architek[tour] tirol – der architekturführer für tirol

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.

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.

Like the Glocknerhaus planned several years previously by the same architects, the community center enters into a dialog with the topographic conditions and the township of Ködnitz, which is characterized by the parish church and the late Gothic rectory. The four-story, compact structure with flat roofs and horizontal lines establishes a very serene relationship to the existing stock, without compromising it in its singularity.

The revitalization of the village center began in the small community of Kals am Großglockner with the Glocknerhaus, which houses the Hohe Tauern National Park administration, the Kals Tourism Association and a branch bank. A plain structure that follows the course of the road was erected; its scale and color scheme refer to the late Gothic rectory and the parish church and thereby creates a harmonious ensemble of old and new.

In 1868 Johann Städl and Egid Pegger built the first hut between the Freiwandspitz and the Großglockner; however, severe subsidence made it necessary to rebuild. To compensate for the exposed position at 2800 metres, Albin Glaser designed a long stretched out curved building with a roof that is arched on the wind-side of the building; this reaches down to the ground. The other three facades of the largely self sufficient hut have been covered with wood shingle, the large window openings to the south allow a view right across to the Dolomites.