architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

On the occasion of their 20-year existence, the Swarovski Crystal Worlds doubled in size in 2015, adding a new cabinet of wonder, an extensive park and several structural components. The entrance area, conceived as a "white forest” with its wide-jutting concrete roof supported by birch tree trunks and the design of the store, derived from a river landscape, originate from s_o_s architekten. On one hand, Snøhetta erected the well-lit, organically formed pavilion for the Daniels Café & Restaurant; on the other hand, the play tower encased with crystalline glass panels and the adventure playground that lies in front of it.

Situated on the grounds of a former industrial area close to the town centre is Johann Obermoser’s "trade park” with a number of, in structure and façade, differing buildings: A long stretched out building parallel to the trunk road with an MPREIS supermarket on the ground floor and offices on the protruding top floor. In addition to these, a square pavilion to the south with the "Vital Centre” and, at the end, very close to the slope the five storey high "Lantech” innovation centre.

Johann Obermoser designed an – for Tyrol – early example of the further development of a building project to provide accommodation for older citizens and those in need of nursing. The outside of the building is dominated by the glass façade, which brightens the inside allowing the residents to casually take part in "outside” life. Towards the yard the L-shaped building presents itself in a warm wood.

On the edge of the Old Town, an empty lot left over from the war was filled with a sharply cut austere cube which ostensibly did not even try to fake stylistic allusions to fit in with the surroundings, although the volume, the materials and some details do interact nicely with the historic environment. The front conspicuously completes the "city wall” surrounding the Old Town, an interior courtyard leaves enough free space so as not to interfere with a neighbouring neo-baroque palace, and an old house at the back was refurbished and integrated with the new office space.

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.