Apartment house Mooseggstrasse, Langnau

The project
The client attaches great importance to regionality and the ecological choice of materials. It is therefore obvious that climate-damaging materials such as concrete and steel were minimized to a minimum in the Generation House. A total of 585 m3 of wood has been used in the building. This corresponds to a solid wood cube with an edge length of 8.4 meters. By comparison, the three-story house has a building height of 8.6 meters. This much wood grows in Switzerland in about 90 minutes. Thanks to photosynthesis, this wood stores 379 tons of CO₂ which is now stored long-term in the Generation House. At the center of the three-story building is an inner courtyard as a meeting and access zone. To make this core zone possible, the arcades serve as an escape route in case of fire.

The construction
The columns run with Hinrnholzkontakt through the entire height of the building and allow a low-settlement construction. Pincer pairs run on the structural axes at slab level, functioning as beams. Timber-frame building stringers fan out the skeletal structure, shape the apartment floor plans, and serve as building bracing. An electrical biology network in building envelope and between dwelling units minimizes electrical radiations in the apartments.

The challenge
The mergers between skeleton construction and timber frame construction together with the course of the electro-biological shielding net have to meet many requirements from statics, fire protection and sound insulation. Often the individual requirements contradicted each other, so that constructive compromises had to be found with tact.