The competition entry for the Hercules monument visitor center in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, Germany, designed by Achim Menges and Scheffler + Partner Architects, is located at the 515 meters high peak of a major baroque sight axis, between Kassel Wilhelmshöhe Palace, a 250m long water cascade and the 71m tall Hercules monument designed by Francesco Guerniero.

As the historical background of the site is very complex, it suggested an in-folding of the park, in order to articulate the interior landscape, an artificial underground substitute for nature which enables smooth transition from the natural surroundings of Habichtswald to the baroque park and monument. However, architects in charge for the design, instead or directly relating the competition brief to specific spatial entities that would more easily answer the programmatic and volumetric requirements, decided to provide an interior environment that consists of various micro-ambients.

The micro-milieus offer wide range of conditions, surface articulations and views along each visitor’s path to the Hercules monument through strategic penetrations of the exterior park, which covers the structure of the monument visitor center. Western access to Wilhelmshöhe, the passage through the visitor center, is articulated as a series of terrains, allowing each visitor to choose its own way of experiencing the place moving through. The choice is generated as a personal response to daily and seasonal changes of light intensities, different vistas, programmatic provisions and duration of visit.

The form of this proposal is digitally generated – associative modeling techniques were used as an instrument in the overall articulation of this triangulated monument visitor center.