Concept | Masterplanning approach

The 'City Center Campus' of the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau makes a significant contribution to improving the attractiveness of the city center. Essential functions of the building such as canteen, auditorium, library and the future high-technology center will have a significant impact on the traffic-calmed inner city area in the near future.
The highly-visible location along the main road offers the potential to give the topic of science and research a clear address - a clear face - through the urban planning classification of an independent and striking building volume. 

The present design meets this requirement by proposing a square five-storey building. The slight inclination towards Äußeren Schneeberger Street resulting from the surrounding situation creates a spacious forecourt in the entrance area of the Technikum, which corresponds to the opposite open spaces in the crossing area.

Shape

In search for an identity-creating design idea for the façade, we came across the motif of the 'textile structure' reflecting the purpose of the building. A craft implementation for the façade was obvious, since western Saxony has traditionally been significantly shaped by the textile and machine construction industries, but also by the craftmanship in industrial architecture, which has resulted in impressive buildings since the Wilheminian era.

The result of these considerations was the 'woven relief', a reminiscence of the warp and weft threads of textile craftmanship, architecturally reinterpreted as a curtain clinker façade.
The 'clinker fabric' envelops the building volume as a continuous surface, matching the selected large form, similar to a textile cover.
The necessary openings in the façade thus become a 'hole mesh' and strenghten the relief effect on the surface without having to assume a superficial decorative function.