29|09|2011

Kirchenbrücke Muotathal

17|03|2011

Administrative building Ballenberg

«If the Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg was a book», architect Gion A. Caminada says, «the new administrative building would be the introduction.»

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07|12|2010

aquabasilea, Pratteln

“I was rather daunted at first,” says Bruno Abplanalp from the new company Timber engineers AG in Lungern. Tobias Götz of Pirmin Jung Ingenieure für Timber engineers had asked if he would like to build this roof ridge ring. “The ring has an inner diameter of 8.6 metres, contains 66 cubic metres of wood and weighs nearly 37 tonnes,” explains Abplanalp. “An amazing achievement,” in the opinion of Professor Justus Dahinden, the architect of «aquabasilea» who suggested the idea of the timber roof and therefore of the ridge ring. And when Professor Nikolaus Nebgen from Hildesheim, Götz’s teacher, sees the ring for the first time, he’s lost for words. “Amazing. Fantastic.”

13|07|2010

City Garden Hotel Zug

"The hotel will be torn down again in twelve years' time", says Kathrin Estermann, the client's representative, "because a new city tunnel is planned. So each day counted for us, and everythin had to be done really fast..."

22|02|2010

Research building of the Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach

"There were a number of tricky problems to solve", says Stefan Kost of Leuenberger Architects. "For example, all the rooms had to have a flexible use, meaning they had to be a large as possible yet with a minimum number of supoorts. And as ornithologists we wanted to make an ecological statement", sys Dr. Christian Marti, the client's representative, manager and librarian at the Ornithological Insitute. So they soon got round to considering a timber construction. Compared with other wall constructions, wood has good insulating properties even when the wall itself is not particularly strong", explains Kost. "And we were even to manage with very few load bearing inside walls."