Miralles Tagliabue EMBT to design new biodiversity center in Germany

Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, the Barcelona practice of Benedetta Tagliabue and Enric Miralles, announced today that they had the winning concept for a new biodiversity park in Rehau, Germany. With support from the Rehau city council, citizens, and organizations like the Federal Nature Conservation Agency, the biodiversity center is proposed for a site at the Green Belt in the forest landscape of the Neuhausen district. Home to only 70 inhabitants, the district is projected to attract up to 80,000 visitors once the new center is built, according to the architects.

Construction is currently scheduled to begin in 2018. Read on for more about Miralles Tagliabue EMBT's winning concept, “Artenoah”. 

“On a site visit, we watched the birds directed by group intelligence, collecting a flock and overflowing the plateau of the site,” the architects write. “We projected the lines of the birds’ movements on the agricultural site of the Wagnersberg and redrew them in our proposal.”

From there, they developed their masterplan, which comprises an undulating building surrounded by a series of thematic outdoor spaces, so that the structure can blend in with its remote landscape.

After climbing up a hill, visitors will first encounter the center's Franconian restaurant. Once they enter the foyer of the building, visitors will cross through a kaleidoscope as they enter into the biodiversity exhibition area. “The building follows an ecological concept, which will be part of the exhibition,” the firm writes.

The compact volume of the building has a southward orientation that is based on Socrates' 2,000-year-old “sun house” concept of passive solar building design. An undulating green roof integrates the building into its landscape, while inviting visitors to climb up and further experience the building's “sculptural approach” and take in views of the landscape.

“The goal of our project is to focus on biological diversity [combined] with social-cultural values,” the firm writes, as illustrated by their initial observations of swarm intelligence in birds.

Project details:

Architects: EMBT
Location: Rehau, Germany
Architect: Benedetta Tagliabue
Project Director: Stefan Green
Design Team: Nil Corominas, Riccardo Radica, Fabrizio Tanchis, Gabriele Rotelli Engineering & Sustainability: BOLLINGER+GROHMAN
Client: Municipality of Rehau (Germany)
Area: 81,000 m2

Find more project images in the gallery below.

Images courtesy of Miralles Tagliabue EMBT.