square using square tubes and robotic welding technology. The duplex coating on galvanized steel gives the artificial willows their golden sheen.

The historic façades made of stone, plaster and half-timbering are thus continued in the form of representative-looking technical, 12-metre-high tree structures.

A solid base slab made of exposed concrete traces the former external dimensions. The outlines of the steel trees and the new building are set into the imaginary historical hipped roof. 

The first floor of the transparent pavilion building is used for exhibitions on future topics, with offices and a meeting room above. The glass façades can be opened up completely to the street, allowing the interior spaces to merge into the public urban space. Ceiling panels made of foamed aluminum ensure an optimal supply of heat and cooling. 

The basement with lecture hall offers an exciting contrast to the dematerialized glazed city loggia. The concrete bored piles remain unclad and serve as a harshly textured spatial shell. Their striking pattern of stones and layers of earth was created by the rotating movement with which the bored sleeves were pulled out of the ground. The low vaulted cellar of the old building was removed before the foundation work and reused as an exhibition space for archaeological finds.

The design thus combines tradition and innovation, nature and architecture, as well as interior and exterior space.

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