architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

"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.

Hotels in the style of oversized farmhouses are still being built in Tyrol. The "Arlmont” – constructed by the Tatanka Ideenvertriebs GmbH – shows that the younger tourist generation are now starting to change their views. Instead of a carved wooden balcony, a balustrade made of a reddish coloured exposed concrete surrounds the building with its organic sweeping outline. Room high windows offer guests an ambience bathed in light.

Wolfgang Pöschl extended Hotel Adler, a large Tyrolean building of the 1980s, to become a three storey high "Black Spa” in 2001. The building has a wellness area with a sauna, indoor swimming pool and fitness room and is partially sunken into the earth. In 2008 a further storey seen as a foreign body, the "Kitz Summer Spa”, was added to the existing building. The glazed ground floor was fitted with luxury suites, above these "hovers” a roof terrace with a swimming pool enveloped in shingles.

The cubic structure, and its translucent skin – an alien here – provoked controversial discussions. This 21st century building asserts itself, un-self-consciously, against the adjacent baroque Taxis palace, the Servites’ Church across the street, and the square in front of the seat of the regional government behind. And still it sensitively fits into the urban tissue, respecting proportions and historical axes and throughways.

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.