Waldspirale

The Waldspirale is the name of a residential building complex in Darmstadt, Germany built in the 1990s. The name translates into English as wooded spiral, reflecting both the general plan of the building and the fact that it has a green roof. It was designed by Viennese artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, built by the Bauverein Darmstadt company, and planned and implemented by the architect Heinz M. Springmann. The building was completed in 2000.

Description

The Waldspirale apartment building is located in Darmstadt's Bürgerparkviertel. It contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, a kiosk as well as a café and a bar (the last two being located at the top of the spiral). The inner courtyard contains a playground for the children of the residents and a small artificial lake. Peculiarities of the U-shaped building are the unique facade, which does not follow a regular grid organization, and the windows, which appear as if they were "aus der Reihe tanzen," (dancing out of line) [Nina Hellenkemper, "Der Todestag von Friedensreich Hundertwasser" http://www.lernzeit.de/sendung.phtml?detail=430529 19 February 2000. Accessed 24 April 2007.] everywhere different and appearing out of order, often with 'tree tenants' - trees growing out from the windows. The diagonal roof, planted with grass, shrubs, flowers and trees, rises like a ramp along the U-form. At its highest point, the building has 12 floors.

Design

The windows of the Waldspirale, which number over 1000, are all unique: no two windows are the same. Similarly, different handles are attached in each apartment to the doors and windows. Some of the apartments are decorated in Friedensreich Hundertwasser's personal style and exhibit the colourful tiles in the bath and kitchen that are characteristic of his work. Furthermore, all the corners are rounded off in these apartments along the roof and walls in an application of Hundertwasser's dogma "gegen die gerade Linie" [Pg. 94, Pierre Restany, "Hundertwasser: The Painter-king With the Five Skins" Taschen, October 2000.] [Pgs. 240-241, Karsten Harries, "The Ethical Function of Architecture" MIT Press, 1997. ISBN 026258171X] or "against the straight line." For cost reasons, only a few of the apartments' interiors were designed individually.

From the outside, the typical elements of Hundertwasser's personal style attract attention: the gilded onion domes, the absence of straight lines and sharp corners, the multicoloured painting of the building in earth tones and the colourful ceramic columns.

References

External links

* http://www.bauvereinag.de/
* http://www.oekosiedlungen.de/waldspirale/ - photo gallery and short description (in German)