architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

For several years, the municipality of Mils has been engaged in the question of how to stimulate the town centre, an area that has become less attractive. After the revitalisation of a farm for the municipal office and the extension of the primary school, most recently a mixed-use "village centre" was created with a high-rise building for "assisted living" and two low structures for a café and parish hall. These are connected by a flying roof, which - closed to form a rectangle - defines a roofed "square on the square".

MED-EL, the world leading producer of cochlear implant systems, has its headquarters in Innsbruck. The five-story annex building for research and development contains conference rooms, training and measuring labs, clean rooms and offices on more than 13,000 m2. The core theme for the architectonic implementation was, on the one hand, to create an appropriate space offer for the communication culture lived within the company and, on the other hand, to formally express the firm’s innovative technical direction.

A new building emerged at the western end of the university campus for the autonomous Institutes for Chemistry/Pharmacy and Theoretical Medicine. Based on the highly complex requirements for research and teaching, on one hand, and the growing urban structure, on the other hand, the Architekturwerkstatt din a4 developed a compact structure with functional- and design-related courtyards, indentures and recesses.

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.

After the Olympic Games of 1964 and 1976, Innsbruck was the first-time venue of the Youth Olympic Winter Games in January 2012. A new Olympic Village, which has meanwhile been populated by Innsbruck’s inhabitants, was executed on the grounds of the former Eugene Barracks for this purpose. Around 450 apartments are distributed among the 13 six- to eight-story cubes. Three houses, together with a common forecourt, respectively make up a group that was arranged, in turn, around various, large courtyards.

On the grounds of the former Tyrolean Loden Factory, located at the northern edge of Innsbruck’s Reichenau district, the largest certified passive house construction in Europe at that time was completed in 2009. Resulting from a 2005 competition, the basic urban planning concept of Architekturwerkstatt din a4 consists of three building complexes that are again respectively composed of two L-shaped structures placed against each other and form large inner courtyards through their interleaving. One building with rental apartments for NEUE HEIMAT TIROL was executed by Architekturwerkstatt din a4, the other two by Architekturhalle Wulz-König, resp., teamk2 [architects].