On the site of the legendary battle in the Teutoburg Forest - also known as the Varus Battle - an exhibition park with three pavilions and a museum was created by Gigon/Guyer.
Embedded within the landscape of the Teutoburg Forest, the museum captured by 9sekunden, is formed to highlight the traces of the Battle of Varus, where germanic peoples came into conflict with the roman army. Gigon /Guyer designed the building as a competition entry, that won first prize and was realized during 1999 and 2002.
This consists of a flat cuboid in which the exhibition areas are located and a 40 m high observation tower with stairs. The structure, like the pavilions, is uniformly clad with rust-red steel plates that are mounted on a steel frame construction.
"The interventions, the architectural means employed and the landscape design, are minimal and primarily abstract. A few measures spark the visitor’s imagination of the events that took place in this landscape: the visualization of the former rampart with iron poles, trees cleared away and reforestation, a partial “reconstruction” of the former, lower terrain, three pavilions as well as three path systems on the grounds. Irregularly placed large iron slabs retrace the possible route of the Roman Legions and form a path for visitors to access the former battlefield. A net-like pattern of wood-chip paths symbolizes the positions of the Germanic warriors, their camouflage, their silent attack. Contemporary agricultural gravel paths allow visitors to “switch sides”. Proceeding from one iron slab to the next on the so called “Roman path”, visitors collect pieces of information from the ground, not unlike archeological work. Step by step, an image of the historical battle forms in their minds." — Gigon/Guyer
