Reading the place.
At the bottom, the story began with the formation of the Swabian Alb, the Jurassic sea and early traces of human life. What is visible as landscape today has a long history.
Albturm · Heubach
A tower as a gateway
to the future.
For the planned Albturm, a museum concept took shape that was meant to link the ascent with a digitally extended future forum.
Timeframe2018–2020
FocusVisitor journey and
digital museum
digital museum
StatusHeubach project
stopped in 2023
stopped in 2023
01 / Starting point
How does a view become a museum?
A timber tower around 61.5 metres high was planned on the Utzenberg near Heubach. The view was to become the start of a visitor journey: from the panorama through digital cues to the future forum at the foot of the tower.
Together with Prof. Ralf Dringenberg, I developed the museum concept. Technological developments were the starting point for bigger questions: how do we want to live in the future, and what can the region contribute?
From the regional context to the planned site.
- Stuttgart
- Göppingen
- Schwäbisch Gmünd
- Heubach
- Aalen
Project context
02 / Concept
Topics became a visitor journey.
With the museum, we wanted to look at familiar topics of the future from several perspectives and make connections visible. This led to a design for the tower, the forum and the digital content.
-
01
Connecting topics.
Work, housing, health, mobility, energy and society were conceived as linked questions. The example of mobility led from electromobility to the bigger question: how will we get around in the future?
See the topic grid -
02
Sketching the route.
The tower opened up the view; the forum offered space to go deeper. Storyboards translated this shift into a coherent sequence for the visit.
See the visitor journey -
03
Structuring content.
Four content levels were created for short cues and longer exploration. Four Sketch views gave the mobile level concrete shape as a design.
See the content system
03 / Visitor journey
The ascent as a timeline.
An early topic plan used the levels of the tower as a journey from the Jurassic sea to personal questions about the future. With height, the view moved away from the visible place and towards developments that could change it.
Understanding change.
Work, housing and the way we use resources came closer. The planned timber structure itself would have made one such question tangible: which material do we use, how do we build with it, and how can it be taken apart again?
Thinking beyond the horizon.
Further up, the questions became less tangible: climate, supply, mobility and digital identities. Their consequences reach beyond the visible region and cannot be read from a single object.
Finding your own position.
At the highest point, the view was not meant to deliver a finished forecast. It became the starting point for a question: which development affects me – and what do I want to help shape? For mobility, that meant: how do we want to get around in the future?
The four stages condense a content draft from 2019. The tower and this exhibition were not built in Heubach.
From the panorama to everyday life.
The six fields linked technological developments with everyday questions. Each topic was to be understandable from several angles and open up new questions about life in the region.
How will we
live tomorrow?
live tomorrow?
Work
Cloudworking · Cobots
Housing
Smart home · Timber construction 4.0
Health
Wearables · Telemedicine
Mobility
Electromobility → Future mobility
Energy
Smart grid · Climate change
Society
Digital identity · Data ownership
One topic as an example
How do we want to move in the future?
- 01 / CueElectromobility
A concrete technological development makes it easy to get started.
- 02 / PerspectivesMore than a drivetrain
Energy, routes and everyday life become part of the same question.
- 03 / Guiding questionFuture mobility
What kind of mobility do we want to shape as a society?
An illustrative translation of the concept question at the time, not a realised exhibit.
Viewing platformFuture forum
From outlook to exchange.
The question was meant to travel back down to the foot of the tower. In the forum, visitors could have explored it further through linked content and discussed it with other perspectives.
Discover the idea for the forum04 / Content system
Content that connects.
The digital exhibits were conceived as interconnected content. Visitors’ interests were to open up different paths through this network instead of leading everyone through the same sequence.
01
Teaser
An image or a short cue sparks interest.
02
Summary
The core of a topic can be grasped quickly.
03
Deep dive
Media and texts open up the wider context.
04
Connections
Related questions lead to further exhibits.
05 / Designs
The idea finds its place.
The forum floor plan shows where exploration and encounter were to take place. The tower section and construction details then make the ascent visible as a spatial design.
The forum: space for new connections.
North of the tower, an open venue with a foyer, a café and an adaptable event space was planned. Here, people with different perspectives were to come together, explore the questions raised along the way and discuss ideas for the region.
One room. Three uses.
Foyer and café stay in the same place. On the right of the plan, the furnishing of the exhibition and event space changes.
Free-standing elements structure the room for an exhibition.
Enlarge plan ↗
Row seating turns visitors towards a lecture or film.
Enlarge plan ↗
Loosely placed tables open the room for conversations and events.
Enlarge plan ↗Original plans: Birk Heilmeyer und Frenzel Architekten, preliminary design, 8 April 2019. The plan excerpts have been cropped consistently.View the full floor plan ↗
The tower: a path upwards.
The section and the detail drawing show the spiral ascent between the timber structure and the viewing platforms. This movement gave the first part of the museum concept its rhythm.
How the structure was conceived.
The design proposed keeping the existing concrete mast and surrounding it with a lightweight gridshell of local, modified beech wood. Parametrically planned members and detachable joints were to make individual parts replaceable and allow the structure to be dismantled.
The animations show the model assembly and the jointing principle. They document a design, not a built tower.
06 / Project status
Where the project stands today.
The town of Heubach stopped the Albturm project in 2023 for financial reasons. The museum and the mobile level remained designs.
Oberkochen then looked into taking over the Albturm. What is being built there now is a Zukunftsforum (future forum) without a tower, at a different site and with different planners. It has kept the name. However, it no longer has anything to do with our museum concept from back then.
Timeline
- 2017
Prof. Jürgen Graf proposes to the town of Heubach a timber observation tower around the radio relay tower on the Utzenberg. The building committee backs a student project on it.
- 2019
HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd develops a digital museum concept for the Albturm.
- 2020
Prof. Graf and Prof. Dringenberg present the tower and the future forum to the town council (Gemeinderat). The council supports the bid in the state competition RegioWIN 2030; the costs are put at around €11.5 million. In December, the project joins the network of the IBA’27 (International Building Exhibition 2027).
Source: Town of Heubach, council meeting 17 Nov 2020 ↗ · IBA’27 newsletter 06/2020 ↗
- 2021
The “albturm mit Zukunftsforum” (Albturm with future forum) is named a RegioWIN lighthouse project. This allows the town to apply for funding from the EU and the state. In the autumn, Heubach’s mayor leaves to become Lord Mayor of Aalen.
Source: Schwäbische Post, 14 Apr 2021 ↗ · Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart ↗
- 2022
The Albturm moves into the town’s medium-term financial plan. In April, the funding application is submitted to the state.
Source: Town of Heubach, council meeting 25 Jan 2022 ↗ · Ostalbkreis, annual report 2022 ↗
- 2023
The administration puts the costs at €13 million, leaving the town with a funding gap of around €5.7 million. With two votes against, the council decides not to pursue the project any further and to withdraw the funding application.
- 2024
Oberkochen sets aside around €7 million in its budget for a “Projekt Albturm”. A few weeks later, the council puts the plan on hold for the time being.
Source: Town of Oberkochen, council meeting 29 Jan 2024 ↗ · Schwäbische Post, 22 Feb 2024 ↗
- 2025–26
Instead, Oberkochen decides on a Zukunftsforum on Dreißentalstraße, without a tower and with new planners. In 2026, €7.5 million in funding from the EU and the state follow, along with the decision to build.
Source: Town of Oberkochen, council meeting 31 Mar 2025 ↗ · Contract award 28 Jul 2025 ↗ · Schwäbische Post, 28 Jan 2026 ↗ · State ministry, 23 Jul 2026 ↗ · Decision to build 27 Jul 2026 ↗
I have since left the project and am not involved in its further development.
What remains
We never doubted the tower. It failed because of politics and money.
Our concept was meant to lead people from the view into the forum. In 2021, the mayor who had driven the project since 2017 moved to Aalen. After that, it moved into the medium-term financial plan, and in 2023 the council stopped the project, even though it had been named a RegioWIN lighthouse project and funding had been applied for. The concept remained a design, and I learned how much public projects depend on individual advocates.
Future museum concept: Prof. Ralf Dringenberg and Dominik Witzke. Tower design: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Graf / graf ingenieure. Visitor forum: Prof. Stephan Birk / Birk Heilmeyer und Frenzel Architekten.