architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

With this small indoor pool in a private garden Lackner gave a totally new meaning to what apparently was a rather insignificant and traditional task. It is a small, freely and unconventionally shaped closed space; the light filters through seven Perspex cupolas. It is, thus, also a very intimate private space, and the light dancing on the water adds sensuous joy to the swimming. After a change of ownership, the bath was destroyed in 2018.

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.

Together with the construction of the Arlberg tunnel, the construction of the steel-lattice railway bridge across the Trisanna (1882–83) was the greatest technical achievement during the complete construction of the Arlberg railway. Two huge stone piers to which the stone viaduct-arches on both sides are connected support the steel lattice construction, which at the time was Europe’s second largest bridge. The bridge was reinforced in 1923 and replaced by a steel construction in 1964.

Norbert Heltschl counts among the few architects in Tyrol who were able to keep up with the international development after the Second World War. Erected by him from 1957-61, the Tivoli Outdoor Swimming Pool remains an outstanding example of timeless leisure architecture. From the swimming pool to the stands to the distinctively sculptural diving tower, he consequently utilized smooth exposed concrete. In the sense of a total work of art consisting of architecture, painting and sculpture, water-themed sculptures are spread throughout the whole area and are still used to today as drinking fountains or climbing devices.

The church for the new Olympic Village was Lackner’s first major building. With the spatial organisation as well as the then "strange” choice of materials (raw concrete, granite cobblestones) he was way ahead of his time. The square central congregation room rests on a somewhat higher podium and is encircled by a low balustrade wall. This rather closed "central box”, as one might describe it, is then surrounded, on a slightly lower lever, by a stations of the Cross assageway the glass panels of which open up to the everyday life outside.