Detail Award 2024 Honourable Mention for Wangen Tower

At the Detail Awards 2024 ceremony in Munich, the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart were awarded with an Honourable Mention in the ‘Award for Students and Schools of Architecture’ category for the observation tower in Wangen im Allgäu.
We are delighted to receive this prestigious award! Many thanks to the entire project team and to the town of Wangen for giving us the opportunity to innovate at this level.

Jury:
The Wangen Tower at the Landesgartenschau in the Allgäu is a landmark visible from afar and an accessible vantage point. Behind the timber construction is an energetic team led by Achim Menges at the Institute for Computational  Design and Construction (ICD) and Jan Knippers at the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) at the University of Stuttgart. The curved, large-format components utilise the shrinkage of the wood to shape themselves. This method is inspired by biological models such as the spruce cone, which also reacts to changing humidity by changing the shape of its scales.

The jury recognises the ICD and ITKE project as an exemplary model project for teaching methods of ecological construction. It impressively and successfully conveys to students and the public the possibility of innovative methods at the interface of research, craftsmanship and computer-based planning and prefabrication.

Detail Award 2024

Wangen Tower