Competition Proposal
The vision for the Quantum Gardens brings the development of the former IBM Campus to a larger urban context in connection with the city of Ehningen. The campus, which has been inaccessible to the public until now, will be transformed into an identifiable urban space in transition with nature, connecting new quantum computing facilities with the city center, sports centers, and the surrounding landscape.
Clusters of working and living spaces that meet dynamic user needs will be created. Resource-saving strategies will be implemented through the re-use of existing structures, facades with solar panels, and by leveraging warm waste water from the adjacent research center as a heating source for living spaces.
Timber Structure Proposal
The existing basement floors will house underground car parks and technical spaces such as machine rooms and storage rooms. New multi-story timber structures will be placed on top, mostly aligned with the existing grids, with the ground floor serving as a load transfer between both configurations. All new loads fall within the current structural capacity of 3.0 kN/m2.
The layout and planning for the new multi-story structures can be flexibly redefined according to the specifications of further phases. The living units have been conceived as modules with different uses such as winter gardens, rooms with balconies, terraces, and enclosed rooms. These can be placed according to specific program requirements.
Computational Approach
A population process was developed for the placement of spatial timber modules and facades following the conceptual massings of the project.
The location for each module was influenced by the specific needs of the program, its condition in relation to adjacent modules, and its position within the overall urban context.
Considerations such as levels of privacy, sunlight, and layout preferences influenced varying concentrations of the 6 modular typologies in every level. A similar approach was used for placing solar panel facades that cover the exposed faces of the volumes. Here varying opening types were placed following the same considerations for spatial modules.
