HOLZ: From Matter to Structure
Editors: Marina Hämmerle & Florian Aicher
Client: Ministry of Food, Rural Areas and Consumer Protection Baden-Württemberg
Photography: Petra Steiner
Publisher: Edition DETAIL, Munich
Design: Stefan Gaßner
Client: Ministry of Food, Rural Areas and Consumer Protection Baden-Württemberg
Photography: Petra Steiner
Publisher: Edition DETAIL, Munich
Design: Stefan Gaßner
01
The Concept:
Wood as a Cultural Catalyst
H stands for Holz (Wood)—a material familiar since childhood and a cornerstone of building culture in our latitudes. Its current renaissance is rooted in a return to regional heritage and ecological potential. This book explores how forestry, technology, and architectural developments have evolved, and how local craftsmanship is finding new greatness in sustainable construction. The beauty and inherent qualities of wood are captured through an unexpected visual lens.
02
Materiality:
A Haptic Translation of Constructive Logic
To make the warmth and softness of wood physically tangible, the design deliberately avoids a rigid hardcover. Instead, it features a flexible, lightweight cover made of Schmedt Jeansleinen. This uncoated, three-fiber fabric (an eco-variant by Schabert) corresponds in its open structure with the directness of the raw material.
The format was meticulously chosen to optimize the press sheet—ensuring zero-waste production without unnecessary offcuts. The interior, printed on Cradle-to-Cradle certified Munken Print Cream and FSC-certified GardaPat 13 KIARA, completes the symbiosis of ecological responsibility and high-precision image reproduction. Design here serves as a companion to the matter: a resource-efficient framework that makes craftsmanship felt in a digital age.
» …
I haven’t held such a carefully conceived and beautifully designed book in my hands for a long time. It starts with the format and, of course, the enchanting photographs… The entire universe of ‘Wood’ unfolds through the photo essays alone. It is a small revelation… encouraging and inspiring in a digital time where the slow and haptic must fight for their space. «
— Regula Lüscher
Architect, Former Senate Building Director / State Secretary of Berlin
Architect, Former Senate Building Director / State Secretary of Berlin
03
Visual Dramaturgy:
A Rhythm of Space and Matter
The layout follows a strict, almost tectonic logic. It begins with an iconic cover: a minimalist “H” debossed on forest-green denim linen, where three different fiber types make the haptic quality of the forest immediately palpable.
Unlike a typical technical book, the content unfolds through a composed visual narrative. The structure is based on the weaving of individual 16-page signatures: A precise rhythm of image and text sequences (1, 2, 2, 2, 1) creates a narrative depth that guides the reader through the subject. Design becomes the choreography of information.
Fotos: © Petra Steiner
04
Resonanz:
Interdisciplinary Dialogue
The book unites the scientific and design depth of leading thinkers into a consistent narrative about the future of building.
Contributors include: Hermann Kaufmann, Martin Rauch, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research), Achim Menges (ICD Stuttgart), Marina Hämmerle, Dominique Gauzin-Müller, and more.
»What moves me is already evident in the ‘primitive hut’: a wickerwork, a woven wall, smeared with clay—the beginning of architecture. Clay and wood are the most sustainable materials imaginable.«
— Martin Rauch
Fotos: © Petra Steiner
Fotos: © Petra Steiner
Sample Text:
Five Woods… a subjective walk through the themes of life.
– Zora del Buono
Walking: Sequoia in a Tin
The miracle of plants is that they are granted exactly ONE chance at where they can live: the spot where their seed happens to touch the ground. The probability of that spot being right for a successful existence is tiny… We humans can decide to leave, to move on.
The cylindrical “Grow-a-tree” tin with six remarkably small Sequoia seeds has sat on my bookshelf for years—six chances for a life outside the predetermined Californian mountains. I have walked for hours through the Sequoia National Park; no region in the world touches me more. The ancestors of these giants grew at a time when there were no flying insects on earth… It is most beautiful in the early morning silence, before the tourists arrive to see the General Sherman Tree—84 meters high, 2,200 years old. A tree that once bore a different name: the Karl Marx Tree…
…
Fotos: © Petra Steiner
Lesezeichen mit »Holzmuster«: Gestaltung Stefan Gaßner
