Archiprix International 2001
FH Anhalt, Fachbereich Architektur und Bauingenieurwesen - Dessau, Germany
Franziska Roederer
Tutors: Prof. A. Jacoby, Prof. L. M. Stybor
the task - creating a place that is starting point for the experience of the Dead Sea and its surrounding area - a visitor centre containg tourist- housings, information- point, library and auditorium, cafeteria and bath- platform the place - En Gedi, an oasis nourished by two rivers - three different elemts come together- the light sweet water, the heavy salty water ans the land - the interface of these three medias I´ve chosen as place for the visitor centre cutting and crossing - direct connection from the street to the centre - path is important for the experience of the landscape - different qualities - at the beginning it cuts deep in the terrain- cool and shaded, only one look out - when the visitor arrives the changing point- a total overview is possible, he will see the plateau infront of him, the steep- coast, the Dead Sea and he will see a little of the visitor centre - the path rises more and more above the land - the building is not the end of the way but an immediate part of it and serves for the attainment of the aim the canyon - the canyon of Nahal David is a several important characteristic of the landscape - to experience it the theme of cutting and crossing is translated in the way I ordered the tourist housings - I developed a network of paths in which the housings are embedded in the platform - the reversal of the network the visitor centre - as a closed and compact body it stands in contrast to the open structures - the skin is built of slats, opened in one direction to collect cool winds coming frome the canyon, to prevent direct sun-radiation - two deep cuts structure the building and leed the visitor in the inside, they are translated answers to the canyon and the cutted paths changing and alteration - landscape is in continuous changing - the building answers to this alteration - because of the skin, during the approximation step by step, the building always appears to the visitor in another manner - the building seems to open itself and than it will close against the visitor -the elected material for the outer skin is delivered to the weather and the climate - the weatherproof (corten) steel gives an unique and always changing look to the building