architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

A place designed exclusively for the locals and their extremely active club life – the St. Nikolaus Community Cultural Center – emerged in the "tourist metropolis” of Ischgl. The defining element is an accessible roof landscape under which large parts of the cubature – such as the band rehearsal room edged into the slope as a wooden box – disappear. Together with a "parlor” available to all the clubs, the new music pavilion and a ramp with seating steps, a new village square has opened up.

A new community centre cum village square between to churches and adjacent slope, have been developed in the middle of Kappl in place of both the former lower secondary school and the old local authority. The design and height development of the three "U” shaped buildings around the square take the church and the small village structures into consideration.

The "Stuemergründe” village center, designed by Rainer Köberl and Daniela Kröss, emerged as the winning project of a novel competition procedure with the intensive involvement of the residents of Fließ. Their project breaks up the complex spatial allocation plan—from the village hall, to a doctor’s office and commercial space, right up to apartments—into three different structures. Developed in reference to the small-scaled village structure, the buildings are arranged on the building lot in such a manner that attractive square sequences and vistas were created.

At a sensitive building plot very close to the church, cemetery and vicarage, the village centre forms, due to its independent architectural "language”, a new profane centre. The angular crystalline free-standing building, with its shape being determined by height, spacing regulations and mix of functions, contains variable and combinable open rooms at staggered levels – among others the tourist information office and a café.

Environmentally-conscious thinking and acting have been strongly emphasized in the community of Karrösten for many years. The village house itself, which houses the village office, a multipurpose hall, as well as a nursery school and apartments, did not meet this requirement at all. The renovation concept, which resulted from an architecture competition, not only brought the existing stock from the1960s up to a passive house quality regarding energy efficiency, but also improved the whole spatial structure around the village office, which was relocated as the connecting middle point on the ground floor.

This multipurpose building arose between the primary school and the nursery school. It features a gymnasium for the primary school, a music rehearsal space and a foyer with a restaurant, which the multi-functionally utilized hall can be flowingly accessed from via a grandstand. In order to minimize the visible cubature and to integrate the small-scaled context, a large part of the volume is recessed into the ground. A walkable roof deck, which forms a slightly inclined slope, spans the elongated building.

With the revitalization of the Felixe Minas House, erected in 1698, one of the most valuable cultural-historic buildings in the Tannheim Valley could be utilized as a multifunctional cultural center. The existing structure underwent a complete renovation and was expanded with an annex wrapped in a shingled façade, in which a rehearsal room for the community band was created. A single-story concrete building with a main entrance and foyer acts as a link between the old and the new.

With the "Tuum,” ("tower”), the village center of Oetz possesses one of the oldest and most significant secular buildings in the Ötztal Valley, which was made accessible to the public through the complete refurbishment and adaptation of the museum. The unobtrusive exterior design, the staging of the route guidance and the design of the additions needed for museum operation form an exciting dialog with the historic stock.

On Dorfstraße between the walls of the Stams Monastery and the old rampart gate, the former "Spitz Garden” became the construction site for the Fire Brigade and Club House. Located on the ground floor, executed in exposed concrete, are the garages and ancillary rooms of the Fire Brigade. The upper floor, enveloped with a wood façade, holds the music rehearsal room and the library. By placing the building completely on the street, a square that opens towards the village center could be created for celebrations.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The redevelopment of the village square, lying in close vicinity to the church, led to the creation of a closed, variously usable spatial situation instead of the formerly unstructured public space. The music pavilion, including a bar and toilets, was housed in an elongated, angled structure which, as the "backbone,” offers the square the necessary protection against wind and noise.

In the place of a building destroyed by a fire, a central village square, which had been missing up to then, could be realized between the church, village hall and private buildings. What emerged is a calmly designed open space with a high amenity value that can be used for most diverse activities in the village. Additionally situated in a renovated house on the square is a small grocery store which, as a local supplier, significantly contributes to the vitalization of the village center.

The meanwhile functionless pastor’s rectory provided the spaces needed in the Aschau parish for various groups, the administration and celebrations. This rectory, which is attached to the church and listed, was gutted and adapted for the new uses. Ancillary rooms and a small apartment are located in a narrow annex, which adopt the existing building lines in the sense of further construction.

In the course of the conversion and extension, the congress, administration and information center erected in the late-1970s was given a completely new appearance. The previously rather heavy and stolid seeming building was transformed into a bright, crystalline structure that places a clear accent between the traditional Tyrolean houses. The spatial offer was significantly expanded and newly organized, whereby the second largest event center in Tyrol now has four action levels at its disposal.

Tux-Lanersbach is a characteristic village shaped by tourism in which the "Lederhosen style” continues to dominate. The decidedly contemporarily designed event center clearly sets itself apart from this environment. Under a sculpturally formed "bonnet,” enveloped with fiber cement shingles, spaces for the tourism association and the mountain rescue squad, a café, rehearsal rooms, as well as the large event hall are located. Towards the street side the structure acquiesces scale-wise into the surroundings. The hall’s large volume is distinctly readable towards the valley floor.

The free-standing solitaire, visible from all sides, with the stage facing south and a bus stop facing north, offers a place for cultural life in the village centre. The free-standing solitaire, visible from all sides, with the stage facing south and a bus stop facing north, offers a place for cultural life in the village centre. Together with the Institute for Structure and Design at the University of Innsbruck, a special folding system made of solid wooden panels was developed that meets all acoustic requirements and at the same time gives the building a striking sculptural form.

Built on a lot opposite the town hall, the Cultural Center consists of a monolithic, formally independent structure that creates an identification point in the heterogeneously developed community. Sitting above a pervious ground floor is a protruding, closed upper floor with a multifunctional event hall that is shaped in such a way that the large volume does not appear in its full height from the street side.

With the "Haus Valgrata” a distinctive building in which various communal institutions were brought together arose at the edge of the village. Adjacent to the existing fire brigade house with a hall for cultural events, the recycling center and construction yard were accommodated in an elongated structure. Its roof forms a large entrance stairway and ends in a new plaza. Located behind it are the foyer and multipurpose hall, which were realized for the most part as superstructure extending above the state road.

With the new construction of a club house and the concomitant redesign of the village square, a common center was created for the residents of the widely scattered community of Assling, which is made up of 18 hamlets. The existing buildings arranged around the square were bound together by means of an exposed concrete podium with a back wall and roof. The club house, which completes the newly created square in the northeast, was erected adjacent to it.

A nursery school, a sports center with a changing area, a sauna, a tennis hall with seating, the community forum as well as the fire brigade, building yard and trash collection point—this mix of leisure time offers and community services was realized in the mid-1990s by consolidating and expanding existing buildings in the center of town. The various usages are divided into clearly different structures and, together with the paths and surfaces, form a loose and yet locally defined network.

Community facilities as well as numerous clubs were housed in the old "Community Forum” built in the 1960s (architecture: Hans Buchrainer). Both of these functions were separated when it was expanded by a town office. The "Community Forum” was renovated and correspondingly adapted to the needs of contemporary club life. Erected in a sensitive handling of the local scale, the "Town Office” was placed in front of the existing building so that a "market square” was created towards the street.

The starting point for the project was the inn that was missing in the village—what followed was a new town policy, which was awarded with the "Building Culture Community Prize” in 2012. The founding of a village renewal commission preceded the construction of the new multipurpose structure. A competition was consequently tendered with Dorferneuerung Tirol (Village Renewal Tyrol). The result is a crystalline structure, conceived in reaction to the exposed slope, with the fire brigade together with a practice forecourt in the lower area and the public functions, including the large event hall, in the overlying element that protrudes eight meters outwards.

In the course of the cemetery expansion, a new funeral hall, whose exterior façade made of quarry stone masonry is based on the solid natural stone wall of the cemetery, was erected. The space in the interior, featuring wood paneling and simple benches, ties into the tradition of the farmhouse parlor. A narrow window and a circumferential glass strip placed under the roof bring natural light into the space and establish the relationship to the village, resp. the mountains.

The revitalization of the village center began in the small community of Kals am Großglockner with the Glocknerhaus, which houses the Hohe Tauern National Park administration, the Kals Tourism Association and a branch bank. A plain structure that follows the course of the road was erected; its scale and color scheme refer to the late Gothic rectory and the parish church and thereby creates a harmonious ensemble of old and new.

Like the Glocknerhaus planned several years previously by the same architects, the community center enters into a dialog with the topographic conditions and the township of Ködnitz, which is characterized by the parish church and the late Gothic rectory. The four-story, compact structure with flat roofs and horizontal lines establishes a very serene relationship to the existing stock, without compromising it in its singularity.

In order to give space to the active club and cultural life, the community of Kals decided on constructing a new event center with a hall that seats over 300 people. Schneider and Lengauer realized an elongated building which follows the course of the road, is docked onto the old Ködnitzhof inn, and, with its steep saddle roof and the precisely placed openings, makes reference to the rectory.