The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.
In first article of our series Architectural Details, we looked at the work of minimalist master Toyo Ito, studying the ways in which concrete can be fashioned into an incredibly simple but viscerally powerful form. This is not the only material that can be detailed in such an understated way — wood is also a popular medium amongst contemporary architects, and no project showcases its pared-back potential more than Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron’s Götz Collection museum in Munich, Germany.
As architect and author Georg Windeck explains in his book Construction Matters, Herzog & de Meuron and collaborator Helmut Federle’s design for this small museum is informed directly by the properties of its primary material — birch wood. “Three different incarnations of this material are manifest,” says Windeck, “first as the birch trees that stand in front of the museum, second as a composite wood product, and finally as a distinct architectural form.”
Front elevation; courtesy Sammlung Goetz, photo by Franz Wimmer, Munich
The Swiss architects enlarged an ubiquitous component of the art world — the timber art crate — to the scale of a building, creating a paneled box that protects the precious objects within while provoking a strong sense of curiosity. “The structural grid of this architectural container is based on the industrial sizes of plywood,” explains Windeck. “The standard dimensions of this material determine the proportions of the building. Multiple sheets of plywood assemble a larger rectangular volume that is held together by a glulam frame.”
Glulam beams being lifted on to the site; courtesy Sammlung Goetz
The seamless appearance of this frame was achieved with some remarkable lengths of timber, the installation of which formed a carefully orchestrated operation. “Large glulam girders were brought to the site as a single piece with the connecting hardware for the floor joists already installed,” describes Windeck. Flawless joinery at the corners — devoid of visible bolts or pegs — helped achieve the minimal aesthetic of the exterior: “The ends of the girder are cut in a 45-degree angle in order to connect at the corners with a miter joint that does not reveal the cross section of the member.”
Glulam girder detail; drawing and photo by Construction Matters
Above the plywood “art crate,” a row of frosted glass panels echoes the proportions of the gridded façade below, but possesses a faint, ethereal aesthetic. This material contrast is subtle by day, but emphasized at night with the help of internal lighting: “During mild daylight, glass and wood have a similar matte appearance, unifying the building as a single, solid volume. At night, when the galleries are illuminated from the inside, the façade is sharply divided between the translucent glass and the opaque plywood.”
Gallery and stairway; courtesy Sammlung Goetz, photo by Franz Wimmer, Munich
Inside, a subterranean gallery is held within a concrete trough, while two concrete “tubes” support an upper gallery encased by the timber structure above. These spaces are lined with sheetrock, which envelops the work “like the styrofoam or paper padding surrounding an object in an art crate.” Outside, the plywood panels contribute to the stiffness of the structure due to their high shear strength.
Night-time view; courtesy Sammlung Goetz, photo by Franz Wimmer, Munich
Ultimately, this is a building defined by the use of composite materials, one that harnesses the peculiar qualities of artificial wood products over their traditional counterparts. As Windeck points out, the building makes “tectonic gestures explicitly about the structural capacities” of engineered wood, referring to “the logic of composite, rather than the logic of the joint.” The resulting building stands out for its pristine yet raw materiality, proving that even the most basic of materials can render architecture fitting of its poetic contents.
For more innovative uses of composite wood and other amazing details in concrete, brick and steel, check out Construction Matters, available here.
The latest edition of “Architizer: The World’s Best Architecture” — a stunning, hardbound book celebrating the most inspiring contemporary architecture from around the globe — is now available. Order your copy today.