architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

The Galzigbahn valley station presents itself as a very individual and at first sight, strange artificial design. However, the glass-steel-concrete building is by no means an architectural self-dramatisation, but a form developed directly from the innovative cable lift technology. A sweeping building with a glass roof rises above massive concrete head walls. This portrays the lifts sequence of motions and reveals the technical inner mechanism.

Mit der Mittel- und der Bergstation der Vallugabahn setzte Willi Stigler sen. zwei autonome und auf den jeweiligen Ort abgestimmte Baukörper in die Felsregion. Ganz der Sprache der 1950er Jahre verbunden, vermitteln die beiden Stationen mit ihren dynamischen, plastischen Formen und der Farbgebung Optimismus und Fortschrittsglauben. Wie Adlerhorste kleben sie selbstbewusst am Berg und lassen die Touristen die Dramatik der Landschaft "hautnah" erleben.

Just 150 metres from the Galzigbahn– also planned by the Driendl* architects – the new Rendlbahn connects the town centre with the other side of the valley for the first time. The lower level of the dynamic steel, glass and concrete building is used as a bus terminal, with guests being able to directly access the gondola’s boarding area via an escalator. A long sweeping footbridge connects the end of the ski slope with the valley station, which has been integrated into the surrounding area.

The panorama restaurant with its congress centre on top of the 2.620 metres high Pardatschgrat in the Ischgl skiing area is distinguished by its simple forms and materials. A particular challenge during the construction of the two buildings was to find a technological solution to compensate for the frost-thaw rising and sinking of the ground below.

Situated at the Alpkogel skiing slope in the Galtür skiing area is the "Addis Abeba[r]”, a ski hut without the usual hut romanticism. With the basic idea being a snow crystal, ventira architects placed a white cube with cut-outs and a protruding panorama window box on the slope.

The technical challenge of building one station for two cable lifts was solved by the winner of the Fisser mountain lift contest – two buildings placed to form an angle and affixed by a single sheet steel roof. Due to the drop in the level of the ground, it was possible to keep the volume of the double station quite low, hence, integrating it with the overall appearance of the community of Fiss.

The architectural originality of the Rifflseebahn valley station is typical for Josef Lackner’s (1931 – 2001) work, which he always kept at a distance from fashions and trends. In this case, with the in form and content he played with the theme of regional building, which he took and transformed into new relationships – for example, he took autonomous buildings developed in room and functional programmes and covered them with "old fashioned” wood shingle.

In 2007 the "Sunna Alm” at the Pitztaler Glacier and Rifflsee ski resort was Europe’s first passive house to be built at an altitude of 2300 metres. Both the inside and outside of the restaurant building are characterised by wood and glass, with which modern tourism and traditional mountain life are connected without slipping into the embarrassing cliché of being rustic. The outside of the building was deliberately finished in larch-wood-shingle as a reference to Josef Lackner’s Rifflsee cable car valley station.

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.

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.

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.

Situated at the entrance to Obergurgl, running up to the Festkogel alpine hut, – the location of the valley station was also influenced by the architects – is one of the first new generation cable lifts. To express the architectural topical excitement between technology and nature, Peter Thurner and Antonius Lanzinger developed an autonomous sculpture as a massive exposed concrete base with a glass and sheet metal roof placed on top.

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 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 "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.

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.

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.

After the Bergisel ski jump, the four station buildings and the oblique suspension bridge across the river make up the second project Zaha Hadid realised in Innsbruck. Starting from the fundamental concept of a shell and the shadow thrown by it, she designed an organically shaped glass shell over a concrete landscape, the translucent roof spreading and extending, as it were, the stations’ spaces, thus staging a drama of movement adapted to the particular character of each location.

The architect Franz Baumann originally constructed the three "Nordkettenbahnen” cable car station‘s buildings – Hungerburg, Seegrube and Hafelekar – from 1927 – 1928. These belong to the most important modern age buildings in Tyrol. The way the highly sensitive architecture was adapted to match the mountain is still a fine example of alpine building. Especially worthwhile visiting is the Hafelekar mountain station, which is pressed into the rock like a swallow’s nest and provides a view towards the town and Karwendel.

Starting at the Seegrube is a short chair lift up the west slope to the Frau-Hitt-Warte. Both lift stations are reduced to a functional and technical minimum, are by no means spectacular, but are still individual architectural designs. The steel-wood constructions were prefabricated and lifted to their locations by helicopter; here they were connected to their previously constructed foundations.

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.

The structure of the Horberg lift mountain station at an altitude of 1700 metres dates back to the 1960s. Originally, it was intended that only the lift hall’s restaurant area on the ground floor was to be extended. However, the architects developed a new and extensive concept improving both the functional procedures and the architectural qualities. A characteristic element is the glazed roof at the front end of the building and the hall, which as a spatial gesture has been extended by two bays.

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.

The Ahorn mountain and valley stations in Mayrhofen in the Zillertal both differ from many other contemporary lifts due to their precise association with the location and landscape. It’s not the highly complex technological "content” as a shuttle-lift – which alone due to the technology requires very high structures – that puts them into focus, but the constructive dialogue of the station’s high constructions with their respective surroundings.

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.

The Olperer Hut built at an altitude of almost 2.400 metres in the Zillertaler Alps is an intentional and simple answer to the unique and exposed location. The main objective was to develop a very simple shelter to fit the high alpine location. A refuge for hikers and mountaineers with its innovation being in its simplicity.

During the 1980s, the Hochbrixen cable car stations were the turning point of decades of Tyrolean cable car design stagnation. Committed to a constructive approach to a solution, the architects interpreted the stations as architecturally refined purpose built buildings, this without falling back on past and present day clichés.

On the Tyrolean side, the Steinplatten lift provides access to the Steinplatte Waidring skiing area situated on the high plateau at the Tyrol-Salzburg-Bavaria triangle. A characteristic element of the valley station planned by Peter Thurner, is the wave shaped roof under which various rooms and areas of activity can be found. Long and sweeping, it is suspended above the massive base areas forming a large covered open space area.

The Goldried lift valley station situated on the outskirts of Matrei i. O. provides various service facilities, the Tauern Stadium built shortly later by Gerhard Mitterberger provides a centre. The main idea during planning was to creatively integrate the infrastructure for tourism, including the large parking spaces, into the alpine surroundings. The service building for skiing schools and ski-hire and, the cable car stations themselves, were all built of simple industrial materials and designed to fit the requirements of mass tourism.

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.