architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

After a change of ownership, a town house with its core dating back to the 15th century on Kufstein's town square was converted into a hotel with a restaurant, coffee house and its own roastery and extended by a new building on Marktgasse used as an office building. Through targeted contemporary interventions, the historical substance was further developed into a new unity in which the old and the new always remain recognisable.

The transformation of a historic town house into a boutique hotel is the latest example of the urban renewal process in Rattenberg that started in 2003. In the course of this process, several houses in the old town, which is protected as an ensemble, have been revitalised and vacancies filled with new life. With respect towards the heritage listed building, the very narrow house was renovated from the core up and supplemented with contemporary structures where necessary.

In the centre of Kundl, between the secondary school and the music school, a new primary school building was erected in place of an old building in the format of a compact structure in which the functions are vertically layered. On the ground floor, which is glazed all around, are the communal areas, above are two learning floors and below is a large triple sports hall shared with the secondary school and clubs.

The primary school of Brixlegg was built in the mid-1960s by the Brixlegg architect Josef Gschösser according to the concept of an atrium school. The school was upgraded functionally and spatially through targeted interventions with careful handling of the existing building substance. As part of one of the measures, the main entrance was relocated to the east and redesigned as a sheltered entrance area.

An approximately 300-year-old mountain farmhouse at an altitude of 1,200 meters was sustainably revitalized with careful attention to historic preservation and based on the tradition of "building on.” Taking into account the farming past, as well as the more recent history, a harmonious ensemble was created with sensitivity and through the introduction of new architectural elements such as lattice windows, raw steel fittings and the use of conglomerate rock.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The school building realised by Kurt Rumplmayr is a reduced cube design, which is transparent from all sides. The building, which completes the new village square, also resembles one inside. The public functions are arranged on the ground floor around a lowered gymnastic and events hall, the classrooms on the upper floor are accessible by means of a central light flooded hall.

The old Mariatal school buildings, clustering closely together, resemble an abbey. Marte-Marte architects wanted to re-develop the ensemble of buildings preserving those specific spatial qualities while, at the same time, adding architectural surplus value. The new dormitory continues, as it were, the west wing of the old building, thus closing off the ensemble from the street, creating a new interior courtyard dominated by the old main school building, under the federal law on the protection of monuments, and a new solitary structure.

Based on town planning considerations, the new secondary modern school building was designed so that together with the polytechnic and nursery school, it would create an integrated spacious premises. The inside of the "passive house” school is flooded with light. The school’s central hall opens up into a space illuminated from above, around this an open staircase providing access to the class and group rooms.

As part of necessary redevelopment measures, the Economic Chamber - Kufstein District Office was restructured and raised in height. The ground floor was completely gutted and opened up to become a vestibule. A second storey was built on top, thus turning the building into a compact – above the ground floor – suspended and combined body.

The tree trunks surrounding the cubic glass building are the characteristic feature of this supermarket. The untreated spruce trunks stripped of their bark have been placed at irregular intervals forming a homogeneous construction. They also provide a functional filter in front of the roof-high fixed glazing, define protected outside-areas and spaces in between and, allow interesting "light and shadow shows” to take place inside the building.

Resulting from the grounds available and the town planning situation, the Kirchbichl MPREIS was constructed as an organic sweeping building. The mainly closed construction is illuminated indirectly from above; only the baguette-café enjoys an all-round open view. On the inside the curves influence the visible concrete shell; a suspended birch plywood ceiling the rooms atmosphere.

On a street corner of a densely built town area next to, at present, two vacant sites, riccione architects have built a solitary building with the possibility of future extensions. Above the ground floor, in which, apart from a lowered music hall, the town archive and the town library are accommodated, are three optically detached upper storeys for the school’s classrooms. Generously sized glazing and powder coated aluminium panels influence the building, which despite its transparency and openness, complies with all acoustic requirements.

In 1973, Viktor Hufnagl, an architect from Vienna, constructed a hall-school, which at the time was a revolutionary concept, hence, an experimental building for the prefabrication of schools. Due to problems with the building’s structural design it was necessary to redevelop the school complex. The redevelopment carried out by Peter Märkli and Gody Kühnis preserves the old building’s room and material qualities, reinterprets its character and modifies it with use of contemporary means.

At the east border of Wörgl in an almost American "strip-situation” is one of Tyrol’s largest MPREIS supermarkets. In the heterogeneous (still growing) development area, Pöschl placed a bridge type building on five cylinders at right angles to the road. On the west side of the building a concave screen shade reaches out from the protruding roof across almost the complete height of the building. The space in between provides room for the fitness centre on the top floor.

A first impulse for the development of the inner city was the relocation of the university from the outskirts of town to the centre of Kufstein. Henke and Schreieck designed the "Möbel im Park” (furniture in the park), a cubic building with a glass outer surface structured with wooden slats. The energetic and innovative double layer façade with integrated room ventilation is a feast for the eyes of the studying (future) "Facility Managers”.

Kufstein Fortress, situated above the town, is one of Tyrol’s most impressive middle-age buildings. Extension work has been carried out on the fortress a number of times over the past few hundred years, among other things, the Josefsburg built by Gumpp, the Architect to the Imperial Court. In view of more intensive use for events, the castle was restored and adapted within the scope of a large cleaning up project. The historic structural fabric was secured and the necessary new infrastructure carefully altered.

The Festspielhaus – place of performance for the passion plays performed by approx. 500 actors and actresses and at the same time the main place of performance for the Tyrolean festival Erl – was built in the 1950s by Robert Schuller and in the meantime, due to its distinctive shape, has become a symbol of Erl. The white building at the foot of the Niederndorfer Mountains uses the hillside location for the ascending auditorium and emerge towards the valley side as gestural form of the stage house.