Timber architecture · Kempten, Allgäu
Timber houses and small public buildings, drawn to the last peg.
Atelier Brenner is five people at one long table: three architects, a timber engineer and a master carpenter. We design in wood from the first sketch, and we are on site the morning the frame goes up.
Practice
How a building comes to stand
We take on four or five buildings a year, so the people who draw yours are the people who raise it.
- 01
Walk the site
A day on your land before a single line: where the sun comes up, where the snow lies, which trees stay.
- 02
Draw every joint
Plans at 1:50, then every connection at 1:5. Nothing is left for the site to work out.
- 03
Cut in the workshop
Our carpenters cut the frame dry and to the millimetre, from spruce and larch grown within 80 km.
- 04
Raise it
The frame goes up bent by bent in about two days. When the ridge is on, we tie a small spruce to it and everyone eats: the Richtfest.
Work · Houses
Houses for one family, built to be handed down
Haus am Kalvarienberg
Five bents on a south slope, clad in untreated larch that is already going silver on the weather side.
Haus Rauch
A stone plinth, a timber box and a roof brought down low enough to hold the snow.
Doppelhaus an der Iller
Two families under one roof, with a shared workshop between them.
Hütte am Grünten
A weekend cabin of three bents, raised in a day with the owners' own hands.
Work · Public buildings
Small public buildings a village can look after
Kindergartens, halls and shelters, built by local carpenters from local wood, with every part made to be replaced.
Kinderhaus Sonnenhalde
One long roof over three rooms and a covered porch, so wet days still happen outside.
Dorfsaal
A village hall whose frame is left bare inside, so everyone can see what holds the roof up.
Bergwacht station
A mountain rescue base made in our workshop and closed in on site in four days.
Bus shelters
One kit of larch parts for eleven villages, each shelter turned toward its own view.
Six in the evening, late October. The last batten is on and the lamps are lit.
Material
Wood is the one building material that grows back. We use it plainly: joints you can see, larch left to weather silver, nothing glued that could be pegged, so the next carpenter can repair a house instead of replacing it.
- 5
- people in the studio. Everyone draws, and everyone is on site for the raising.
- 38
- buildings raised since 2009, none of them more than 60 km from our workshop.
- 2 days
- to raise a house frame on site, once the plinth has cured.
- 0.9 t
- of CO₂ held in every cubic metre of spruce we build with.
Studio
Five people, one long table
We work in a former joinery on the edge of Kempten: the drawing room upstairs, the workshop below, and the smell of larch in both.
Johanna Brenner
Started the studio in 2009, after ten years of drawing in concrete.
Felix Ambros
Leads the houses, and most of the site walks.
Mira Sailer
Permits, costs and the public buildings.
Lukas Hölzl
Sizes every member and draws the joints at 1:5.
Toni Brenner
Runs the workshop, and calls the bents up on raising day.
Start a project
Bring us your site
Tell us where the land is, who will live or work there, and when you hope to move in. We reply within a week, and the first site walk costs nothing.
Write to the studiostudio@atelier-brenner.example
Atelier Brenner · Kempten (Allgäu)