Extension of Laboratory Building

Project description

The LfU Wielenbach was founded almost 100 years ago as the ‘Royal Bavarian Fish Farming Research Station’ and is thus the oldest institution of the State Office for the Environment. Today, it employs an interdisciplinary team of 50 staff who investigate fisheries issues and use laboratory facilities.

The existing laboratory building from the 1980s, a two-storey service building with a north-south ridge orientation, is part of a rural ensemble. The building, which has a full basement, contains functional and technical rooms as well as sanitary facilities in the basement and laboratory and office space on the ground and upper floors. The new extension adds to the existing building with a freestanding structure measuring 12.5 x 12.5 m and a connecting structure. Neither part has a basement and both are timber constructions. The angled arrangement of the extension in relation to the existing building responds on the one hand to the space-defining aspects of the property and the existing vegetation and on the other hand to a required minimum distance to the neighbouring weather station to the south.

The construction is essentially a solid wood structure. The ceilings and load-load-bearing walls are made of cross-laminated timber elements, while the roof structure is of a traditional carpentry design. The foundation of the new building consists of a reinforced concrete floor slab. The exterior and interior appearance of the building reflects the materiality of the wood, with the façade consisting of profiled untreated spruce formwork. In line with the energy concept, the building meets passive house standards. Due to the low heating requirements, the extension can be supplied by the existing heating system.