Designed for Friedrich Nietzsche: A Roof- and Facade-Structure cut out from Cross-Laminated Timber-Plates

The structure of the roof and the façade of the Nietzsche-Documentation-Centre (NDC) in Naum- burg/Saale, a small town in the heart of Germany where the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche spent a major part of his life, is an unconventional application of Cross-Laminated-Timber (CLT).

The frame-type structure consists of frame angles cut out as one piece from the wooden plate-mate- rial, similar to puzzle-parts sawed out from plywood using a jigsaw. This way of manufacturing reduces joints within the kinked timber beam elements and provides a high rigidity, needed to carry the large glass panes under a minimum of deflections and deformations. CLT allows also uncon- ventional details like kinked columns or offset joints, as they are characteristic for the architecture of NDC. This way the structure contradicts intuitive structural understanding and visual habits and refers to the non-conformal ideas of the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.