The malt house is a new commercial building in Wildegg.
Planning began in August 2020, and the hall was completed around a year later.
The building is rectangular in shape, measuring 42 x 23 m and 9 m high. These dimensions were tailored to the machines used in production. Inside, only the boiler room and a small cloakroom/toilet are separated from the production and storage hall.
From the outset, the client wanted to build this hall using regional timber. Therefore, the supporting structure, roof and façade cladding were made from 280 m³ of spruce wood, which was felled in the forest of the neighbouring municipality of Lenzburg, 7 km away, and processed by local companies. A proportion of ‘beetle-infested wood’ was also used in the construction. The structure is a skeleton construction with prefabricated wall elements, the cladding of which was assembled on site.
No chemicals were used to protect the façade, as the slats were only charred on the surface and stabilised with oil. This technique originated in Japan (Shou Sugi Ban). The slats are also arranged in a herringbone pattern, reminiscent of the arrangement of grains on the ears of barley, which is processed into malt in this hall. Visually, the herringbone pattern divides the large façade surfaces into constantly changing light and dark areas depending on the incidence of light.
As Switzerland's first large industrial malting plant, the interior was to be visible to passers-by. This led to the creation of large windows that blend into the façade pattern.