Artist: Friedensreich Hundertwasser
Completion: November 1982
An example of architecture for nature and humans alike was created at the old porcelain factory in Selb. Hundertwasser did not only design the façade but also planted grass and trees on the roof and integrated the carriage house and the employee parking lot into his "ecology-art creation". The artist said: "We must have a peace contract with nature and return territories to nature which we acquired illegally. A symbol of understanding between the creation of the human being and the creation of nature is emerging. They have to work together to form a unit".
The factory building lost its concrete face through a mosaic of mirrored, black glazed and silver shinning ceramic tiles which for the first time were produced in such an irregular form. They are arranged in collages, slightly uneven and irregular in an artistic freestyle. The green roof with birch, ash tree, maple, beech and rowan trees livens up the hard, straight skyline (just for this purpose, the walls of the carriage house had to be build up). Hundertwasser planted trees in several floors which are growing outward. The elevator shafts were planted with wild wine. On the parking lot he allowed spontaneous vegetation which gives shade in the summer.
Source:
N.N.: „Eine Fabrik schließt Frieden mit der Natur", Umwelt, Heft 6, 1982
N.N.: „Eine Fabrik schließt Frieden mit der Natur", notabene medici, Heft 9, 1983
Henning Müller-Gerbes: „Bauen im Selbstverständnis eines Unternehmens" in
„Materialien 3: Bauen für die Wirtschaft", Architektenkammer Rheinland-Pfalz,
1988
Ulrich Kern: „Gebaute Unternehmenskultur", Industriebau, Heft 2/1992
