architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

In the course of the expansion and functional adaptation of the Schwaz District Commission, a former passage courtyard was transformed into an attractive urban space. The upper level of the square was expanded, and the difference in level to the lower level has been overcome by a spacious open staircase with steps for seating. The partial, pavilion-like roofing of the stairs and the front area offers protection and forms the spatial framework for this new meeting place.

The Fire Brigade and the Schwaz Mountain Rescue Operations Centre is situated directly next to the Inn and the motorway approach road. The building is mainly at the rear of the grounds thus leaving a large amount of space at the front for the emergency vehicles. The dominant part of the building tiered down towards the river and promenade, is the 18 metre high glass hose-tower, which makes the building’s function visible from quite a distance.

In the place of a former inn, Margarethe Heubacher-Sentobe and Günther Dregelyvari designed a clear and self-evidently acting new building in which the various sections of the population – with and without impairments – and different social and communicative facilities were brought together. What emerged was a lively place for people of all age groups, with an afterschool care center for school children and a senior citizens’ room, an inn and a local grocer’s shop, as well as apartments for young families, for assisted living and a living community for handicapped people run by the Lebenshilfe. At the same time it became the center of Schwaz’s "Dorf” district, one that had been missing until then.