architecture now and The Future: SCHOOL EXTENSION WITH CRINKLED WALL BY JOHANNES WIESFLECKER

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A wall resembling crinkled paper is an apt metaphor on the side of this high school.

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It represents the growing pains of academic growth and the process of testing ideas, rethinking and reworking them. Architect Johannes Wiesflecker and artist Karl-HeinzKlopf recently joint forces to realise the metaphor in Kufstein, Austria.

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The crinkled wall contrasts strongly with a smooth, flush, street-side façade. A subdued colour palette of whites and greys connects the extension with the original high school buildings constructed in 1907 and with neighbouring twentieth-century villas and fortress.

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A rich, textured façade shows building technology advancement and innovation that creates an updated landmark for Kufstein. Concrete is one of the main construction materials in the school. Use of the material on the façade builds a connection between the inside and outside of the building.

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The wall also functions as an interface between the school and the park. According to its designers, ‘the view of the Crinkled Wall from the interior creates a special atmosphere. It seems to be staged and is dynamically reflected by daylight.

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This wall, integrated into the architecture of the school, is an icon for the school and a concise urbanistic module which highlights the topological and cultural identity of the town of Kufstein in a new way.’

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The thinness of the concrete panels accentuates the allusion to paper, a material whose form is mirrored from one side to the other when crumpled, though from the inside the materiality of the Crinkled Wall—its texture, its formwork holes—comes to the fore.

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The same happens on the exterior when it rains, turning something abstract into something dripping with its reality. This is important, because Klopf opted to sculpt something tactile rather than something made of bits and bytes. An LED facade can also express knowledge, learning, and information.