The small wine town of Dettelsbach has given itself a new center, called the Culture and Communication Center (KuK.), in the heart of the old town and in the immediate vicinity of the historic town hall. But it was a challenge for the architects. In the Bohnmühlgasse, between the town hall and the Burgberg, and in the architectural monuments adjacent to the vacated construction site at least five functions had to be integrated in a new building complex. The space was to include the municipal tourist information office, the public library, conference rooms, a showcase for the region, a wine shop and a museum of the Diocese of Würzburg.
The old and new buildings are accessed via a wide ramp rising from east to west along Bohnmühlgasse. In the Vinothek, which is adjacent to the Tourist Information, the wines of the Dettelbach vintners as well as many other wines from the region can be tasted. The vinotheque, which is adjacent to a "green glass shard garden", is designed like a large showcase in which huge grapes seem to be stored, then vinified into great wines. Oak wood and shell limestone or steel covered with micaceous iron oxide are the materials used in the interiors. Even if everything appears gray, the KuK. is not a gray mouse. The architects, and above all the museum's designers, give an impressive demonstration of how much "color" can be found in a building that at first glance appears to be made only of concrete, shell limestone and steel. The lightness and transparency of the new building become particularly visible when the lights go on in the KuK. and the massive masonry structures around the glass house sink into the darkness.
