Airships may no longer ferry passengers across continents, but they still loom large in the skies. In western Germany, one company has kept that niche alive since the 1970s. Now, it has built a hangar that is drawing attention far beyond aviation circles.
Completed in 2022, the Airship Hangar Mülheim is a massive timber structure that has already won multiple engineering and architecture awards. It replaced a lightweight textile hall and serves as a maintenance and winter storage facility for the city’s airships. Its significance lies not only in its scale but in how it was built: entirely from wood, designed for disassembly, and modelled with precision.
Permission for the project came with strict conditions. Wood Central understands that the authorities pushed for a restored structure, meaning the old hall’s footprint and curved profile had to be retained. And unlike its steel predecessor, the new hangar would be constructed from spruce. “Using around 557 tons of spruce saved approximately 156 tons of CO₂ versus a comparable steel solution,” the engineers said.
To achieve both strength and lightness, the architects Smyk Fischer opted for a truss solution. Ripkens Wiesenkämper, working with Marx Krontal Partner, devised a purely timber truss system that eliminated the need for steel. In total, nearly 600 engineered timber nodes and beams form 15 two‑hinged arches, each rising 26 meters. The roof shell is made of cross‑laminated timber, clad in aluminium standing‑seam panels.
Equally transformative was the digital process behind the design: Ripkens Wiesenkämper relied on ALLPLAN software to build a detailed 3D model that captured every joint and connection, allowing engineers to detect clashes before construction began, refine material estimates, and collaborate in real time across disciplines — a workflow that gave the hangar distinctive clarity and precision.
The hangar’s most dramatic feature is its double‑leaf door. Each wing weighs 72 tons and requires careful engineering. Dr Schippke + Partner designed a system of massive hinges and a guided track powered by 80‑horsepower electric motors. Wood Central understands that the timber and aluminium skin was designed to be fully demountable, its components logged in a building resource passport to ensure future reuse or recycling.
