The new visitor center of Rapunzel Naturkost GmbH in Legau is designed to be public and inviting and is intended to make the company´s leitmotif “We make organic out of love” tangible for visitors. A house full of discoveries that invites guests to linger and participate with varied and emotional imparting of knowledge.
The address-forming building sculpture welcomes every visitor from afar through the northern high point – the Rapunzel Tower. The fairytale garden surrounds the house and extends to the roof. An open and invitingly accessible sculpture where at the end the crow’s nest allows a view of the landscape.
The gesture is accompanied by the large, floating roof that spans everything and wraps itself around the visitor center like a band, but does not limit any views. Only in the tower area does the construction reach down to the ground and otherwise stand out all around.

In the exhibition, visitors can learn interesting facts about cultivation, fair trade and production as well as sustainable living at interactive stations. The coffee roastery is designed in such a way that you can watch the roasting and processing, including the wonderful smell of the coffee. Rapunzel’s braid in the form of a large, spiral wooden staircase connects all floors from the wine cellar to the exhibition and the roof terrace with its wonderful all-round view. In addition to the bakery and the organic market, there are many other rooms to discover for training courses, yoga and other activities. The playfully designed fairytale garden leads to the tropical house, where you can watch the coffee plants grow.

Irrespective of which of the two equal entrances the visitor enters the building from, he is received and distributed via the center. The glazed interior partitions allow generous insights into the coffee roastery and the bakery. The inviting spiral staircase sculpture connects the ground floor with the gallery above.

Natural and renewable building materials such as wood and clay were used and the building services were reduced to a necessary minimum.
No styrofoam was used for the insulation and the subfloor, but recycled foam glass gravel. All materials, colors and coatings are mineral and ecologically carefully selected.
Daylight is used in the visitor center and mechanical air conditioning is largely dispensed with. Here we used what nature provides us with as a microclimate on site to build a robust and therefore durable house that works with nature and not against nature.
All the craft businesses that were involved in the construction of the Rapunzel World are located in the immediate vicinity of Legau. Only for the Rapunzel staircase and the finely engobed bricks, we had to resort to more distant partners, as the brick kilns in Switzerland still had old kilns that allowed a special type of engobe.
The building not only strengthens the region, but also helps the environment by avoiding emissions and resource consumption in transport.