Miralles Tagliabue EMBT wins competition to design a biodiversity centre in Rehau, Germany
30/05/2017.
Artenoah Rehau [Rehau] Germany
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Description of project by Miralles Tagliabue EMBT
Artenoah Rehau
The winning design for the biodiversity centre Artenoah, will be built in the middle of a series of highlands.
The landscape is defined by dense forests, small urbanizations, agriculture and pasture areas.
On a site visit, we watched the birds directed by group intelligence, collecting a flock and overflowing the plateau of the site. We projected the lines of the birds’ movements on the agricultural site of the Wagnersberg and redrew them in our proposal.
Starting with these lines we developed a complete concept of a building with outdoor spaces and achieve a complete integration into the landscape.
After climbing up the hill, you will first meet the restaurant with the famous Franconian food, which offers views to the nature park Fichtelgebirge from its terrace.
From the foyer of the building, you will enter the exhibition area by crossing a kaleidoscope, introducing the visitors into a world of biodiversity.
The building follows an ecological concept, which will be part of the exhibition. The building volume is compact, orientated to the south and follows the 2000-year-old scheme of the 'sun house' by Socrates. A green roof integrates the building in the landscape and invites the visitors to climb up and discover the sculptural approach of the building.
The goal of our project is to focus on the biological diversity and to bring it together with the socio-cultural values. This point brings us back to the initial concept, the group intelligence in different habitats, which we found by observing the birds flow over the plateau.
Benedetta Tagliabue was born in Milan and graduated from the University of Venice in 1989. In 1991 she joined Enric Miralles’ studio where she eventually became a partner. Her work with Miralles, whom she married, includes a number of high profile buildings and projects in Barcelona: Parque Diagonal Mar (1997-2002), Head Office Gas Natural (1999-2006) and the Market and quarter Santa Caterina (1996-2005), as well as projects across Europe, including the School of Music in Hamburg (1997-2000) and the City Hall in Utrecht (1996-2000).
In 1998, the partnership won the competition to design the new Scottish Parliament building and despite Miralles’ premature death in 2000, Tagliabue took leadership of the team as joint Project Director and the Parliament was successfully completed in 2004, winning several awards.
She won the competition for the new design of Hafencity Harbor in Hamburg , Germany, for a subway train station in Naples and for the Spanish Pavilion for Expo Shanghai 2010 among others.
Today under the direction of Benedetta Tagliabue the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT studio works with architectural projects, open spaces, urbanism, rehabilitation and exhibitions, trying to conserve the spirit of the Spanish and Italian artisan architectural studio tradition which espouses collaboration rather than specialization.
Their architectural philosophy is dedicating special attention to context.
Benedetta has written for several architectural magazines and has taught at, amongst other places, the University of architecture ETSAB in Barcelona. She has lectured in many international architectural Forums as, for example, the RIBA, the Architectural Association and Bartlett School in, London, the Berlage Institut in Amsterdam, and in USA, China and South America.