Klugheim — Phantasialand
A basalt massif built around a live coaster track: rockwork, themed façades and painting for the Klugheim area, home to Taron, Raik and River Quest.
- Site
- Klugheim, Phantasialand
- Scope
- Rockwork, façades, painting
- Signature
- Hexagonal basalt columns
- Constraint
- Building around a live coaster track
The diary
The rock exists in steel long before it exists in stone. 01Phase 1Setting out and steelwork
Survey points from the model are set out around the coaster track, then the steel armature is welded to follow it. Every clearance for trains, walkways and technical rooms is checked before mesh goes on.
Shotcrete is sprayed and shaped in the same movement. 02Phase 2Shotcrete
Our nozzlemen spray the shell in continuous passes, following the modelled surfaces. Thickness, reinforcement and drainage are controlled as the shape grows.
Texture is cut by hand, against the clock of the setting concrete. 03Phase 3Carving, wet
Sculptors cut the hexagonal basalt columns by hand while the shotcrete is still workable — thousands of facets, none of them repeated from a mould.
Buildings grow out of the rock, not in front of it. 04Phase 4Façades and details
The half-timbered village of Klugheim is built into the same surface as the rock, so the houses look wedged between the columns rather than placed in front of them.
Water is tested full-scale before a single coat of paint. 05Phase 5Water, planting and integration
Basins, waterfalls and submerged structures are tested and adjusted, then planting is threaded into pockets left in the rock so vegetation and stone age together.
The last layer is the one that decides whether it looks real. 06Phase 6Painting and handover
Everything is hand-painted from the shadows outward — mineral washes, weathering, soot and lichen — then the site is cleaned, snagged and walked through with the client before opening.
