The rafting area in Augsburg

Augsburg is upgrading the banks of the Lech. An important new element is the Floßlände, a new restaurant in the Lechhausen district, which will also serve as a meeting place for residents. The timber construction was planned and implemented by hiendl_schineis and abhd.

Anyone talking about the Floßlände project must first talk about the Lech. For years, Augsburg has been working on an urban development concept to improve the quality of life on the banks of the Lech, which was straightened at the beginning of the 20th century. The focus was on an area in the Lechhausen district, which is one of the most important green spaces in the city. It has since been transformed into a public natural space and recreational area for young and old, also to allow people to experience the river again.

Revitalized banks of the Lech

The wild river landscape on the Lech was straightened after flood disasters and as a result, the banks and river were neither easy to walk on nor accessible for people. From 2013, the city of Augsburg implemented the first construction phases of its new urban development concept. It renovated play areas on the Lechhausen riverbank, created sandy beaches with loungers, climbing rocks and graffiti spray walls, and improved the pathways. Augsburg thus gave the city residents additional space for leisure activities. The redesigned green area is now called Flößerpark, is much appreciated, well frequented and really lively again.

The Floßlände

The new urban planning idea also envisaged an architectural structure, the so-called Floßlände, which was to be used for a gastronomic concept. The idea of wooden architecture with a restaurant and a kiosk was born. The recently completed building is located in the middle of Flößerpark and has direct access to the Lech. The name refers to the historic rafting site that once stood on this spot. Like ship harbors, rafting areas served as goods handling points. The cargo transported on the raft, usually wood, but sometimes also goods and people, was unloaded there. The raft was then taken apart at the landing and the logs stored to dry.

The land on which the new Floßlände now stands belongs to the city of Augsburg. Following a public tender and application process for the new development and establishment of a restaurant, the Kühbach brewery was awarded the contract and thus became the developer of the Floßlände. The design work began in 2016 at the Passau architectural office hiendl_schineis, later abhd architekten denzinger und partner from Neuburg revised the plans and realized the Floßlände in a ten-month construction period. Gwendolyn von Beck-Peccozder from the brewery’s management team was in charge of the interior design and furnishings.

Rafting hut 2.0

The cubature of the new building with its gabled roof is based on a simple raftsman’s hut. The wooden, free-floating terrace in front of it symbolizes the rafts that used to dock in front of the hut. The imposing natural stone staircase, measuring 50 meters in width and providing access to the banks of the Lech, was designed and built by hiendl_schineis architekten. Apart from the concrete base structure, the rafting area is a purely timber construction, for which the team of architects and clients used local timber from the forests belonging to the Kühbach castle estate. Both the material and the choice of local building materials are particularly sustainable.

Facade play

Wood is not only the load-bearing building material for the timber frame construction. The three-storey building has façades and roof cladding made of black glazed larch wood and the interior is finished in light-colored spruce. You walk across a robust ash floor. The façade of the Floßlände is a contrasting interplay of open and closed. While it is almost closed to the north, it is generously glazed across all three storeys on the south side facing the river, giving guests in the Floßlände an unobstructed view of the Lech panorama.

On the second floor, on the other hand, the wood-clad north façade shows a little transparency: the panels here are not placed next to each other, but at a distance, so that the light can penetrate from the outside to the inside during the day and from the inside to the outside at night. The communicative link between the architecture and the Lech is the generous open staircase, the lowest steps of which lead into the river. It is intended as a seating area for the hot summer months, when it is most pleasant to be outside and right by the water. At the same time, the staircase serves as external access to the basement of the raft site and finally leads up to the wooden terrace and thus to the first floor.

Interior life

The uses of the individual floors vary. The so-called district space, the largest area in the basement, is available to the residents of Lechhausen for private parties, exhibitions, cultural events and functions at the request of the city of Augsburg. It creates a meeting place and provides added value for everyone. The terrace with kiosk and the high central dining room with seating for around 25 people are located on the first floor level of the raft site. A staircase leads to the more intimate upper floor. It is located in the northern part of the building and offers a view of nature across the entire height of the building towards the Lech.

Spiritual edification can be found in Augsburg in the Moritzkirche, which Dominikus Böhm and the British architect John Pawson gave its current appearance.