Overlooking the landscape 14 meters above the ground, the Urbach Tower was built this year in southern Germany by the Stuttgart’s Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD) and the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE).

«The Urbach Tower is a unique wood structure. The design of the tower emerges from a new self-shaping process of the curved wood components. This pioneering development constitutes a paradigm shift in timber manufacturing from elaborate and energy-intensive mechanical forming processes that require heavy machinery to a process where the material shapes entirely by itself. This shape change is driven only by the wood’s characteristic shrinking during a decrease of moisture content», explains the Jan Knippers Ingenieure firm who was part of this project.

Credits: © ICD/ITKE, University of Stuttgart