Exploring the Waldspirale

Outside the Walspirale

Outside the Walspirale

The Waldspirale is one of the more unique structures that I have seen. The building has a rather irregular shape with a spiral design going around the building. The name Waldspirale means forest spiral. The forest part of the name comes from the green roof it has which I think was unique for its time. What is even more special is that this is actually an apartment complex. I don’t think too many apartment buildings get this kind of treatment. You can see from the outside that people actually do live here and there are bicycles parked outside as well as clothes hung out to dry.

Apartments at Walspirale in Darmstadt

Apartments at Walspirale in Darmstadt

For sure this is no tourist attraction since you can’t really go inside unless you are a resident. It was tempting to want to follow a resident inside the building just to see what is inside but I decided against it. From the ground, it was difficult to fully appreciate the building. This even more so when I am really up close to it. You can see the paint has already faded and some places don’t even look nice. I hope they paint this building regularly because it would be a shame to just let such a unique design go to waste. I wanted to see if there is anywhere I can climb up for a better view. The closest place I could think of was the car park building adjacent to Waldspirale. I thought I was brilliant as I entered the elevator but apparently I would need a car park ticket to scan to operate the elevator. For some reason, there weren’t any stairs in sight either so I just let it be.

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