The Kronenplatz is a central square in the heart of Karlsruhe, Germany, located in close proximity to the KIT Campus South. Due to climate change, average temperatures in Karlsruhe have risen by 1.3°C over the past sixty years, and summer temperatures between 35–40°C are not uncommon. This makes the otherwise vibrant square increasingly unusable during the summer months, as shading is almost entirely absent. To address this challenge, KIT and the City of Karlsruhe initiated a research project aimed at improving the square's livability through a creative and innovative approach — resulting in komorebi.

An Interdisciplinary Research Project

komorebi was developed through a collaboration between the Professorship Design of Structures (DOS) and the Professorship Digital Design and Fabrication (DDF) at the KIT Faculty of Architecture's Institute for Building Design and Technology (IEB), together with industry partner FibR GmbH. The project sits at the intersection of structural research and urban design, contributing to ongoing investigations into shading structures for microclimatic comfort in urban environments, guided elastic bending as a form-giving strategy, and the use of bio-based, renewable building materials — specifically timber and flax fiber.

The Structure

komorebi combines a two-tiered seating element with a light-filtering flax fiber sail roof. The structure stands 4.6 m tall with a maximum span of 7.6 m, and is composed of four primary structural assemblies: steel foundations, a steel substructure, a fiber sail, and a timber column.

Since a underground parking garage is located beneath the square, any ground anchorage was not possible. The structure instead rests on three weighted steel blocks, sized to distribute loads across the ground slab and provide sufficient ballast against overturning or sliding under extreme wind conditions. The steel substructure was designed as a kit of parts manufacturable through a standard three-axis laser cutting process, significantly reducing both production cost and on-site assembly time.

The sail consists of twelve individually manufactured segments, each produced through a robotic fiber winding process in which flax fiber strands are additively wound around steel frames, resulting in lightweight, material-efficient structural components. The timber column was formed from five continuous ash lamellae — 80 mm wide and 8 mm thick — arranged in a weave-like configuration across six axes, and mechanically laminated using self-drilling timber screws. No synthetic adhesives were used, ensuring full material separability and recyclability at end of life. The column's geometry was encoded during fabrication through precise CNC-milled bolt hole placements and guiding incisions, enabling the entire production to be carried out with standard three-axis machinery.

Sustainable Innovation Through Digital Technology

A particular focus of komorebi is the integration of digital planning and fabrication tools throughout the entire development process, enabling resource-efficient construction without compromising structural performance or aesthetic ambition. The structure demonstrates how bio-based materials and computational design methods can be combined to produce adaptable, reconfigurable urban furniture suited to the demands of a changing climate.

Mobility and Flexibility

Thanks to the heavy-load transport units developed by KIT spin-off FORMIC Transportsysteme GmbH, komorebi can be repositioned freely across the square, offering unlimited possibilities for configuring the public space. Its maiden journey took place in December 2024.

komorebi is currently being tested on the Kronenplatz as a research demonstrator, realized with the involvement of architecture students at KIT, and forms part of a broader research agenda on innovative, sustainable structural solutions for urban outdoor spaces.

Professur Design of Structures (dos)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Riccardo La Magna, David Andersson Largueche

Professur Digital Design and Fabrication (DDF)
TT-Prof. Moritz Dörstelmann

FORMIC Transportsysteme GmbH
Dr.-Ing. Maximilian Hochstein, Dr.-Ing. Benedikt Klee

FibR GmbH
Christian Dierk, Zirui Huang, Puree Srisuk, Nikolay Solovev

Studentische Unterstützung
Nicolò Giovannella, Paul Schäfer, Sven Spallek, Marco Tarrio Torres, Leon Vandreike

Mit freundlicher Unterstützung von
Triangel (Manuel Köcher, Korbinian Saur)
Innovation and Relations Management (Jens Fahrenberg)
Bereich 4 (Laura Bosch)
Schorn & Groh

Foto(s)
Tobias Wootton

Video
Daryoush Djavadi - media acht