New green building constructions by Rubner Haus, the group specialized in timber construction. In the picturesque streets of the centre of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in southern Bavaria, traditional alpine houses decorated with frescoes on agricultural or religious themes. Typical local architecture includes houses with pitched roofs and the extensive use of wood. When Hans-Peter Volkheimer, an experienced real estate entrepreneur, decided to build a building in a residential area of the village, he had no doubts about bio-architecture. The priority was not to alter the beauty of the landscape in any way by interfering with the view of the surrounding houses but, on the contrary, to adapt to the environment by enriching it with new architectural life and to guarantee an exceptional view also for the residents of the two new houses. The result is a real estate project that respects the environment, with an architecture that takes up the traditional one and introduces innovative and contemporary elements.
The client’s initial idea was to design a condominium with five flats, but the desire for an environmentally friendly solid wood house led him to opt for two separate houses built without the use of glues or metal parts.
Two almost twin houses, complementing each other, they combine antique details, such as the barbicans supporting the balconies, with unprecedented window cuts and large openings on the ground floor with sliding French doors that transform the living room, dining room and garden into a spacious whole. Facing south, the two houses enjoy the sunlight and the beautiful mountain scenery. Wood covers part of the exterior walls, the lower half of which is plastered to give a kind of visual lightness to the building, but it also dominates the interior: different woods with light and darker colours depending on the room accentuate the already extraordinary brightness that the large windows provide everywhere.
Living in a wooden house means recovering a balanced relationship with nature. Wood is the most natural and healthy material possible for creating a living space. This is why Rubner houses use the various components of the tree: wood, cork and wood fibre. Cork is an excellent natural insulator and, at the same time, impermeable to water, resistant to fire, pests and heat, breathable and anti-mould. Wood fibre is free of chemical additives, is sound-absorbent, retains heat for a long time and is extraordinarily durable.
Rubner wood walls do not emit chemical compounds harmful to health into the home environment, and being breathable, they guarantee natural moisture regulation and a high level of bioclimatic comfort inside the building. With great benefits in the energy field: Rubner houses consume 20 per cent less energy than a newly built house made of traditional materials, which not only means less heating and air conditioning costs, but also a 20 percent reduction in annual CO2 emissions.
Building with wood can reduce the CO2 emissions of buildings by half. During photosynthesis, trees absorb CO2, store carbon and release oxygen. In cultivated forests, as PEFC-certified forests are, trees are felled before they can rot and carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Each wood product is a CO2 storage tank: one cubic metre imprisons about 1 tonne. An extraordinary figure, when you consider that an average-sized car releases about 3.2 tonnes of CO2 in a year. Also considering that the construction material for a wooden house grows back in just 15 seconds.
