architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.