The property, which is located in the heart of a small town called Eibenstock, is surrounded by the charming landscape and the hills of the Ore Mountains nature park.
The architecture of these mountain villages is dominated by the traditional building types, which consciously respond to the harsh climate of the area. The fundamental idea of this project is to reconcile these local traditions with a simple construction in a contemporary architectural language.

The angled structure of the roof, consisting of five differently pitched faces, was developed based on the property gradation and inspired by the significant steep roofs of the region.
The large building alcoves under the big, slanted roof clearly mark the most used areas and the main entrances to the generally rather closed shape of the building.
At the same time, these areas offer protection from snow and rain.
Despite being a single-storey construction with a steep roof, the compact structure presents itself confidently next to the multi-storey administration building and the surrounding neighborhood.

Due to its direct proximity to the forests of the Ore Mountains and the forestry office as users, the construction, consisting of a timber frame structure with standing-axis construction made of timber truss as a space frame was a natural choice. The reinforcement of the walls and the internal cladding is provided by a double layering of OSB wood composite panels. A reinforced concrete floor slab forms the overall foundation of the building, and, through surface smoothing, also serves as the finished floor.
Last but not least, these simple, archaic materials and constructions take the economic aspect and the use as a warehouse, garage and functional building into mind.

The buildings atmosphere and aura were achieved by the choice of the exterior roof and wall cladding.
Responding to the user’s forestry work, as well as the roofing with slate shingles, which is typical for the region, the entire building is also completely covered in shingles. Though instead of slate, the shingles used in this project are red cedar- wooden shingles, which are traditionally used in the mountain area.
In contrast to the scaly brittle material of the wooden shingles, the large alcoves were completely lined with surfaces of smooth, metallic shimmering aluminum panels on all sides.
All entrances, such as doors and garage doors, are integrated flush within these alcove areas.
This simple, traditional, yet specific building’s skin evokes a split stem with outer rough, dark bark and an inner, light and smooth core.

Building project: sharply cut | new construction of a farm building for forest district 14 in Eibenstock
Client: State of Saxony, represented by SIB NL Zwickau
Completion: 2010
Photographer: Werner Huthmacher, Bertram Bölkow
Architectural films: Ertzui Film