News / Opening viewing platform Koblenz (DE) - (05/05/2011)

Two weeks ago the Bundesgartenschau in Koblenz (Germany) opened. For this international garden event Dethier Architectures and Ney & Partners designed a special viewing platform.

It is situated on a hill in an old park. The construction offers an amazing view over the historical town and the confluence between rivers Rhine and Mosel. The viewpoint had to work as a landmark for the more than 3 million visitors during the garden festival. But this had to go hand in hand with the specific historical characteristics of the site: the form and the walkways of the park, the traces of the old ramparts and the natural character of the surroundings. It needed a careful and subtle attitude. The choice of the materials and the study of the morphology of the site dictated the form of the construction. The horizontality and the lightness have as a result that the building is perceived as an object in the landscape, but nevertheless in total harmony. The viewing platform is constructed out of a Douglas-fir structure supported by Corten steel posts, themselves anchored in concrete foundations.

Copyright photography: Hermann