architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

As a contribution to the careful use of soil as a resource, the supermarket chain MPREIS has built a food market in Volders, whose roof serves as a construction site for a high-quality residential building. Both functions are clearly separated from each other and designed differently as a result. The roof area around the residential building was greened and equipped with a community terrace.

The revitalization of the 300-year-old shed is an example of how old farm buildings can be preserved and transformed for new functions in line with the "Reuse” philosophy. In the spirit of the Tiny House movement, the outbuilding utilized for storage purposes was transformed into a minimalist dwelling. As much of the existing building as possible was preserved and new things were implemented – in a clearly legible manner – using regional materials.

The little house in Fulpmes is a paramount example of the resource-saving approach to building materials and upcycling. Materials from a nearly 200-year-old, demolished threshing floor were utilized, as well as used windows, doors and glass. Moreover, regional or inexpensive materials were primarily used. A radically stripped-down, open-use space emerged on the ground floor, and a one-room apartment on the upper floor, largely equipped with used items.

The former granary in the commercial area of Hall was converted into a transshipment center for wood pellets for an energy company and expanded to include a space for company events. The basic idea of the design was to place a crown on the existing tower and thus transform the anonymous commercial structure into an architecturally striking building. The two-story addition was encased in a filigree precast concrete façade, the grid of which refers to the structures found in the existing building.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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 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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

The extension of the house for senior citizens built during the late 1990s by Hermann Kastner is an elevated two-storey building with bright spacious rooms. Together with the original building, the L-shaped extension forms a central and protected courtyard with a café and roofed open space. A central element is a chapel built above an oval-shaped ground plan in the courtyard; this was intentionally designed as an introverted place of peace.

The winning concept for the rehearsal, practicing and performance square for the village and its club, which was planned under the key note "give the festival a structure”, was selected from the architectural contest for the village’s regeneration. The main part is a passe-partout type roofed gallery which contains the copper panelled club house and festival-square with stage and, at the same time is a landscape viewing platform.

As part of the newly designed entrance area of the lake Natters camping area, the architects created a long and narrow building for the necessary infrastructure functions that sets up to now unheard of quality standards in the world of tents, caravans and mobile homes. Despite its rather large volume, the two-storey building unpretentiously sits on the lakeshore, sort of becoming part of the landscape. There, you find everything you need for a camping holiday, plus a lot of small highlights and brilliant new ideas.

Situated at an altitude of 3200 metres right in the middle of the Stubaier Glacier, the summit platform "TOP OF TYROL” offers a very impressive view across the Tyrolean Mountains. Based on the existing topography, LAAC architects designed a "symbol in the snow”, which nestles into the flowing movements of the Great Isidor’s rocky ridge and juts out nine metres above the ridge edge.

Although the sports hall was built for the neighbouring primary school and is also used by the community’s various sports clubs, it was actually designed by the architects as a building for public use. A large part of the building, covered by a roof with a double bend, is sunken into the ground; the ground floor opens towards the road through a generously glazed foyer. A stand for 300 spectators completes the flowing crossover from the foyer down to the triple gymnasium.

The glacier terminal extension provides the existing Stubaier glacier cable lift valley station with a new reception area. The extension connects the existing heterogeneous buildings and, for the first time presents the single and double cable lifts as a single unit. A form-giving element is the curved and greened roof, beneath this is the transparent cladding of the lifts reception area.

The goal of the redevelopment was to transform the town center, strongly impacted by traffic in the past, into a publically usable space with amenity qualities. By reducing the road width, space for wider sidewalks and plaza-like extensions were created, which were designed with granite plates of different sizes. Information points, fountains, benches, rows of trees and plant and flower beds structure the street space; a lighting concept ensures that the various areas are more or less brightly illuminated according to their significance.

The centre is situated next to the church, the churchyard and the seat of the municipality of the large village of Rum. The complex of one-storey and two-storey buildings, respectful of the more rural character of the village, reflects the proportions of the surrounding buildings. The nicely renovated old seat of the village administration, a stage and grandstand with a roof, for all types of events, and the other parts of the complex together shape a graciously designed square.

In close vicinity to the existing town hall, a second, barrier-free administration building was erected for the community. The heterogeneous, rurally structured setting and the steeply rising slope of the Blasiusberg Mountain defined the scale, shape and materiality of the new structure. As if growing out of the slope, a corten-steel roof edges its way over the otherwise very transparently kept building.

The research and teaching campus of the Eduard Wallnöfer Centre for medical innovation is situated in the middle of a spacious park near the Old Town of Hall.
The architects designed the abstract glass cube, which is accentuated by angular perforated sheet metal sun-blocking blades, as a forceful counterpoint to the surrounding park-scape. A two-storey assembly hall defines the center of the atrium-type building, which houses a private university and other educational institutions.

The general idea was to bridge the gap between the Old Town and the residential area farther to the east with a third university building along Milserstraße.
Thus, a classy student dormitory housing also a kindergarten was added to round up the EWZ campus. Just as the university building itself, the dormitory is designed as an atrium-type house. Around the open interior space, there is a cluster of social rooms for general use, with generously spacious terraces, while from their private rooms the students can look out into the park.

The MPREIS supermarket is situated 3 m below road level, all one sees, when looking from the village center, is a hovering roof, because the mass of the market building and entrance area is nestling against a slight turn of the road. A café, a terrace and a children’s playground, and additional spaces for various other shops make sure this supermarket serves as a village meeting point where people can do more than just their everyday shopping.

Next to the former Seeber tower hotel designed, in the Thirties, by Lois Welzenbacher, the architects placed a second solitaire whose shape, materials and colours boldly contrast with the older building. The Welzenbacher building, a white angular cube with balconies whose situation and shape suggest a circular movement, was beautifully retrofitted, and can now enter into an exciting dialogue with the new conical glass tower. At their base, the towers are linked by a building containing the lobby as well as a café and restaurant.

Hasegg Castle with the twelve-angle mint tower is the landmark of the town of Hall. Originally, it dates back to the 13th century, but had undergone rather chaotic growth over the centuries. With a few very intelligent and respectful interventions, it was possible to implant a museum. A "must see” is the historic mint tower with its two staircases which you now can enter using a new sculptural steel spiral staircase.

Dominique Perrault was the first architect not resident in Tyrol to be entrusted with the setting up of, in the meantime, three supermarkets by MPREIS, two in Wattens and one in Zirl. The SuperM on the main road to Wattens is situated in the middle of a heterogeneous built-up-area. Perrault reacted to this with a materiality and constructively light and open building with a yard type recess, which together with the small protruding square, forms an urban centre.

The Hoadlhaus panorama-restaurant in the Axamer Lizum is a steel and glass construction offering a 360° view. The façade facing towards the south consists of seven large glass roll-up doors, which can be completely drawn into the roof’s wooden dropped ceiling. If the weather is fine the mountain restaurant’s conservatory can be transformed into a huge sun terrace.

The "Jochdohle” is Austria’s highest altitude mountain restaurant (3150 metres). Sitting on a small rock ledge and secured to the rock face is a three storey steel tower, which serves as a structural and functional "backbone”. Steel girders are fixed to the tower in a radial manner. During the summer the round silver shimmering building hovers above the glacier; in winter it sinks into the fresh snow.

For the Dinkhauser packaging materials corporation, Lackner realized one of his last works. The lot sort of had grown with the enterprise, reorganizing it was an essential part of the task. So he added a new high-shelve storage area with unsupported steel frames stretching over 25 m to an existing shop. Large prefabricated concrete elements and triangular glass panels are the dominant elements that masterfully catch the attention of passers-by.

Dominique Perrault set up his first MPREIS opposite Swarovski Kristallwelten, which was designed by André Heller – a solitary building based on minimalism with an opaque shimmering glass façade. A biomorphic scaffolding surrounding nine pines permeates the rectangular building allowing the border between the inside and outside to merge where visible truss-girders, OSB boards and black floor slabs create a market hall atmosphere.

On a slope east of the village of Absam, adjacent to a school building from the sixties, the new regional professional school for construction and painting bridges the gap between the old school and the distinctive edge of the hill. The building’s organization follows a strictly horizontal logic. Unplastered concrete bricks with integrated insulation for the walls and rough concrete for the load-carrying structure make sure the future construction workers get an idea of what their job is all about, creating a "hands-on” atmosphere very apt for this particular school environment.

The very compact albeit, at the same time, very pervious ensemble close to the Old Town is home to a 10 class middle school, the Hall gymnastics association and the ice sports centre, thus having to combine various functions. In order to preserve as much as possible of the existing green spaces, the southern part of the lot only got an underground building, while all "daylight” functions are concentrated in a single transparent building that takes in, as it were, as much as possible of the surrounding landscape.

The hall with dominant 9 m high breccie columns, dating back to about the middle of the 19th century, is one of rather few still existing remnants of a once flourishing salt industry in Hall. Very subtle interventions sufficed to change it into a fine arts hall, with a smaller north wing added. Together with another saltworks building which was turned into a "media tower” by Schlögl & Süß, the revitalized monument of industrial archeology suggests a new town gate.

The Domanig Hof farmhouse, whose core originates from the 16th century and which was used for centuries as a post station, was adapted at the end of the 1980s. It houses the community office, primary school, the local fire brigade, a library, as well as an inn. The old building stock was renovated, the roof newly constructed and extended to the east, whereby the new components clearly set themselves apart from the old structures.

This singular building, for a very innovative light-planning company, was designed with the interplay of function and surrounding landscape as a starting point. The building lot and the road are at very much differing levels, so Lackner carved the laboratory building into the slope, topped by a cylindrically shaped staff building with an entrance at the medium level. Starting from there, two "office spirals” – every workplace at a different level, but with generous daylight – lead upwards and downwards, covering the height of two floors in either direction.

The older house in the Abbey Garden (Stiftsgarten), built 1979-86, was a pioneer masterpiece of considerate and respectful high quality care for seniors: Very close to the town centre, resembling a small city quarter consisting of rows of buildings along a green lane. Later additions, then, were the Seidner garden house, embracing a green square open towards the south, and the atrium-type Magdalenen garden house. Together, they form an ensemble of three self-sufficient care centres, with their different typologies, materials and facades underlining the autonomy of every single building.

The patron wanted an economical wooden house, so Lackner "simply” designed a wooden structure radially hanging from a concrete pile. The consequent mushroom-like shape beautifully responds also to the special needs of the patron. The very self-assertive building, although not resembling any familiar typology, due to the choice of materials, fits well into the environment.

The striking trench-shaped roof of the white building is not a mere theatrical gesture, it is meant to convey that this is a very special building. At the same time, it holds the wooden ceiling of the interior, thus creating a very introspective room for worshipping. The light strictly comes from above; this and the minimalistic choice of only two materials for the interior strongly underline the sacrality this space is meant to exude.