German Museum Features Translucent Glass Shingle Facade

- The project, officially named Museum Historische Oberamteistraße in Reutlingen, Germany, serves a dual purpose: it creates new museum space and its internal timber structure is engineered to stabilize the adjacent, collapsing row of 14th-century half-timbered houses. - The facade’s cast glass shingles are shaped like traditional "beaver-tail" tiles, forming a continuous, homogenous skin over both the walls and the complex, double-curved roof. - The engineering by str.ucture utilized parametric 3D planning and a central BIM model to manage the complex geometry and detailing of the timber frame, which was then used directly by the timber construction company for fabrication. - In a move toward sustainable joinery and circular design principles, the glulam timber skeleton features wood-to-wood connections using hardwood cleats made from laminated veneer lumber (BauBuche GL75) instead of steel connectors. - The visual effect of the facade is dynamic; it appears pale and matte in overcast conditions, but when illuminated from within at night, the translucency reveals the geometry of the internal timber truss system. - The lead architect, wulf architekten, has a portfolio that includes projects designed with cradle-to-cradle principles, such as the Straubenhardt Fire Station, which was one of Germany's first public buildings designed for material reuse at its end-of-life. - The interior spaces are defined by the exposed timber truss system, which creates a framework for circulation while allowing diffuse, filtered daylight to wash the indoor surfaces with a soft glow. - With a covered area of 225 m² and an envelope of 830 m², the museum is a compact intervention designed to reinterpret the volume of the original "Stone House" that stood on the site before its demolition in 1972.