Straw-insulated house St. Wunibald in its new shell

The architect Elke Kirst-Haas from the office hirner & riehl Architekten answers questions about the new building's facade in the Benedictine Abbey Plankstettten. 

𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜?

"The abbey's holistic, ecological approach envisions the use of building materials that can serve as CO2 storage for new construction and renovation. In addition, transport routes are to be kept as short as possible.

The wood used, which comes from the abbey's own forests, meets these requirements both for the entire structure and for the facade cladding.

In addition, the new building is to blend into the background of the historic monastery complex and its appearance is to be based more on existing functional buildings. This is another reason why a wooden façade was chosen for the new building - in contrast to the plastered main buildings."

𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙?

"The facade surface - executed by the carpentry Holzbau Bogner - is made of sawed spruce wood, which was painted with the wood stain "medium gray" of the company Steinmeyer Naturfarben.

The vertical slats of the guardrail in front of the windows - executed by the monastery carpentry - is made of planed spruce and painted with the window paint system in "mouse gray".

The spruce is a wood species that is available in sufficient quantities from the monastery's own forest and, with a pre-greying treatment, is very suitable as facade formwork."

𝙏𝙤 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙛𝙖𝙧 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙬 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜?
"Not at all, since different façade systems can be designed regardless of the insulation material."

𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙪𝙘𝙝.

𝙁𝙤𝙩𝙤: Lorenz Märtl