architek[tour] tirol – der architekturführer für tirol

Since 1984/85, an underground air cushion funicular has been connecting the eastern end of the village of Serfaus with the cable cars in the west. In the course of renewing the technical installations, the four stations were adapted to today's requirements and designed as non-barrier meeting places, each with its own character. The two stations "Kirche" and "Zentrum" in the centre of the village were completely rebuilt.

On the Neustift school campus, several schools, previously scattered across various parts of town, were brought together for a total of around 500 pupils. fasch&fuchs.architekten naturally integrate the extensive spatial allocation plan into the landscape. They designed a carpet-like school campus that develops like a cascade between two head buildings and offers a differentiated range of spaces with streets, squares, ramps, courtyards and gardens.

Several educational institutions belonging to the Sisters of Mercy school association are housed in a building complex dating back to the 1930s. In the course of the most recent renovation, conversion and expansion measures, this heterogeneous building stock situation was resolved. A façade made of translucent polycarbonate panels consolidates the various existing buildings; the interior was returned to its concrete structure and complemented with natural materials.

For the newly built Falginjochbahn aerial tramway on the Kaunertal Glacier, the architects developed two technoid-looking infrastructure buildings made of concrete, steel and glass that make reference to the technical equipment of cable car technology. Situated at an elevation of 2,750 meters, the base station consists of a large, glazed steel framework on a concrete plinth; the cantilevered top station at an altitude of over 3,000 meters is designed as an antipode.

The Martinsbrücke, a pedestrian and cycle path bridge over the Inn River, connects the communities of Zirl and Unterperfuss, and is located on the Inn Cycle Path. In terms of design and technology, it is a prime example of a sophisticated bridge construction. With a total length of around 100 meters, it is the first wood-concrete composite bridge in Europe of this size. Supported on the banks by inclined concrete struts, it spans the river in an elegant arc and naturally blends in with the surroundings.

Situated on a former agricultural property directly on the Innpromenade, the Rum Sports and Exercise Center includes several sports fields and facilities for the local soccer and weight training clubs. The centerpiece is an elongated bridge structure with a restaurant and grandstands on the upper floor, to which a transverse structure connects in the north, where, among other things, a large competition hall can be found.

The company headquarters of the ASI Alpine School Innsbruck, located in the middle of a forest above Natters, was complemented by Snøhetta Studio Innsbruck with a new office building that reflects the company's philosophy and in particular the theme of "symbiosis between nature and man". The exterior appearance is defined by the wooden façade and a green climbing frame; inside, an open officescape was developed together with the employees.

The Fohlenhof (foal farm) in Ebbs is considered the centre of international Haflinger breeding. Over the years, an extensive stud farm with stables, paddocks, riding hall, large arena and museum has grown up around a castle estate. Two new structures were placed in this heterogeneous conglomeration of buildings, forming a new centre with attractive outdoor spaces and giving the stud farm a contemporary identity.

The heritage-listed primary school in the centre of Landeck was renovated, adapted for contemporary learning methods and extended with an annexe. On the ground floor is a hall glazed on three sides, which makes the new building look like a floating volume in the park; below it lies a gym, and on the roof is a spacious breaktime patio framed with wooden slats.

The "3-Seenhaus", which belongs to the "Jagdschloss Resort Kühtai", is located directly at one of the cable car stations in the winter sports resort of Kühtai, which lies at 2,000 m above sea level. As a contemporary addition to the historical ensemble, a timber frame construction was erected in a reduced formal language, consisting of two underground connected buildings with hotel rooms and studios or spacious holiday flats.

On a very cramped site directly on the Isel River, space was to be created for the expansion of four schools. The architects designed a narrow, floating structure directly above the river front, which connects the existing buildings and provides plenty of new space. Amply visible classrooms, structured by the steel framework, are arranged along an open corridor.

As the end result of an invited architecture competition, the multi-functional P2 building connects private and public interests as an urban hybrid. The pointed, almost 50-meter-high tower contains apartments, and the two-story base building provides space for the Innsbruck City Library, which features several reading zones and an event hall. In between, there is a public space designed as a reading deck, accessible via two flights of stairs, which invites visitors to linger without any pressure to consume.

The School Center in Hall in Tyrol by fasch&fuchs.architekten is part of a large number of schools realized by the architectural office that respond as contemporary statements to new educational concepts. Two secondary schools and the district special needs school were combined at one location in the immediate vicinity of Hall’s town center. Meshing with the outside space in a variety of ways, the new structure forms a flowing inner and outer educational landscape.

Built on a very small plot of land at the edge of a public green zone, the house gives people with chronic mental illnesses a temporary home. There are small apartments on the upper floors, while the attic and ground floor offer communal lounge and therapy areas. An outer skin made of colored exposed concrete elements surrounds the entire polygonal structure, reinforcing its monolithic character.

The redesign of the village center in Patsch arose out of a community development process with an associated architecture competition. On the northern edge of the property, a building for the community office, based in terms of its dimensions and materiality on the existing development, and a music pavilion on the southern edge, were erected. Together with the former parish hall, which has been transformed into a clubhouse, and the new village square, the residents gained a lively meeting place.

The Längenfeld Nature Park House is the operational center of the Ötztal Nature Park and includes, among other things, an exhibition about the natural diversity of the valley. Proceeding from the topographical conditions, Hanno Schlögl designed the house as an artificial rock, with its exposed concrete surfaces, imprinted by the horizontal formwork, taking up a role that mediates between rock and wood. Purposefully placed perforations, a transverse concrete slab and the inclined canopy emphasize the structure’s sculptural character.

For many years now, the Innsbruck Tourist Information Center has been located in a former stable building directly adjacent to the city wall. In the course of the renovation and redesign, the interior was cleared of later fixtures, the historic vaulted ceiling exposed, the original floor level restored and a barrier-free access in the form of a concrete ramp placed in the Renaissance hall. In order to restore the character of a city wall, the large arched windows were closed flush with the façade with perforated ceramic tiles.

With the Swarovski Manufaktur in Wattens, Snøhetta developed a hybrid location for production, creative collaboration and representation for the Tyrolean crystal manufacturer. A column-free hall with natural light through openings in the ceiling offers space for machines, robots and workbenches, but also for offices and meeting zones. A large open staircase, which also serves as a meeting point and arena, leads up to a wooden platform suspended from the ceiling, into which further offices and showrooms are integrated.

Innsbruck’s "House of Music” can be found at one the most central locations in the inner city, where the city concert halls and chamber theater housed in the previous building were combined with numerous institutions dedicated to music. The complex spatial program is accommodated in a compact structure with a multilayered façade made of ceramic cladding. Emerging as independent elements, the publicly accessible hall bodies clearly distinguish themselves from those areas used for research, teaching and administration.

The residential complex is an example of how high-quality, inner-city densification can arise in the inner courtyards, which are enclosed by a Gründerzeit block perimeter development. The 120 or so apartments are spread over two floors that open up to the sunken inner courtyard and a number of separate structures with green roofs and façades.

While the Nordkettenbahn cable railway (architecture: Franz Baumann), built around the same time, was sensitively adapted for a new cable car technology, this apparently proved not to be economically justifiable for the Patscherkofelbahn (architecture: Hans Fessler), which opened in 1928. A three-station monocable gondola lift, characterized by a very strict and purist approach focusing on function, arose in place of the old aerial tramway.

A 92-unit residential complex from the 1950s was extensively renovated and extended by 32 apartments through a two-story addition. As a slim, clear, longitudinal structure, this is distinctly set apart from the existing building by a circumferential strip of windows on the street side. At the same time, the existing balconies were renewed and enlarged, and the apartments connected to the elevators in the courtyard area.

Around 1,000 new apartments are to be built in the coming years on the so-called Campagne Areal in the Reichenau district of Innsbruck. As part of the process-accompanying neighborhood development work, a temporary place of information, exchange and networking – designed, planned and partly built by students of the architecture faculty – was erected.

A center hitherto unique in Austria, the Hospice House Tyrol has been opened on the grounds of the State Hospital in Hall, bringing all the offers of the Tyrolean hospice community together under one roof. The project’s leitmotif is the flowing transition between the building and nature. In the midst of numerous trees stands an open and intimate house, zoned inside by courtyards.

In the centre of Natters, a health and social centre was built for the population of the surrounding villages with a residential home, a daytime care facility, a medical practice and a separate house for "assisted living" that is connected by a covered bridge. By dividing the building into two parts, it was possible to realise volumes that were compatible with the locality and to create outdoor spaces with different qualities.

For several years, the municipality of Mils has been engaged in the question of how to stimulate the town centre, an area that has become less attractive. After the revitalisation of a farm for the municipal office and the extension of the primary school, most recently a mixed-use "village centre" was created with a high-rise building for "assisted living" and two low structures for a café and parish hall. These are connected by a flying roof, which - closed to form a rectangle - defines a roofed "square on the square".

The new municipal office and a child-friendly multimedia library are located in two buildings of different heights, staggered one behind the other, which - overcoming the difference in level of about one storey - connect two local areas. The striking ensemble, encased in a metal façade, fits confidently into the existing, traditional village structure.

The free-standing solitaire, visible from all sides, with the stage facing south and a bus stop facing north, offers a place for cultural life in the village centre. The free-standing solitaire, visible from all sides, with the stage facing south and a bus stop facing north, offers a place for cultural life in the village centre. Together with the Institute for Structure and Design at the University of Innsbruck, a special folding system made of solid wooden panels was developed that meets all acoustic requirements and at the same time gives the building a striking sculptural form.

From the original notion of building a tree house with pupils, a whole open air classroom — a simple wooden structure docked with a footbridge and a terrace onto the slope above the school — evolved in a complex process. From the project idea, to the design, up to the 1: 1 implementation, the project was accompanied in numerous subject areas, enabling a specific topic to be covered in an interdisciplinary manner.

Instead of two existing buildings south and east of St. Paul’s Church, the NEW HEIMAT TIROL constructed a social pastoral center for the parish of St. Paul, as well as a residential building with approx. 70 rental apartments. Marte.Marte Architekten place the comprehensive space allocation program in three loosely arranged structures around the church, which, in their entirety, also act as the new neighborhood center for Innsbruck-Reichenau.

Directly connected to the existing "Grenobler Brücke” road bridge, the new tram bridge over the Inn is an integral part of the planned regional railway between Völs and Rum. The project by Hans Peter Gruber (architecture) and Thomas Sigl (structural engineering), which won an architectural competition, consists of a girder bridge in composite construction on which a foot and bike path is integrated below the tram line.

A low structure, which is partially sunk into the ground and fluently blends into the landscape, arose as an extension to the "Tyrolean Vocational School for Landscaping, Spatial Design and Fashion” housed in parts of the Salesian women’s convent Thurnfeld in Hall. Three courtyards divide the building into the various areas of use, which are connected by an open access zone with adjoining rooms arranged like islands.

With the SFZ, a new building featuring restoration workshops, laboratories and workplaces was constructed in Hall for the collection holdings of the Tyrolean State Museums, which were previously stored in eleven individual depots. Based on the image of a treasure chest, Franz & Sue conceptualized a monolith largely closed to the outside which refers to the building’s function through the façade design. The interior is organized according to the onion principle: the outer ring accommodates the depots, a middle ring provides circulation, while the work rooms and studios are grouped around a large, green atrium in the core.

On the outskirts of Weer; the new MPREIS food market with a café has created a place featuring a high quality of stay. The monolithic building opens onto the street with a transparent main façade and a terrace situated in front of the structure; the remaining façades are clad with polished stainless steel panels that reflect the surrounding fields. Artificial tree supports made of reinforced concrete and specifically set vistas shape the interior atmosphere.

The extension of the tourism school constructed in the 1980s consists of a statically independent addition to the second floor, which further develops the existing L-shaped building into a type of courtyard and simultaneously simplifies the structure into a new, large shape. At the same time, the statically developed truss structure forms the spatial pattern and, as an important design element, characterizes the atmosphere of the new "theory floor.”

The hotel is an example of high-quality redensification right in the heart of Innsbruck. On the one hand, the façade of the existing building on Maria-Theresien-Straße was restored, the old building gutted inside and completely reorganized. On the other hand, a new structure that responds to the neighboring development as a narrow block with a concluding head building went up in the inner courtyard.

Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, the City Tower is one of Innsbruck’s oldest landmarks, and the viewing platform a popular place for locals and tourists. In the course of the renovation, a free-standing double helix with an open stairwell was realized. Not only does it direct the flow of visitors, but is itself an impressive spatial sculpture in the freed-up tower interior.

The University of Innsbruck’s childcare facility was designed, planned and built by students from the architecture faculty as part of a bachelor thesis. Clad with wooden slats reminiscent of a bird’s nest, the structure opens up towards the Inn River through floor-to-ceiling glass fronts. On the inside, floors and walls form a flowing continuum of spaces with different atmospheres and usage possibilities.

After several halls of a former printing shop had already been converted for sporting purposes, it made sense to situate the new climbing center at this location as well. A large bouldering facility was housed in the existing building, and a cube was built on Ing.-Etzel-Straße for the nearly 18-meter-high climbing hall. Together with three freely placed, sculptural climbing walls and the existing building, an exciting ensemble that includes well-usable open spaces evolved.

With the Visitor Centre, one of the most visited sights in Tyrol has been given a prestigious entrée. Almost invisible from beyond the outer city wall, the new building pushes itself between the existing "Feuerwerkhaus" and the new fortress courtyard and closes the square. In keeping with the existing development of the fortress, the partly two-storey large space was given an outer façade and roof cladding of untreated larch wood.

The MPREIS grocery store with bistro in the tourist municipality of Ischgl toys with the clichés of traditional and alpine building. The striking design element of the façade is a dark green artificial lawn; inside, the wooden coffered ceiling, the laying pattern of the wooden floor and the furniture of the bistro cite classic elements of a farmhouse parlour.

A housing development with approximately 100 apartments was erected in the densely built-up residential area where a gas station once stood. It exemplarily shows how postwar modernism can be densified in urban structures without perpetuating its monotony and uniformity. Several elongated components of various heights were placed on the narrow plot, creating an exciting ensemble with a clear center.

Schenker Salvi Weber erected a new, two-story building for a kindergarten and nursery as an extension to the listed Absam Primary School, which fits into the historic villagescape in its volume and with its scrape-finished plaster façade. The triple gymnasium was placed under ground; a spacious plaza, which functions both as a protected schoolyard and as type of village square, developed above it.

The Dolomitenbad was built in the 1970s by Manfred Machné as a simple, no-frills sports facility in the spirit of that era. Forty years later, his son Hans Peter Machné renovated and expanded the indoor and outdoor pool, resulting in the emergence of a coherent, new whole. The centerpiece of the extension is the sauna area with a curved wooden lamella ceiling, whose shape makes reference to the surrounding Dolomite Mountains.

At the transition from the historic "Anpruggen” district to the Mariahilf urban development area, a residential building with shops on the ground floor was erected for a private investor. The monolithic structure is an example of inner-city densification that fits into the heterogeneous surrounding space on the northern side of the Inn River and places a contemporary accent.

For a long time, a gap stood on Wiltener Platzl, a small square in the immediate vicinity of the listed Liebenegg Manor. This empty site was convincingly closed with an angular structure marked by two high points. Public and semi-public uses are located on the ground floor, while small, handicapped-accessible apartments for senior citizens can be found on the upper floors.

Erecting a residential building along the Südring near the Grassmayrkreuzung presents a difficult challenge. Raimund Rainer reacts to this starting situation with several structures of varying heights that run along the street. Closing the existing block perimeter development off on three sides, they function as a soundproof wall in the south. An additional, free-standing structure, which the majority of the apartment living rooms are oriented towards, was placed in the quiet inner courtyard.

A new entrance area with a restaurant was realized on the east bank of the Rossau Pond, which creates a point of attraction with its sun terrace that goes beyond its operation as a bathing facility. To achieve this, the site was re-terraced with two angled retaining walls. Spanned by projecting wooden roofs, the oblong restaurant structure and the lower-lying cash desk pavilion with their façades blend into the shore landscape.

In 2006, Lorenzateliers compiled an urban development study for a former industrial estate in Mühlau for the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and suggested the conversion of monofunctional areas in the sense of a mixed-use city. In this context, a complex of 52 apartments spread over two south-facing, terraced rows of buildings was created on Kreuzgasse, offering a high quality of living with spacious loggias and terraces.

The basis for this extremely narrow house was the shape of the 11-meter-wide property, which was considered as unsuitable for building. Starting from the lot shape, Geri Blasiker developed a self-confident and sustainable structure offering a small family a unique home, featuring 108 m² of usable living area accessible on six mezzanine levels. The building envelope was made of brick and gets by without insulation. A turbine along the nearby stream completely supplies the house with energy.

The envelope of the Moser House by Madritsch / Pfurtscheller was originally an old barn that was translocated and transformed in the sense of "re-use” philosophy into a residence for a family of five. A half-timbered structure offering two levels of living space was set into the barn, which remains unchanged for the most part on the exterior. The result is a paramount example of how a building type that is no longer functionally needed can be filled with new life.

It took over 35 years until an inn reopened at the location of the former Umbrüggler Alm. After several failed attempts, the City of Innsbruck tendered an architectural competition in 2013, which Elmar Ludescher and Philip Lutz were able to win with their project. A sloped polyhedral roof covers the organically shaped structure and extends over the south-facing front terrace. Shingled on the outside and appointed with silver fir on the inside, the building is a contemporary interpretation of the "alpine pasture” theme.

A new community center with a multipurpose hall, a small inn and village square, which contributes to the revitalization of the village center as a social and communal meeting place, emerged in the rural community of Steinberg am Rofan. Bernardo Bader, who won the competition tendered on the basis of a public participation process, designed a compact saddle roof house in larch wood, which reacts empathetically to the village’s spatial situation.

As an extension of the existing Nature Park House at the "Gacher Blick” – the interface between the Kaunertal, Pitztal and Inntal valleys – a nature and cultural panorama with an observation platform was realized. A newly laid out path, executed in plain concrete elements, leads to a bridge and the platform that projects far over the terrain, which steeply slopes 800 meters downward. Grating on the ground and on the side, as well as a glass front enhance the all-around experience of nature at this extremely exposed spot.

The new building in the centre of Kundl consists of two staggered building elements pushed into each other, which have been given their characteristic appearance by a façade of irregularly arranged fibre cement panels. In the sense of a meeting place for all generations, several social facilities are housed on the ground floor, while two "living parlours" of the residential and nursing home are arranged around an atrium on each of the upper floors.

The combined children’s and cardiac care center (KHZ) – an elongated block that takes up the edges of the existing buildings – arose in two construction phases. The KHZ Ost (Nickl & Partner) was realized in 2008 in the form of a three-story addition and a six-story new building with a multi-layer façade made of folding lamellas. The connected KHZ West (Architekturhalle Wulz-König), with its formally similar but reworked building shell, was completed in 2015.

The new day care center for the growing district of Kranebitten was built on a part of the spacious forest playground. Since a flat, L-shaped structure, together with two terraced wings, encloses a large inner courtyard, the children are provided with the necessary free space directly "in the house” – an additional play area in the public realm was not needed.

A building from the 1960s, located between the mountain station of the Hungerburgbahn funicular railway and the valley station of the Nordkettenbahn cable railway, has been converted into a concept store with a café-bar and shop. All of the renovation measures aimed to restore the aesthetics of the 1960s and make them come alive in the interior.

In place of the dilapidated Mentlvilla, used by Caritas as an emergency shelter for people with substance abuse issues, Jörg Streli was able to construct an initial building block on the future edge of the city from the Main Railway Station to the Südring. Making a conscious reference to Lois Welzenbacher’s Adambräu, he designed a narrow, six-story tower that frees up the street space and the forecourt of the neighboring Carmelite Church.

A supermarket divided into several structures was converted and extended with a glass pavilion. The challenge consisted in molding the heterogeneous existing structure and the extension into a new entity, which was achieved primarily through continuous flooring featuring ornamental tiles. The tendril pattern partly turns up again on the walls and ceilings, lending the market its very unique atmosphere.

Directly next to the Olympia Bridge, the small bridge temporarily opens up a construction site for the Brenner Base Tunnel and, once the construction work has been completed, will relieve the Sill River bank of heavy traffic as a direct connection between the Südring and the St. Bartlmä commercial zone. The simple and elegant bridge is designed as an integral bridge, a concept in which the abutment and the span merge into a coherent whole.

The annex of a competition-compatible hall with a grandstand, which emerged from an architectural competition, makes the previously disoriented building appear new as the "missing head for the existing body.” This new construction, the defining design element of which is the supporting structure, consists of a glass base for the hall and a closed cube above it for the grandstand.

bilding received its own house, planned and built by students at the University of Innsbruck, in Innsbruck’s Rapoldipark. The pavilion-like workshop building not only provides children and young people with an optimal offer of space, but also enriches the park with its unique architecture. Terraces placed in front of the building and floor-to-ceiling glass fronts connect the contoured structure with the surroundings. Slanted floors and walls on the inside form a flowing continuum of spaces with different atmospheres.

In the course of renovation, both of the faculty buildings erected at the end of the 1960s in a very similar form by Hubert Prachensky and Ernst Heiß were differently designed according to their respective uses. The building for the construction engineers now shows itself as a tower with a clear and closed façade. By contrast, the architecture building received a skin made out of variously tilted glass wings that lend the structure vibrancy and lets the house appear open.

The "Stuemergründe” village center, designed by Rainer Köberl and Daniela Kröss, emerged as the winning project of a novel competition procedure with the intensive involvement of the residents of Fließ. Their project breaks up the complex spatial allocation plan—from the village hall, to a doctor’s office and commercial space, right up to apartments—into three different structures. Developed in reference to the small-scaled village structure, the buildings are arranged on the building lot in such a manner that attractive square sequences and vistas were created.

With the club house—the result of an EU-wide competition—the architects created a new entrance hall on the southern entry into the community of Zirl. A sequence of several variously high construction dimensions, whose scale is oriented to the existing structure and forms distinct spatial edges, arose for the different functions. A two-story foyer, designed as a type of "village square” lying in the building, acts as the central link.

On the occasion of their 20-year existence, the Swarovski Crystal Worlds doubled in size in 2015, adding a new cabinet of wonder, an extensive park and several structural components. The entrance area, conceived as a "white forest” with its wide-jutting concrete roof supported by birch tree trunks and the design of the store, derived from a river landscape, originate from s_o_s architekten. On one hand, Snøhetta erected the well-lit, organically formed pavilion for the Daniels Café & Restaurant; on the other hand, the play tower encased with crystalline glass panels and the adventure playground that lies in front of it.

In 2014, the religious order of the Sisters of Mercy in Innsbruck decided to renovate and expand the facilities of the former girls’ boarding school to make accommodation available to people who fled their home countries. Under the premise of using the existing means as best as possible, the girls’ boarding school dating from the 1960s underwent a general refurbishment according to plans by STUDIO LOiS, who added an annex and a stairwell. The makeover ostensibly did not center on design issues, but much more on combining and reacting to cheaply available resources.

In the densely developed historical village center of Zirl an old house, earlier used for agricultural purposes, with a small shoemaker’s workshop has stood empty for years. Fügenschuh Hrdlovics Architekten acquired this building located directly next to their residence and studio in 2014 and converted it, among other things, for their own architectural office. What arose is a thoroughly contemporary transformation in material and detailed design that places a harmonious emphasis in the evolved village structure.

The MPREIS store on the outskirts of Patsch was realised by Volker Miklautz according to the concept of a cube stuck in the ground, which is only perceived as a line in the landscape from the adjacent field. The interior is characterised by a column-free beam roof, while organically shaped slats and a cloud of light create a very special atmosphere in the café-bistro area.

In 2016, the former "Hotel Mozart", which dates back to the 1950s, was transformed into a boutique hotel where each room has its own identity. On offer are garden appartments, minimally furnished business rooms, mini-rooms with intelligent spatial solutions that have been thought out down to the last detail, or lavishly furnished themed rooms. The adjacent pub garden with terrace was also designed with great attention to detail.

In order to meet the need for child care places, the community wished for an annex building near the existing nursery school – with a small village café and able to be used multi-functionally by clubs. Designed by Martin Scharfetter and Robert Rier, the new "House for Children” calmly complements the existing building structure – church, parish house and town hall with a nursery school –, scales itself back, places itself on display, forms a lane and opens this up to the newly created village square.

Erected directly behind the Triumphal Arch in the 1980s, the "Möbelhaus Greif” ("Greif Furniture House”) was converted after several user changes into a residential, office and shop building. The paramount goal of the conversion measures was to react with a conservatively designed structure at a prominent location in the middle of historical buildings. Among other things, the structured concrete-prefab façade was taken down and replaced by a considerably more toned-down façade design, which enables the texture of its thick mineral plaster surface to haptically emerge.

The Innsbruck location of the AZW Training Center is situated in one of the "Huter Houses”, a building complex erected at the beginning of the 1970s. In the course of the spatial expansion that became necessary, the stock was reorganized around an infrastructural core and enhanced by a second upper story. By relocating the main entrance, the previously unsatisfactory, backstreet-like entryway was significantly improved and a permeable and open communication zone was created.

A new building for an "inclusive” school was erected directly adjacent to the "Hauptschule Hötting”, a "classic” of Tyrolean Modernism. In reaction to the existent development and the attractive location near the Inn, Helmut Reitter developed a roundly oriented structure that takes up the building lines of the surroundings. In the interior, the attention was directed to the interstices; instead of corridors in the actual sense there is a varied succession of paths and "squares” with a large variety of open areas.

A two-story restaurant space created in the 1980s was adapted for a new tenant. Due to the limited financial possibilities, many elements of the interior design (gray tile floors, suspended plasterboard ceilings) had to be retained. The design approach developed out of this pragmatism painted all the surfaces gray and set vibrant colored accents with the furnishings.

The Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce acquired a town house on Wilhelm-Greil-Straße to expand the existing premises on Meinhardstraße, which was demolished and replaced by a new building. The new main entrance is located in the main house, which is enveloped by a laser-cut aluminum façade, while a two-story wing leads to the adapted structure. The centerpiece is the publicly accessible arcade, which, as an extension of Gilmstraße, offers a new pedestrian connection.

A tiny restaurant in which – pursuant to the builder’s operational concept – all eight guests come together at one table was set up in a small shop formerly inhabited by a watchmaker. The building stock was freed of all fixtures and old layers of paint were exposed and integrated into the new design concept. The main element of the very reserved transformation is a white-lacquered steel sheet structure that extends from the street into the interior and becomes a cooking bar and bench for those waiting.

The Sill Island is a place with a unique urban situation in Innsbruck, in the middle of a water and park landscape. A high-quality housing complex, which – according to the idea of stacked city villas – is to offer an alternative to the single-family house, was built where the factory of the Herrburger & Rhomberg Spinning Mill originally stood. Parallel to the Sill Canal, arranged in a row and spread over six structures, two- to three-story units are respectively piled on top of each other in such a way that the detached house character remains legible and a high degree of permeability is assured.

In the place of the no longer salvageable housing block built in the late 1930s according to the plans of Theodor Prachensky, Schenker Salvi Weber Architekten erected a reinterpretation of the perimeter block development. In contrast to the previously narrow block edge closed on three sides, the new building is broken open in the middle and divided into two mirror-like structures stepped towards the inner courtyard with a concave building line that tapers in the direction of the head-end buildings.

TIWAG’s new hydroelectric power station control center is located on the premises of the Silz hydroelectric power station. The definitive building of the area is the distinctive turbine house realized by Ekkehard Hörmann in 1978, which the new building designed by Bechter Zaffignani Architekten ZT makes reference to in its height, width and alignment. The core of the monolithic building erected in brown-dyed exposed concrete is the control room of the control center, which outwardly appears as a horizontal element. In contrast, the visitors’ center is executed as an elongated, single-story structure.

The project by ARTEC Architekten, which resulted from a competition, reacts to the extremely sensitive building lot on the Innpromenade by placing itself as gently as possible into the riverbank landscape through mounting pillars and cantilevers. A low service wing lies at the street; the main wing of the residential home is segmented into interleaved housing units arranged around an interior space that opens towards the top. The green space newly designed by Auböck & Kárász seamlessly continues under them.

In the place of a building destroyed by a fire, a central village square, which had been missing up to then, could be realized between the church, village hall and private buildings. What emerged is a calmly designed open space with a high amenity value that can be used for most diverse activities in the village. Additionally situated in a renovated house on the square is a small grocery store which, as a local supplier, significantly contributes to the vitalization of the village center.

The supermarket, which is located in the immediate proximity of the municipal office and the social centre, was designed by the architects as a simple hall with a gable roof. The building thus fits as naturally as a farm or a barn into the structure of the buildings along the village road.

There are two conditions that make the annex building architectonically remarkable, regardless of its utilization: the functional involvement of Art in Construction (a powerful concrete relief by Karl-Heinz Klopf) in the architectonic concept and the creation of space through the static structure. A high, spacious hall, spatially structured on different levels by a huge exposed concrete truss, opens up in the basement between the old and new gymnasium.

A place designed exclusively for the locals and their extremely active club life – the St. Nikolaus Community Cultural Center – emerged in the "tourist metropolis” of Ischgl. The defining element is an accessible roof landscape under which large parts of the cubature – such as the band rehearsal room edged into the slope as a wooden box – disappear. Together with a "parlor” available to all the clubs, the new music pavilion and a ramp with seating steps, a new village square has opened up.

By means of minimal adaptation, an empty shop was transformed into a bar that functions as a classic café-bar during the day and transforms into an exclusive nightclub in the evenings. The existing structure came alive again through targeted interventions; the applied colors, fabrics, surfaces and a sophisticated lighting concept serve to generate the desired flair.

MED-EL, the world leading producer of cochlear implant systems, has its headquarters in Innsbruck. The five-story annex building for research and development contains conference rooms, training and measuring labs, clean rooms and offices on more than 13,000 m2. The core theme for the architectonic implementation was, on the one hand, to create an appropriate space offer for the communication culture lived within the company and, on the other hand, to formally express the firm’s innovative technical direction.

Am Südrand von Innsbruck befindet sich das Betriebsgelände der Innsbrucker Verkehrsbetriebe mit der Hauptremise für Busse und Straßenbahnen. Das neue, im Osten weit über die Gleise auskragende Verwaltungsgebäude ist in enger Zusammenarbeit zwischen Bauherren und Architekt entstanden. Die vorgehängte Fassade aus unterschiedlich gelochten Cortenstahlplatten und die Werkstattatmosphäre im Innenraum tragen zu einer dezidiert industriellen Anmutung bei, mit der die Funktion der Verkehrsbetriebe zum Ausdruck gebracht werden soll.

In the rural village center of Erl, the church, cemetery and parish garden form a clearly enclosed unit marked off from the surrounding development. As a secular antipode to the church, a new parish rectory was placed in the garden. Its location and polygonal ground plan layout were derived from the existing structure. Analogous to the roof of the church, the structure was enveloped with a copper façade, which will take on a characteristic blue-green patina over the years.

With the Granatkapelle (Garnate Chapel), Swiss star architect Mario Botta executed his first structure in Austria in Penkenjoch im Zillertal. As a firm counterpoint to nature, he placed an oversized crystal in the shape of a rhombic dodecahedron on a ledge east of the reservoir. Clad with corten steel plates on the outside and laid with slender larch wood slats on the inside and lit solely through an opening in the roof, the sculptural structure stands out on account of its clear and precise geometry.

Directly next to the top station of the Gaislachkogl mountain gondola, the "Ice Q” was likewise erected by Johann Obermoser. In contrast to the curved shape of the top station, it is designed as a straight-lined and angular structure. Featuring glass all the way around, the building offers guests impressive views into the alpine world on several stacked levels stacked other. All the way at the top, as a special highlight, is a roof terrace connected via a suspension bridge with the peak of the Gaislachkogl Mountain.

Standing on a slope side in the middle of the Hochzillertal skiing area, the "Kristallhütte” ("Crystal Hut”) is more of a hotel than a pure ski hut. In order to create further accommodation options besides the existing rooms in the stock building, a three-story annex with maisonette apartments was erected. Utilizing the sloping site, the annex is largely edged into the terrain; only the elevated, fully mirrored wellness area completely emerges above ground.

In the past years, a new, populous residential quarter emerged between Reichenauerstraße and the Sill-Inn estuary. The "Eugenpark” with its distinctive tower forms the gateway to this new quarter and at the same time provides the necessary infrastructure and a new meeting place to the new residents with a supermarket that features a café. Three variously high buildings – the one-story supermarket, an L-shaped, flat-roofed structure with three residential stories and the eleven-story tower — creatively form a unit that consciously subverts the otherwise solitary character distinctive of high-rises.

For a long time the village hall, primary school and clubs such as the band and the fire brigade were housed in a building on the village square. With the new construction of a multifunctional community center and the adaption of the existing building, the most diverse uses were disentangled and given the necessary spatial enlargement. The new structure, erected in the monastery garden and enveloped in a wooden façade, integrates itself into the existing village ensemble and nonetheless self-confidently appears as a village hall.

"WODOP” is an example of how the revitalization of a village center can succeed out of private initiative. A meeting place for the populace was created with a food market and a bakery with a café. The "starter apartments” on the upper floors are to offer the young generation the incentive to remain in the village. Especially worth noting is that the builder dispensed with some of the rentable spaces so that a canopied outdoor area, which acts as "mini village square,” could emerge.

The meanwhile functionless pastor’s rectory provided the spaces needed in the Aschau parish for various groups, the administration and celebrations. This rectory, which is attached to the church and listed, was gutted and adapted for the new uses. Ancillary rooms and a small apartment are located in a narrow annex, which adopt the existing building lines in the sense of further construction.

In order to give space to the active club and cultural life, the community of Kals decided on constructing a new event center with a hall that seats over 300 people. Schneider and Lengauer realized an elongated building which follows the course of the road, is docked onto the old Ködnitzhof inn, and, with its steep saddle roof and the precisely placed openings, makes reference to the rectory.

Taking the world of forms found in the high alpine landscape as a basis, the architects from Vorarlberg designed two new stations of the Wildspitz Cable Car as organic sculptures enveloped in curved aluminum sheet panels. Integrated in the mountain station is "Café 3440,” currently the highest-lying restaurant in Austria, with a freely suspended terrace glazed on all sides, which offers spectacular views into the glacier world.

Tourism pioneer Heinrich Klier had a chapel dedicated to the memory of his companions built directly on the ridge of the Schaufeljoch Mountain. Very plain in its form and materiality, the structure is reduced to the basic elements of a classic chapel and offers a place of calm and contemplation, which is open to everyone, in the midst of a lively ski circuit.

Conceived in its form and materiality as a conscious contrast, a new building of the Tyrolean Festival Erl was erected next to the Passionsspielhaus (Passion Festival House) built by Robert Schuller. Clearly offset from the white circular structure, the architects placed a dark building whose sharp-edged geometry was developed from the surrounding topography. Fluid spatial sequences with varying visual relationships to the outdoor space lead the visitor up to the concert hall situated in the center of the building.

The centerpiece of the multifunctional building complex planned by henke und schreieck Architekten for PEMA Holding is a 49-meter tower with a design hotel, restaurant and publically accessible scenic terrace. Attached to this tower, which characterizes the cityscape, is a five-story, slightly pitched structure that provides tenants with well-lit spaces by means of generous courtyards and atria.

"Swarovski Optik”, specialist for long range optics, was founded in Absam in 1946 where since then, the industrial facility has grown continuously. As part of a structural company reorganisation, a concept for the conversion and extension of the ensemble was drawn up together with the architects. The plans were then implemented over a number of stages taking those working for the company into account.

Past the bookshop planned by Rainer Köberl on Innsbruck’s Sparkassenplatz is "liber wiederin”, a business premises located around the corner in Erlerstraße in which Thomas Wiederin proved to be a builder with a high standard of quality. The existing shop was adapted by the architects using selected materials and colors and employs natural and artificial light that allows the books to take center stage.

In the new building, which resulted from an architectural competition held by "Dorferneuerung Tirol” a state organization dedicated to village renewal in Tyrol, two different uses are accommodated on two levels. The Volunteer Fire Department received a modern operations center, situated at ground level and oriented to the access road. Lying above this component, which was built with steel-reinforced concrete and partially dug into the slope, is the club house, executed as a timber construction. Featuring a festival area attached on the same level, it provides an attractive setting for the community’s active club life.

With the goal of revitalizing a hitherto deserted inner city district, two new buildings were erected on the area between Unterer Stadtplatz and "Fischergries” in place of the stock structures: on one hand, a shopping mall dotted with cafés and restaurants (KISS –Kufsteiner Innenstadt Shopping) and featuring office spaces and apartments on the upper stories; on the other hand, an L-shaped structure with apartments oriented towards the Inn and an event hall. A clearly defined market square, designed as a "shared space”, arose between the new buildings, the Bastion and the banks of the Inn.

Hotel Sattlerwirt is a classic "Tyrolean Hotel” with a pitched roof, balconies and additions built over the years. In contrast to the old stock left unchanged, Madritsch Pfurtscheller conceived a side wing which is very simple and clear in its use of forms. It features a wellness area in the basement, a newly structured entrance area, foyer, hall with a bar and seminar rooms on the ground floor, as well as two stories of rooms.

Hotel Neuwirth – a heterogeneous conglomerate of building components from the most diverse dates of origin – was converted in the course of a reorientation into a nature and active-holiday hotel. The existing roof framework of the western part of the building was completely taken down, all of the balconies were removed, and a new roof structure for seven two-story apartments was erected. The rooms located below were renovated and complemented with a continuous balcony zone; the entire stock façade was thermally renovated and encased with a shingle façade.

A hotel complex, highly controversial on account of its dimensions, was erected in the middle of the forest at an elevation of 1,300 meters. At the center lies the multistory, elongated structure of the hotel with a widely visible tower. Grouped around it and built upon mushroom-like concrete bases are 42 chalets, whose various building types were developed out of the topography. In order to carry out the massive intervention into the high alpine landscape as sparingly as possible, great attention during the planning stage was focused on integrating the resort into the landscape and regional architectural traditions were tied in without making use of flat alpine clichés.

For the "2012 Days of Architecture” and commissioned by aut. architektur und tirol, the Tortenwerkstatt - a collective of architecture students - erected the stattSTUBE. For a whole summer long, people could meet here, sit together comfortably without the pressure of having to consume anything, chill in hammocks and thereby experience the specific qualities of a spot that had been neglected until then.

In the rural context of the widely spread out community of Weerberg, an MPREIS supermarket was erected on a green meadow as a low budget project. The supermarket with a café consists of a plain structure with folded out corners that owe their effect to the raw charm of the materials used: industrial composite lumber for the roof, a steel construction braced with reinforced concrete slabs and a translucent polycarbonate that changes from smooth to gleaming, depending on the weather and light conditions, and lets the structure appear to be diversely pervious.

A new building emerged at the western end of the university campus for the autonomous Institutes for Chemistry/Pharmacy and Theoretical Medicine. Based on the highly complex requirements for research and teaching, on one hand, and the growing urban structure, on the other hand, the Architekturwerkstatt din a4 developed a compact structure with functional- and design-related courtyards, indentures and recesses.

The redevelopment of the village square, lying in close vicinity to the church, led to the creation of a closed, variously usable spatial situation instead of the formerly unstructured public space. The music pavilion, including a bar and toilets, was housed in an elongated, angled structure which, as the "backbone,” offers the square the necessary protection against wind and noise.

The small residential complex arose on an undeveloped piece of land made available by the Diocese of Innsbruck in the middle of a predominantly small-scaled, villa-like area. Starting from an urban planning context, the architects returned the building site, so to speak, to its "original condition” as a continuous slope and placed three self-confident, free-standing structures, developed in the style of the villa-like tenement blocks, in a newly designed green space.

Over the years, a heterogeneous development emerged around a listed hall from the late 19th century on the Innsbruck Trade Fair grounds. Emanating from this old "Hall B”, the ARGE Cukrowicz Nachbaur and Bechter Zaffignani added a new, one-story exhibition hall and an overhanging structure set on top of it, marking the new main entrance to the Trade Fair grounds.

Der Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz, der lange ein "Hinterhofdasein" führte, wurde von LAAC Architekten/stiefel kramer zu einer begehbaren, urbanen Bodenplastik umgestaltet. Der Platz, seine Denkmäler und vorhandene Infrastruktureinrichtungen wurden in eine homogene Oberfläche aus hellem Beton eingebunden – eine Topographie aus sanften Hügeln, die neue Blickbeziehungen schafft und den InnsbruckerInnen eine vielfältig bespielbare Freifläche bietet.

In the west of Innsbruck a new building was constructed as a public private partnership, whereby a shopping centre and a school, facilities with completely different forms of use, have been accommodated. In a clearly defined building, which provides the surrounding urban area – including an industrial estate and heterogeneous structured residential developments – with a new identity, the two users each have their own, developed for their individual requirements, completely separate areas.

A new museum was constructed in Bergisel with the "Riesenrundgemälde” being its main attraction. The architects solved the complex task at the location of both historical and landscape importance, with a flat solitary and "reserved design” building situated on the edge of the slope leading to the Sillschlucht. However, when travelling towards the main traffic routes, the round painting takes on the appearance of a sculpture with it being presented in a hollow.

After the redesign of the south building on Sparkassenplatz and the completion of the Tyrol Department Store, the niche in the southwest corner of the square became an attractive, inner city interstice. The Italian espresso and wine bar set up in this plaza niche is operated by two architects, but was designed by colleagues who created the atmosphere appropriate to the gastronomic concept with the help of purposefully chosen interventions and materials.

After the Olympic Games of 1964 and 1976, Innsbruck was the first-time venue of the Youth Olympic Winter Games in January 2012. A new Olympic Village, which has meanwhile been populated by Innsbruck’s inhabitants, was executed on the grounds of the former Eugene Barracks for this purpose. Around 450 apartments are distributed among the 13 six- to eight-story cubes. Three houses, together with a common forecourt, respectively make up a group that was arranged, in turn, around various, large courtyards.

This multipurpose building arose between the primary school and the nursery school. It features a gymnasium for the primary school, a music rehearsal space and a foyer with a restaurant, which the multi-functionally utilized hall can be flowingly accessed from via a grandstand. In order to minimize the visible cubature and to integrate the small-scaled context, a large part of the volume is recessed into the ground. A walkable roof deck, which forms a slightly inclined slope, spans the elongated building.

The Rattenberg Secondary Modern School has been located in sections of the Augustinian Monastery since the 1970s. With the annex building, Daniel Fügenschuh complemented the monastery complex with a new side arm. In its structure and materiality, the slender, vertical building orientates itself to the surrounding development and integrates into the small-scaled city structure of Rattenberg.

In the center of Kufstein, the City Hall and the neighboring "Bildsteinhaus” were transformed into a new, multi-functional unit for the city administration. The historic ensemble was interwoven with consciously placed interventions into a complex whole. The uncovered city wall builds the foundation; a white "crown” on the roof completes the ensemble.

Behind Hall‘s outer city wall, Martin Scharfetter and Robert Rier created the new branch office of BTW. A stern façade grid and the dyed white cement lend the building, which is reminiscent of a villa in its type and scale, a classic impression that is broken up by the interplay of open and closed window fronts and the execution of the precast concrete components.

In a listed house going back to the Gothic period, Schlögl & Süß Architekten realized a new shop for the Swarovski Crystal Worlds. Changes were hardly made on the outside, but the inside was completely restructured and newly designed. Visitors are guided in a one-way system through a sequence of rooms staged by Swarovski in which the new interior architecture and the historic building fabric are contraposed.

In the Höttinger Au, at a heterogeneous location with a concentration of different functions which had developed coincidentally, Rainer Köberl designed an MPREIS food market. The determining element of the building is a roof projecting out to the street; all the individual function areas are arranged under it. With its café lying towards the street, the market has become a meeting point of the neighborhood.

The branch office of the BTV bank occupies a small lot at the beginning of Mitterweg, a street with a very heterogeneous development structure. In reaction to this rather dreary area, it was important for Rainer Köberl to create a friendly antithesis. The building is characterized by the distinctive shape of a truncated pyramid pulled upwards and in the tension between openness and closure, resp., lightness and heaviness of the designed façade.

In the scope of an extensive flood protection project, the area where the Sill runs into the Inn was redesigned. A significant component is the new bicycle and pedestrian bridge named after Innsbruck's twin city, Tiflis (Tbilisi). Built without piers, the structure features a boat-shaped cross section, and its 42-meter span closes a gap in the path network along the river promenade.

In the course of the cemetery expansion, a new funeral hall, whose exterior façade made of quarry stone masonry is based on the solid natural stone wall of the cemetery, was erected. The space in the interior, featuring wood paneling and simple benches, ties into the tradition of the farmhouse parlor. A narrow window and a circumferential glass strip placed under the roof bring natural light into the space and establish the relationship to the village, resp. the mountains.

In the past years hardly any building scheme in Innsbruck sparked such heated discussions as the various projects for the new construction of the Kaufhaus Tirol (Tyrol Department Store). David Chipperfield was ultimately commissioned to not only design the "show front” on Maria-Theresien-Straße, but also the entire department store complex. In a respectful handling of the historical substance, he placed a decidedly restrained structure into the heterogeneous street ensemble, whose elongated façade is structured by a double bend and a recessed top floor.

With small building supplements – a roofed parking space and an additional room on the ground floor – the architect has created an organic connection between the existing residential house from the 1970s and its surrounding natural environment. The Carport, with its polygonal concrete roof and slanted steel-tube supports, defines a new entrance area and integrates the tree population. The polyhedron cellar illuminated from above though a chimney-like shaft opens an existing passage to the garden, thereby creating new connections to the outside.

A new community centre cum village square between to churches and adjacent slope, have been developed in the middle of Kappl in place of both the former lower secondary school and the old local authority. The design and height development of the three "U” shaped buildings around the square take the church and the small village structures into consideration.

The supermarket in Wiesing is a further example of how MPREIS provides the residents of the surrounding villages with a communicative meeting point. The supermarket resembling a long stretched out wedge in the landscape is situated directly next to a roundabout and is accessible from the town centre via a footpath. With its Café with terrace to the west, this supermarket is both a meeting point for the locals and a resting station for tourists.

As part of the reconstruction of both Gaislachkogel lifts it was necessary to rebuild the valley, intermediate and mountain stations. Each station has been designed to fit its location formally with functional requirements developed accordingly. One thing they have in common is the type of construction; a self-supporting steel construction covered by a transparent membrane.

At 2000 metres above sea level, the "Freiraum Ahorn” offers what the name (open space) promises: Open space in the sense of a comprehensive offer of space for the cable lift company staff, this being concealed on the ground floor under a concrete slab, and, open space in the sense of a place of peace and relaxation for guests, enabling them to enjoy a lounge-atmosphere and panorama view in a large guest room situated in a bridge-like building above.

Hotel Rauter, situated in the centre of Matrei, was redeveloped in a number of construction stages under the motto of a concentrated and creative "adjustment”. The wellness area with its indoor swimming pool, the rest room designed as a forest of wooden slats and the garden with its outdoor swimming pool, are dominated by the contrast between the white pools, the furniture and the larch wood.

The "Altes Kino” ("Old Cinema”) in Landeck, built by Hans Illmer in 1927, has been a cultural center for many years. After the adjacent club house was torn down, a town square that is surrounded on three sides by a brace made of white exposed concrete and glazed on one side arose in its place. Offices are situated at the front side of the new building; the two-story component attached to the cinema is used as a cultural café. The listed cinema was renovated, the attic above the cinema laid open and adapted for public utilization.

The Wiltener Platzl, which had previously deteriorated into a pure traffic (rest) area, was transformed with few interventions into a lively and attractive neighborhood square. A uniform ground level and a continuous surface made of bright granite lets the square appear spacious. A bench with a drinking fountain, two trees and granite block seating possibilities structure the square space and invite people to linger without having to consume anything.

With the revitalization of the Felixe Minas House, erected in 1698, one of the most valuable cultural-historic buildings in the Tannheim Valley could be utilized as a multifunctional cultural center. The existing structure underwent a complete renovation and was expanded with an annex wrapped in a shingled façade, in which a rehearsal room for the community band was created. A single-story concrete building with a main entrance and foyer acts as a link between the old and the new.

Featuring a grocery market and a Baguette Bistro, the first MPREIS shop in the Paznaun Valley was built in See. The rear of the two-story structure is dug into the slope; the building opens to a large glass front towards the street. The rough-sawn timber lattices placed in front of the glass not only filter the light, but should simultaneously symbolize the building's steadfastness in the face of the threatening danger from the avalanche line lying opposite.

In the course of the conversion and extension, the congress, administration and information center erected in the late-1970s was given a completely new appearance. The previously rather heavy and stolid seeming building was transformed into a bright, crystalline structure that places a clear accent between the traditional Tyrolean houses. The spatial offer was significantly expanded and newly organized, whereby the second largest event center in Tyrol now has four action levels at its disposal.

Tux-Lanersbach is a characteristic village shaped by tourism in which the "Lederhosen style” continues to dominate. The decidedly contemporarily designed event center clearly sets itself apart from this environment. Under a sculpturally formed "bonnet,” enveloped with fiber cement shingles, spaces for the tourism association and the mountain rescue squad, a café, rehearsal rooms, as well as the large event hall are located. Towards the street side the structure acquiesces scale-wise into the surroundings. The hall’s large volume is distinctly readable towards the valley floor.

Community facilities as well as numerous clubs were housed in the old "Community Forum” built in the 1960s (architecture: Hans Buchrainer). Both of these functions were separated when it was expanded by a town office. The "Community Forum” was renovated and correspondingly adapted to the needs of contemporary club life. Erected in a sensitive handling of the local scale, the "Town Office” was placed in front of the existing building so that a "market square” was created towards the street.

The new Gurgltal Nursing Centre situated close to the town centre replaces the "Kind-Hearted Sisters Old Peoples Home”, which was demolished a few years ago. The project by ARGE Moser Kleon Moser shifts the desired village character to an organised residential group level, with each party having an own kitchen. In a familiar ambience the elderly residents are provided with a new home equipped with adequate contemporary resources.

Similar to the Innsbruck main railway station, the architects were presented with the challenge of adapting a representative branch of the Tyrolean MPREIS chain to fit into a cellar without daylight. Here, such as at the railway station, a ceiling of mirrors removes the room’s boundaries thereby highlighting the goods. Untreated wooden floor, white "islands of distinctiveness” and heavy round pillars, which due to the mirrors appear as tall light-pillars in a mighty hall, all influence this new "flagship store” situated in the Kaufhaus TYROL.

Developed due to the spatial and architectural circumstances of the village, the KiWi has now become the new village point of interest. Three clearly detectable, independently functioning parts of the building – event hall, inn and community museum – are connected by means of a long stretched out foyer. Despite their clear contemporary shapes, the new buildings blend in naturally with the established structure due to their materiality, colour and dimensions. The inn, the Kirchenwirt, which is under historic protection, was returned to its original condition and carefully integrated into the overall plan.