Bambus als Fassadenmaterial – die Parkhäuser am Zoo in Leipzig (lecture only available in German)
Sebastian Helm, Dipl.-Ing. Architekt BDA - HPP ARCHITEKTEN GMBH

With bamboo, a façade material was sought that, on the one hand, creates a reference to the exotic world of the adventure zoo and, on the other hand, lends the functional parking garage a soft and haptic impression.
The large open garage was built using a steel skeleton construction. Several thousand of the storey-high, approx. 10-centimeter-thick stalks of the fast-growing bamboo were assembled in a row with evenly spaced axes. In contrast to the existing 1st construction phase, the independent extension presents itself in a striking wave shape on both long sides of the facade. Common to both parking garages is the consistent and identity-giving use of the exotic façade material bamboo. In addition to its purely decorative properties, this façade covers important aspects of building physics, such as ventilation and sound insulation, and at the same time ensures the function of a railing and fall protection.

With around 1.3 million visitors per year, Leipzig Zoo is one of the most popular zoos in Germany. In order to provide zoo visitors with sufficient parking facilities, a competition was held in 2002 to find a parking garage concept that would be both economical and sophisticated in terms of design. In the three-day workshop on the parking garage at Leipzig Zoo, the theme "shell" was chosen as the central design motif. The parking garage was to form a unity with the neighboring zoo grounds in its expression. In order to be able to meet the increased parking space requirements as a result of the new Gondwanaland tropical hall and the expanded congress hall, the parking garage completed in 2004 was extended by an independent structure to the north in 2011. Together, the two parking garages now have 1,336 parking spaces.

Client: Zoo Leipzig GmbH
Location: Leipzig
Gross floor area: 16,500 m² + 27,500 m²
Completion: 2004 + 2011
Competition: 1st prize 2002
Award: Architecture Award of the City of Leipzig 2005, Renault Traffic Design Award 2004, Architecture Award BDA of the BDA Saxony Recognition