Sensitively integrated into its context, Hotel Bauhofstrasse by VON M Architects is constructed using a wooden room module system that sets the standard for ecology, efficiency, build time, and quality.
The modules were produced in Austria, transported to the Ludwigsburg site and installed within five working days. Clad in white fiber cement plates, the finished appearance does not indicate that this is, in fact, a wooden building.
Made from local wood, the walls, floors, and ceilings of the hotel rooms were assembled as container-like modules in the factory from cross-laminated timber which had been computer-controlled cut. The concrete staircase at the centre helps to stiffen the building.
Interior finishes include fair-faced concrete and painted metal, beechwood, and natural fabrics. In total, 440 cubic meters of wood were used. As such, the use of CO2-intensive concrete is compensated for by the use of wood, thus resulting in a CO2-neutral building.
At four-storeys in height, the building is well integrated into its context. Facing the city, a terrace bistro and bar area welcome visitors. Here, the architects have designed the bar counters as well as tables and had them manufactured from solid ash wood by local craftsmen. The solid parquet flooring is made of the same wood. The bar and bistro spaces are then followed by reception and rooms for offices and administration.
Guests and visitors get to the rooms via a central corridor which experiences a gentle spatial rhythm resulting from protruding and receding sanitary cores of the rooms.
In terms of room design, wood as a material visually dominates with designs for desks, beds, and suitcase racks clearly reduced in formal aesthetics. Here as well as in the other 55 guest rooms the material wood dominates visually.
The designs for desk, bed, and suitcase rack are reduced in formal aesthetics. The windows, which appear as inserted boxes in the facade, are also clearly visible on the inside.
