Concrete blooming facade on the Museum in Bregenz

Crucial for the new museum was its autonomy, and the design had to be conceived in a way that did not disrupt the historical character of the center. For architects Andreas Cukrowicz and Anton Nachbaur-Sturm, it was key that the new facade captured the play of light and shadow, thus attracting passersby. The extension of the existing museum was completed in the summer of 2013. Although the first design of the facade considered the use of inscriptions, it was ultimately decided, together with artist Manfred Alois Meyer, to create a special texture that would evoke blossoming flowers on the concrete facade.
Art and architecture were to be expressed through a combination of flower and concrete.

source: Cukrowicz Nachbauer & Architekti 2T GmbH

“Our goal was to combine art and architecture and create an artistic phenomenon instead of just placing another building,” stated Stefan Abbrederis, a colleague from the architectural office Cukrowicz Nachbaur. According to Abbrederis, this was precisely the reason why architects Cukrowicz and Nachbaur-Sturm decided to work with the artist to create an individual concrete facade.

Meyer was inspired by exhibited pieces of cups and bowls and wanted to translate this inspiration into the modern era. He began experimenting with the bottoms of PET bottles, a material that is part of today’s everyday life, and discovered that the impressions evoke flowers. However, it was not just a random use of this texture. Meyer approached architect, mathematician, and artist Urs B. Roth to collaboratively develop a parametric placement model that created an exact layout of the differently used bottoms of PET bottles.

The PET bottles selected by the artist were sent to RECKLI in Herne, Germany. Due to the depth of the flowers protruding on the facade at a depth of 45 mm, it was not possible to use a CNC milling machine, as is usual with individual molds. A CNC milling machine was used to mill round holes for placing the model on an MDF board.

In the end, individual models were produced to create an elastic mold that was used during the onsite concrete pouring. For financial reasons, only three combined molds were to be used for each floor. As the facade was not to exhibit the typical jointing of formwork, it was decided that the concrete would be poured in a vertical position.

A wall measuring 2 x 6 m was poured. On a facade size of 1300 m², 16,656 flowers are displayed. “It was impressive how precisely the RECKLI molds were used,” adds Abbrederis.
The project was awarded a gold > best architects award < in July 2014.