What is the significance of wood?
It is a living material, one that feels inherently close to us. In the form of a tree, of course – but also as a building material, used for boats, furniture, and architecture throughout history. Wood is something we instinctively like to touch. A material that offers countless possibilities. Smooth or rough. Straight or curved.
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Compared directly with concrete, wood performs better. Did that surprise you?
Michael Ziller
No, I trained as a carpenter, so I’m well aware of the strengths of this material. And more importantly, wood carries a completely different emotional value than, say, brick. That said, wood isn't always superior – it does have its limits, especially when it comes to height and depth. For a skyscraper or an underground car park, concrete will remain the material of choice for now. But in architecture, it’s not so much a question of ‘either-or’ but rather of ‘both’.
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The building on Mainzer Straße is the first inner-city wooden passive house in Germany. What is different from a conventional building?
MZ
Our plans had to be much more meticulous because many elements are prefabricated in a workshop. So if anything goes wrong, you can’t just fix it by pouring a bit more concrete. What’s fascinating is that by the time we actually started building on the building site, most of the work had already been done – all we had to do was assemble the elements. And that’s a great experience, especially because we got to work many different with skilled tradespeople, for example, carpenters who really understand their craft.
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What was it about this project that particularly appealed to you?
MZ
The opportunity to work in an urban context. It’s not a greenfield development but a question of integrating into an existing situation, of improving something. The inner courtyard used to be full of cars, now it has become a liveable space. And I see wood as a material of the future. Wood is certainly not suitable for every building, but as part of the whole, it will play an increasingly important role going forward.