Waechter + Waechter Architekten: WfbM – Workshop for Disabled People and MVZ – Medical Care Centre, Neuwied - best architects 22

Waechter + Waechter Architekten

WfbM – Workshop for Disabled People and MVZ – Medical Care Centre, Neuwied

best architects 22

public buildings

Place

Neuwied-Engers, Germany

Photos

Thilo Ross

Description

The newly built workshop for disabled people (WFBM) offers physically and cognitively impaired people a wide range of appropriate support, professional employment and medical-therapy. The location also has a medical care centre (MVZ), which ensures interdisciplinary care. The new type of workshop for disabled people is characterised by the combination of work and recreation. The double comb system with staggered «houses» creates a loose network that is intertwined with the outside spaces. This network references the small-scale granularity of the double-story neighbouring buildings and blends in with the diversity of the surroundings with a clear, restrained architectural language. The asymmetrical gable roofs of the houses support the desired integration, so that inclusion is also successful in the structural sense. The incline of the site is used to connect the facilities to the adjacent streets without barriers. Inside, all users can move equally, regardless of their mobility, without elevators and stairs. The characteristic, identity-creating, sheltering atmosphere of the house is a result of the timber construction.