Volkswagen Austostadt is located next to the VW factory and combines a museum, visitor center and showrooms of the car brands belonging to this automaker (including Lamborghini and SEAT). In just 9 months of construction, GRAFT architects added a huge shed over the parking lot, equipped with a service pavilion, to the various "attractions" available there.
The curved roof, which looks like either a slice of chips or a leaf that has fallen from a tree, is designed to protect cars from direct sunlight and rain. However, equally important tasks for the architects were the natural lighting of the parking lot - in order to minimize the cost of electricity - and the organic connection of the structure and the landscape.
GRAFT gave the roof a natural shape - a leaf of wood: after all, plastic, soft volumes combined with the use of modern materials are the hallmark of this architectural studio. Let us remind you that they own an unrealized project of the Moscow Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, where the interior should have had neither sharp corners nor straight lines.
The roof in Wolfsburg has both a longitudinal and a transverse bend, and its two highest points are raised 6 and 9 meters above the ground, respectively. The total area of the canopy is 1600 m2, it covers about the same area. But the most interesting feature of the project is that the 38-meter-wide and 55-meter-long roof rests on just two concrete piles that go 20 meters underground: this is a wonderful idea of the engineers from Schlaich Bergermann & Partner. As a result, the roof appears to be light, like a sheet swirling in the air, although in fact, one of its steel frames weighs 130 tons. The reliability of the structure made it possible to choose such a form of overlap so that enough light would fall under it, and during the day there would be no need for artificial lighting: therefore, the resemblance to a sheet is not only attractive, but also functional. Schlaich Bergermann & Partner are specialists for all kinds of roofs, vaults, arches and bridges: they cover objects of all sizes in an original way - from bus stops to stadiums. The space around the Wolfsburg building was organized by WES LandschaftsArchitektur.
When commenting on their project, GRAFT especially emphasizes the roof structure. The canopy is made of intertwined steel ropes connected by special knots. The resulting mesh is surrounded by a solid wide "rim" around the perimeter, which transfers the load to the piles. The top of the ropes is covered by a unique membrane, which is a Teflon-coated glass fabric. This thin "skin" is 12% sunlight permeable and has a self-cleaning effect, which allows you to wash its surface just once a year. Rainwater from the canopy flows through special funnels and pipes laid along the concrete piles.
The canopy, according to the authors of the project, connects "top and bottom, landscape and sky" - but besides the spectacular form, it is also a convenient space for Volkswagen customers: in Austostadt they can get their car prepaid in any car dealership in Germany and get acquainted with it closer in an "intimate" setting under the GRAFT canopy. If they have questions or need to buy an accessory, this can be done in a service pavilion hidden under the ground.
