architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

The municipality of Fliess has been trying for several years to counteract the threat of migration. After a multifunctional village centre, the sports and leisure facility is another building block to encourage young people to stay in the village. Based on the topography, the architects placed several horizontally layered levels on, over and against the edge of the hillside: including a clubhouse, a sauna structure by the outdoor pool and a cantilevered deck along the main football field.

The new town hall in Nauders emerged - like many others - from a competition supported by the Tyrolean Village Renewal. A compact exposed concrete structure with a light gable roof gives the community an appropriate presence through its form and height development. Between the new building and the former town hall from the 1950s, which has now been repurposed, an attractive village square has been created.

Since 1984/85, an underground air cushion funicular has been connecting the eastern end of the village of Serfaus with the cable cars in the west. In the course of renewing the technical installations, the four stations were adapted to today's requirements and designed as non-barrier meeting places, each with its own character. The two stations "Kirche" and "Zentrum" in the centre of the village were completely rebuilt.

For the newly built Falginjochbahn aerial tramway on the Kaunertal Glacier, the architects developed two technoid-looking infrastructure buildings made of concrete, steel and glass that make reference to the technical equipment of cable car technology. Situated at an elevation of 2,750 meters, the base station consists of a large, glazed steel framework on a concrete plinth; the cantilevered top station at an altitude of over 3,000 meters is designed as an antipode.

The heritage-listed primary school in the centre of Landeck was renovated, adapted for contemporary learning methods and extended with an annexe. On the ground floor is a hall glazed on three sides, which makes the new building look like a floating volume in the park; below it lies a gym, and on the roof is a spacious breaktime patio framed with wooden slats.

From the original notion of building a tree house with pupils, a whole open air classroom — a simple wooden structure docked with a footbridge and a terrace onto the slope above the school — evolved in a complex process. From the project idea, to the design, up to the 1: 1 implementation, the project was accompanied in numerous subject areas, enabling a specific topic to be covered in an interdisciplinary manner.

The MPREIS grocery store with bistro in the tourist municipality of Ischgl toys with the clichés of traditional and alpine building. The striking design element of the façade is a dark green artificial lawn; inside, the wooden coffered ceiling, the laying pattern of the wooden floor and the furniture of the bistro cite classic elements of a farmhouse parlour.

As an extension of the existing Nature Park House at the "Gacher Blick” – the interface between the Kaunertal, Pitztal and Inntal valleys – a nature and cultural panorama with an observation platform was realized. A newly laid out path, executed in plain concrete elements, leads to a bridge and the platform that projects far over the terrain, which steeply slopes 800 meters downward. Grating on the ground and on the side, as well as a glass front enhance the all-around experience of nature at this extremely exposed spot.

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.

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 "Altes Kino” ("Old Cinema”) in Landeck, built by Hans Illmer in 1927, has been a cultural center for many years. After the adjacent club house was torn down, a town square that is surrounded on three sides by a brace made of white exposed concrete and glazed on one side arose in its place. Offices are situated at the front side of the new building; the two-story component attached to the cinema is used as a cultural café. The listed cinema was renovated, the attic above the cinema laid open and adapted for public utilization.

Featuring a grocery market and a Baguette Bistro, the first MPREIS shop in the Paznaun Valley was built in See. The rear of the two-story structure is dug into the slope; the building opens to a large glass front towards the street. The rough-sawn timber lattices placed in front of the glass not only filter the light, but should simultaneously symbolize the building's steadfastness in the face of the threatening danger from the avalanche line lying opposite.

Seen as a pleasing contemporary contrast and built at the foot of Laudegg Castle (1200s) in Ladis is the "Refugio Laudegg” apartment house. The four buildings, slightly staggered in position and height, remind, with their small components and materials, of the traditional stable construction method. The new facility, the castle, restaurant, lake and impressing mountain world, together, all form a homogeneous ensemble.

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.

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.

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.

Together, the new solitary music school building, the revitalisation of the neighbouring "Klösterles” (Konvent) and a subterranean connecting passage, all form a joint architectural structure developed at a prominent town location. The building links three neighbouring spaces to form a new town centre. The new building’s glass façade opens up towards the market square; a semi-transparent layer of expanded copper provides privacy and serves as protection from the sun.

The small holiday apartment facility "Aradira” – name of Rhaeto-Romanic origin – consists of four apartment villas arranged terrace-shaped along the slope. Each unit offers guests maximum privacy, a small sauna and wellness facility is available for shared use.

Situated directly in the centre of Serfaus is the generously designed Arche holiday home. Above the ground floor, in which apart from the living area there is a self-sufficient holiday flat, is a protruding wooden box with four large bedrooms. Slightly at an angle to this, the top floor offering guests a large wellness area including an atrium and restroom and a view of the skies.

The Pezid apartments in Serfaus are a classic example of the intelligent restructuring of post war architectural "burdens of the past”. The old, hardly ever put to use balcony façade, was transformed into useful space with loggias with "reclining-chair-oriels” integrated on the inside. In 2007 this transformation to a "modern-mountain-hotel” was awarded the BTV (bank for Tyrol and Vorarlberg) - Building-Owner-Award-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.

An extension has been built onto the Skiing Academy formerly known as the Federal Sports Home. The new building has six levels, all part of a ski training centre – from a seminar hall at sub-basement level to a sauna and wellness area on the roof. The independent large form of the crystalline shaped building attempts to meet the requirements of its location without matching the traditional alpine type of design too much.

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.

At a slight distance from the Reschenpass-Straße, the MPREIS supermarket curves along the gentle back of a slope towards the Schloßberg. The inside offers a high two-part illuminated main room with a visible wooden construction area for the shelves for goods. For the daylight sensitive fresh goods, a low, closed, element as an introverted backbone embedded in the slope.

With the use of prefabricated wooden components, a constructional, functional and artistic unsatisfactory building was – without disturbing the operational service – redeveloped and converted from a retirement home into a nursing home. The more or less disused terrace balconies were removed and the rooms extended by means of box type modules. The façade was covered in sheet-copper panels, colourful sun blinds contribute to making the building look much nicer.

The compact common school centre belonging to the four valley communities is at a right angle to the valley; its horizontal position blends with surrounding nature. The outside of the building reacts with the location’s rough climate; the inside consists of bright rooms, which have been adapted to fit their various uses with their colour and shapes. The triple gymnasium has been sunken halfway into the ground; the roof can be used for breaks and as open space.

AllesWirdGut constructed a church for the St. Anton Vicarage, with living accommodation for the minister and his guests, a parish office, a leisure room for local youths and, sleeping accommodation for those who would like to take a rest whilst on a pilgrimage along the "Way of St. James” to Santiago de Compostela. By making use of the slope facing towards the south and the spatial possibilities provided by a steep gable ended roof, it was possible to accommodate all functions in a compact four storey building.

Such as the Church Centre constructed by AllesWirdGut, the nursery school also forms an artistic unit in accordance with town planning ideas. The building is situated at the northeast edge of the plot, thus at a distance from the busy road. Large windows and a saw-tooth roof allow light to flood the inside of the building, which, right down to the very last detail, is adapted to suit children. In 2016, the kindergarten was expanded with a one-storey wooden building (architecture: Karl Gitterle).

For many years the steep south slope next to the road leading to the Arlberg Pass was considered as being unsuitable for development. To realise the "Lux Alpinae” construction, the slope was dug out three storeys deep, a two-part building was constructed close to the slope. The rooms, accessible via a loggia landing, have room-high glass fronts and protruding balconies facing towards the south. Finally, a curved shell roof gives the glass, steel and exposed concrete hotel building a dynamic look.

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.

At the east border of Serfaus is Villa Rasilla – The name stems from a Rhaeto-Romanic term for field name – a holiday home designed by Noldin & Noldin. The two ground floor levels with the wellness-sauna-area, the bedrooms and bathrooms, have been built as a masonry wall construction; the top floor has been added as a self-supporting wooden cube with a wide and protruding partially roofed terrace.

The double lane expansion of the Arlberg tunnel carried out in 1998 provided the chance to demolish the old railway station originally in the middle of the village and build a new one on the south side of the valley. The design, emerging from a Europe-wide contest, is a new interpretation of the "Railway Station”. The actual station building is not a solitary building away from the railway lines, but a part of the landscape designing process.

As part of the 2001 Alpine Skiing World Championships, Dietrich Untertrifaller completed the wellness and leisure centre, which during the championships served as a medical centre. The majority of its volume is embedded in the slope, the flat greened roof blends in with the surrounding area. From the slope one only sees three small "barn-like” structures and the 2000m2 large hall’s skylights at a right angle to the slope.

In the centre of St. Christoph, the ÖSV (Austrian Skiing Association) built a sports hall (for the 2001 World Skiing Championships) with a fitness centre, a bar and offices for the association’s staff. A low budget solution based on minimalism was realised within a short time. The "self-confident” building is situated close to the ensemble around the "Hospiz”, which dates as far back as the Middle Ages.

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.

Due to the relocation of the railway lines, the family running the hotel had to close it down and relocate by opening a new hotel on the grounds of the old railway station. The hotel they built is a flexible useful house with rooms, which due to the sliding partitions, can be turned into completely functional apartments. The outside of the hotel is decorated with a wood-shingle-façade and large glazed areas; protruding alcoves in the rooms provide resting areas with a view across the mountains.

The finish line stadium constructed for the skiing world championships, were constructed by the same architectural-team that built the new St. Anton railway station. The tranquil wood-panel covered building is intertwined with the surrounding terrain in such a way, that the finish line stadium seems to be more of a topographic intervention than a building. With its many seminar rooms and fixed stand for 2000 persons, the finish line stadium is the perfect place for various outdoor events.

As a connection between the office area on the left bank of the Inn and the business centre in the Angedair district, Thomas Schnizer designed a footbridge with a horizontal structure that has a resolving effect on the urban area. With its well thought out details and the well planned access ramps, the bridge combines the town design with constructive sensibility.

Right in the middle of the tourism metropolis Ischgl, with its hotels and Après-Ski-Setting in between folklore and "Ballermann” (name given to a location for partying and having general fun) is the "Adler”, a building that for many doesn’t seem to suit the location. The architect – who runs the place himself – constructed a slim white building "encased” in terraces, a glass core and light coloured wooden balustrades, which offers its guests bright, simple and variable apartments.

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.

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.

At the time of its completion, the Hotel Maximilian indoor swimming pool was one of the rarest examples of alpine tourism architecture away from the usual clichés. The architects set a radical statement by means of a "controlled collision” with the existing building; a "glass tent” with a sophisticated tensioned roof construction, understood as being an artificial form for an artificial location. Its name, an old dialect term for disorder, was given to the swimming pool by the villagers.

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.

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.