Alnatura Arbeitswelt

Location:
Darmstadt, Germany
Type of use:
Office
Year of construction:
2019
Size:
13.500 m²
Architect:
haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050

Necessity

As an essential part of the transformation of the former barracks, sealed external surfaces were fragemented and renatured as far as possible. Old road slabs were broken up on site and promptly reused as seat steps, bordering material for water courses or as backfill material. Old concrete slabs were only retained where these could be used to meet code requirements for mandatory parking spaces. The Working Environment (, or “Arbeitswelt” in German) forms the nucleus of the Alnatura Campus in Darmstadt. On a piece of land, formerly occupied by the Kelley Barracks, a building which follows the principles of holistic and sustainable architecture was created. The Alnatura Working Environment was not designed to impress but instead to invite: it is open towards its environment, for new ideas, and even more importantly, towards people.

Affordability

Affordability in the local context is primarily understood as accessibility and shared value rather than purely economic metrics. Beyond providing an attractive workplace, the campus functions as an open community space where local residents, visitors, and employees can meet, learn, and take part in everyday activities. Publicly accessible from sunrise to sunset, the Alnatura Garden Experience lowers barriers to participation by offering free access to a wide range of landscapes and programs.

Embedded in the region’s softly undulating calcareous grasslands, the campus includes a wooden bicycle shed, nature kindergarten, orchard, public organic leasehold garden, Montessori school garden, raised beds, natural pond, sensory herb gardens, and a small amphitheater built from reused concrete fragments of the former tank training ground. These elements create tangible social value for the surrounding neighborhoods by combining education, recreation, biodiversity, and informal exchange.

At the same time, low-tech design principles and natural materials support long-term cost efficiency and reduce operational complexity. In this way, affordability is achieved through open access, durable design, and strong local integration, making the campus a sustainable and inclusive asset for the wider community.

Simplicity and Appropriateness

Beside all other measures, involving the use of renewable and natural materials such as wood and loam, or of materials which have or can potentially be reused, a plethora of minor, much less conspicuous decisions have been taken as a result of which the Alnatura Working Environment has become a climate neutral building, measured by DGNB Platin standart. The Alnatura Working Environment is a high-performance building, which maximises natural ventilation and daylighting whilst minimising energy consumption, offering optimal indoor comfort and using natural, environmentally friendly materials. The use of ecologically sound construction materials reduces the building’s impact on the environment, thereby significantly improving the buildings environmental performance. Avoiding construction materials with environmentally harmful components results in lower costs of disposal. Another advantage is that by using low-emission construction materials the health risk associated with such materials is reduced.

Sufficiency and Efficiency

The design of the Alnatura World explored new avenues. Not only did the planning team assess the energy that would be needed to operate the building, they critically reviewed all resources required for its construction, upkeep and eventual demolition and removal without exception. For that matter a life cycle assessment and a material balance (manufacturing) were carried out. This new all-encompassing approach was regarded as exemplary and thereby received funding from the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU). Analysis of grey energy already early on in the design process of the Alnatura Campus permitted the development of energy-efficient solutions for individual components. For example, the differences between clay walls and conventional solutions for external walls were investigated and evaluated. Planning parameters were developed together with the Technical University of Munich which will help future projects to achieve resource neutrality. The project findings were to be published later.

Scalability

The building’s situation and orientation were carefully determined on the basis of micro-climatic considerations. The long sides of the building are north and south facing in order to achieve optimal daylight conditions within. This ensured that the building would benefit from the diffuse north light entering through the atrium skylight, avoiding undesirable solar gains. 10,000sqm of office space for up to 500 employees are scattered around the atrium across three floors. Floor heights permit the consistent use of daylight even in the office areas on the lower floors. Bright surface finishes and flooring also contribute to an atmosphere that is daylit, bright and friendly. The facade as an innovative rammed earth facade contain not only loam collected from the Westerwald and lava gravel from the Eifel Region, but also recycled earth excavated from the tunnel of the Stuttgart 21 Rail Project. In general, it’s most cost-effective when clay is available locally and doesn’t have to be transported long distances. Although there were no local clay deposits in Darmstadt, the excavated material from the Stuttgart 21 project, which would otherwise have gone to waste, has made this possible.

Beauty

From the very beginning one design objective had been to achieve natural ventilation of the building throughout the year and to avoid resource and maintenance intensive HVAC systems. The forest towards the west provided ideal conditions for this. This approach not only reduces technical complexity, but also fundamentally shapes the architectural expression and spatial quality of the building. Natural ventilation allows for a more direct relationship between interior and exterior, where air, light, and seasonal changes become perceptible elements of the workspace. Operable windows, shaded façades, and the proximity to the forest create a constantly evolving atmosphere, enhancing sensory comfort and well-being.

The absence of conventional HVAC infrastructure results in clearer, more legible spaces and façades, free from technical clutter. In this sense, the building’s beauty emerges from its clarity, material honesty, and its subtle interaction with the surrounding landscape, where environmental performance and architectural expression are intrinsically linked.

Unique Principles of Success

1. Spatial Openness and Atmospheric Continuity

Upon entering the atrium, the spatial experience resembles being outdoors, with abundant daylight entering through the roof and fully glazed façades. The interior is conceived as a continuous, light-filled volume rather than a conventional enclosed office environment. The curved floor plates guide movement and visual perception, drawing the gaze upward toward the timber roof and reinforcing vertical spatial continuity.

2. Social Ground Floor as a Public Interface

The ground level is designed as an open meeting landscape, enabling informal exchange between employees and visitors. Reception, waiting areas, and conference functions are clustered in close proximity, supporting intuitive accessibility and reducing spatial hierarchy. Boundaries between public and internal programmatic areas are intentionally softened.

3. Material Authenticity and Tactile Atmosphere

The consistent use of wood, loam, and untreated concrete establishes a material language that is natural, unpretentious, and robust. These materials contribute to a perceptible sense of authenticity and reinforce the building’s calm and grounded atmosphere.

4. Spatial Connectivity through Circulation Networks

Stairs, bridges, and walkways form an interconnected three-dimensional circulation system. These elements create continuous visual and functional links across all levels, enabling a high degree of permeability and spatial orientation throughout the building.

5. Integrated Landscape and Visual Connectivity

The building maintains constant visual relationships with its surroundings, particularly the adjacent Westwald. The transparent west façade ensures that the landscape remains an active reference point within the interior experience, embedding the building in its regional context.

6. Flexible Office Landscape Instead of Segmented Layouts

The Working Environment is organized as a continuous spatial system rather than a fragmented office structure. Workspaces are distributed across multiple levels but remain interconnected, allowing for flexible use patterns and cross-functional collaboration.

7. Distributed Collaboration Infrastructure

Informal meeting points, such as open kitchenettes on each floor, are integrated as multifunctional social spaces. These elements support spontaneous interaction and reinforce the concept of a decentralized, communication-driven workplace.

8. Climatic Design through Passive Systems

A combination of earth-based air preconditioning, stack ventilation, and natural air exchange reduces reliance on mechanical systems. The atrium supports natural air movement through thermal buoyancy, while building mass stabilizes internal temperatures across seasons.

9. Material-Based Thermal Stability

Thermal comfort is achieved through the interaction of loam walls, concrete slabs, and evaporative cooling effects. These elements ensure a balanced indoor climate, reducing temperature peaks and minimizing the need for active cooling systems.

10. Integrated Water and Landscape Management

Rainwater is actively managed through landscape shaping and directed into a large underground cistern. This system enables reuse for irrigation and reduces dependency on external water resources, while simultaneously increasing awareness of water as a climatic resource.

11. Experimental Material Systems with Structural and Climatic Function

The rammed earth façade combines structural performance, thermal storage capacity, and integrated heating systems. The system demonstrates how material innovation can simultaneously address structural, environmental, and energetic requirements.

12. Long-Term Durability and Low Maintenance Strategy

The use of robust, moisture-regulating materials such as loam contributes to long-term durability and reduced maintenance requirements. Material aging is controlled and does not require surface treatments, ensuring stable performance over time.

Limitations

The Alnatura Campus shows that resource conservation requires a balanced approach rather than the maximisation of individual performance values. Instead of using excessive insulation to achieve very low U-values, the building operates within an optimised range of envelope performance, where material use, embodied energy, and cost remain proportionate. Its thermal concept combines moderately insulated timber construction, solar control, thermal mass, and natural ventilation, including night-time cooling. Together, these elements reduce peak loads and limit the need for active systems. From a lifecycle perspective, this lowers embodied carbon, simplifies construction, reduces maintenance, and still ensures high thermal comfort.

Additionally, using resource-efficient materials often clashes with existing DIN standards. Materials like clay lack official approval, requiring case-by-case evaluations, which complicates compliance and promotes complex plant engineering instead of simpler construction methods. Transport and material costs play a crucial role in assessing the ecological impact of construction projects. This is clearly reflected in the LCA results, where transport-related emissions (A4) perform comparatively poorly. It underlines an often under-communicated fact: materials such as clay only achieve their ecological potential when sourced within very short distances. Due to their high mass, transport quickly becomes a dominant impact factor, offsetting part of their intrinsic sustainability benefits.

In this sense, the project makes explicit that the environmental performance of such materials is not inherent, but highly dependent on regional availability and logistical discipline.

A comprehensive life cycle assessment must consider not just the building’s operation but also the sourcing, transport, and recycling of materials. However, sustainability assessments in Germany frequently overlook integrated energy criteria tied to materials, focusing predominantly on technical performance. It’s essential to understand that resource-efficient construction can significantly reduce overall energy consumption if materials are evaluated holistically. Utilizing local, easily dismantled, and recyclable materials maintains energy performance throughout the construction cycle while enhancing reuse potential. These challenges necessitate a reevaluation of norms and criteria in architecture to foster genuine sustainability in building projects.

Alnatura Arbeitswelt

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