view tube (2014)

The view tube is a design for a visitor center for the "Rieselfelder" in Muenster, Germany. The area is known for it's variety of birds and as a popular recreation area. Many people visit the biotope every year, especially for bike tours. Our design idea was, to create a responsible architecture in a very fragile environment. A lot of listed animals breed in this nature reserve. Therefore the first difficulty for us was to find a good site. Another issue that concerned us was the building period, to keep it as short as possible, we developed a modular construction system, that is very easy to assemble within a few days. To avoid foundations we put up the building on thin colums, that were anchored in the soil. The fassade follow the idea of the feather dress of local birds, it has to be spectacular and nondescript at the same time. To archive that we put a mirror behind a brass grid. The reflection of the mirror creates the illusion that makes the building hard to capture. It changes its appereance on the angle of the observer and merges with the landscape.