Barkow Leibinger Architekten   Berlin

The two projects on show represent the main objective and conceptual working method specific to this German-American partnership : the reconciliation of architecture and landscape. An industrial sensibility and a flexible functionalism connect with the topography and respond to the rural traces of the site.

The new extension to the Trumpf Laser Factory in Stuttgart draws its origin from the rolling, patchwork-cultivated landscape of the Swabian region. Beneath a faceted, folded, sloping roof that slowly meets the existing ground lie 15,000 m² of production and administrative space. Elements of raw concrete are combined with glass, aluminum, steel and zinc, reflecting the primary materials worked within the factory itself : metals.

The design of the Biosphere Pavilion, for the German Garden Show 2001 in Potsdam, provided the opportunity for a new approach to nature. This award-winning project is located in the Bornstedter Feld, a former Prussian parade ground later used by the Soviet army, which scattered the site with mounds of earth to protect their now-demolished barracks.

(Original text of 2000, machine translated in 2026.)