Situation and topic

In the center of Marktoberdorf in the German Allgäu, between the town hall and the citizens' villas from the 1920s, stands the Künstlerhaus of the Dr. Geiger Foundation. A building that can be used for various purposes - for special exhibitions as well as for the presentation of one's own collection and as a studio. The solitaire fits into the structure of individual buildings typical of Marktoberdorf and at the same time stands out from the surrounding town houses due to its cubic formulation. The composition with the existing Stilterhaus follows an internal logic in its location and at the same time an optimal utilisation within the plot.

The forecourt, a square sculpture garden surrounded by walls, defined as an empty space in the complex, creates a pivotal point and thus becomes the central space. The building consists of two sharply cut brick cubes staggered one behind the other, slightly shifted to the side, each with a floor area of ten by ten metres. The special feature lies in the compact building envelope made of reddish-brown, flush-jointed clinker brickwork. The workshop-like character of the Künstlerhaus with exposed brickwork also inside expresses the idea of the living gallery, whose concern for once does not want to be the neutral space placed above all else.

Structure

Typologically speaking, the building consists of two identical volumes that butt against each other when turned ninety degrees. The seam of the two bodies becomes visible through the change of direction of the beam position and the doubling of the walls. The spatial structure concealed behind the masonry armor relies on the free playability of the exhibition areas and deliberately dispenses with a core or separating walls. Rather, stairs and media shafts fit into the spatial walls in order to create the most coherent exhibit areas possible. In principle, this building can be described as an interplay of a self-supporting shell and steel girder ceilings inserted in between. The solidly shaped vascular floor and the roof, which functions according to a similar principle to the intermediate floors, consistently close off the brick building shell.

The foundation of the gallery buildings, which are sunk into the ground, is designed as a clinker-clad tub. Thus, the masonry bodies appear to be sunk into the ground. Building on this, the masonry armor, which is understood as a solid shell, forms the actual building envelope. The brick masonry acts as a "brick-mortar composite" with high compressive and low tensile strength. The actual load-bearing capacity is created by the interaction of the two building materials in all three dimensions. The minimal intermediate floors with richly laid spruce planks fit vertically into the room vessels without damaging the masonry shell. The solid masonry building thus retains its expression on the outside, which is independent of the storeys.

Source: BEARTH & DEPLAZES - Andrea Deplazes, Valentin Bearth, Daniel Ladner.
aus Deplazes, Andrea (ed.): Architektur Konstruieren - vom Rohmaterial zum Bauwerk - Ein Handbuch, 2nd ed., Birkhäuser, Basel, 2005.
Photos: feinerfotografie - Ralph Feiner, BEARTH & DEPLAZES

Bearth & Deplazes Architekten AG