At the southwestern tip of Lake Lucerne, the Swiss Commune Alpnach is nestled in the wooded mountains and surrounded by extensive pastures. As a traditional timber region, Central Switzerland is an area of many wood processing companies. The production site of Walter Küng AG between Alpnach Dorf and Alpnachstad got an extension by SEILERLINHART architects from Lucerne/Sarnen: an elongated timber production hall, dressed in large-format shingles from local spruce.
The company, which began as a carpentry in 1977 required, for the preparation of a new timber element system, a further production hall. With that system wall, floor and roof elements are possible to made of untreated, regional wood; their connection is made using wooden dowels; without any metals, adhesives or other chemical additives. The new production hall Factory 3 is designed to reflect the idea of the sustainability of this timber system.
On an area of 38 x 78 meters the one storey building forms a clear contrast to the unremarkable built surrounding. Apart from the façade of wood shingle, the hall is characterized by a distinctive, cantilevered roof soffit made of solid wood slats. Abundant natural light gets into the hall through three large skylights on the north side of the roof. The facades to the west and east are equipped with rows of windows almost the entire width of the building.
The building is constructed as a skeleton made of local wood. Supporting structure, wall and ceiling coverings made of solid pine and spruce. Huge deck truss glulam support the roof and rhythmically arranged columns on the outer walls lead the loads tot he ground. The outer clothing of massive, large-format wooden shingles is traditionally performed like scales. Rock wool serves as insulation material, it has a good energy balance because of the energy required for the extraction of the raw material, the production and transport is relatively low.
For the construction of the production hall exclusively regional spruce and fir wood was used which came from sustainable forests around Lake Lucerne. The short transport routes kept the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions low. As a renewable raw material wood as a building material corresponds to sustainable construction methods. An installed photovoltaic system on the roof generates all the electricity needed in the factory. Heat is generated by a wood chip plant in combination heat with the corporation Alpnach (WKAG); heat dissipation via a thermally activated baseplate.
