architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

In the Tyrolean community in the lower Ötztal Valley, which is characterized by tourism and tradition, an attractive site for the village community was created with the new music pavilion. An elongated wall is flanked by two side arms for technical equipment, storage, toilets and a bar, while the slightly sloping terrain is used as a natural grandstand. The pavilion takes on its very own character through the use of tamped concrete, the exact granulation and pigmentation of which was developed in numerous experiments.

Designed by Rainer Köberl and Daniela Kröss, the museum building lies like a small fortress on a steep slope. Rising above a roughly pentagonal layout is a tower-like structure that gets its conciseness from the clear form and the reduction of the design elements to reddish-colored concrete in connection with bold red steel elements. From the entrance on the ground floor, visitors are guided through two exhibition levels up to a viewing terrace, which leads over a footbridge into the ibex enclosure.

The "3-Seenhaus", which belongs to the "Jagdschloss Resort Kühtai", is located directly at one of the cable car stations in the winter sports resort of Kühtai, which lies at 2,000 m above sea level. As a contemporary addition to the historical ensemble, a timber frame construction was erected in a reduced formal language, consisting of two underground connected buildings with hotel rooms and studios or spacious holiday flats.

The Längenfeld Nature Park House is the operational center of the Ötztal Nature Park and includes, among other things, an exhibition about the natural diversity of the valley. Proceeding from the topographical conditions, Hanno Schlögl designed the house as an artificial rock, with its exposed concrete surfaces, imprinted by the horizontal formwork, taking up a role that mediates between rock and wood. Purposefully placed perforations, a transverse concrete slab and the inclined canopy emphasize the structure’s sculptural character.

TIWAG’s new hydroelectric power station control center is located on the premises of the Silz hydroelectric power station. The definitive building of the area is the distinctive turbine house realized by Ekkehard Hörmann in 1978, which the new building designed by Bechter Zaffignani Architekten ZT makes reference to in its height, width and alignment. The core of the monolithic building erected in brown-dyed exposed concrete is the control room of the control center, which outwardly appears as a horizontal element. In contrast, the visitors’ center is executed as an elongated, single-story structure.

Directly next to the top station of the Gaislachkogl mountain gondola, the "Ice Q” was likewise erected by Johann Obermoser. In contrast to the curved shape of the top station, it is designed as a straight-lined and angular structure. Featuring glass all the way around, the building offers guests impressive views into the alpine world on several stacked levels stacked other. All the way at the top, as a special highlight, is a roof terrace connected via a suspension bridge with the peak of the Gaislachkogl Mountain.

Taking the world of forms found in the high alpine landscape as a basis, the architects from Vorarlberg designed two new stations of the Wildspitz Cable Car as organic sculptures enveloped in curved aluminum sheet panels. Integrated in the mountain station is "Café 3440,” currently the highest-lying restaurant in Austria, with a freely suspended terrace glazed on all sides, which offers spectacular views into the glacier world.

As part of the reconstruction of both Gaislachkogel lifts it was necessary to rebuild the valley, intermediate and mountain stations. Each station has been designed to fit its location formally with functional requirements developed accordingly. One thing they have in common is the type of construction; a self-supporting steel construction covered by a transparent membrane.

The new Gurgltal Nursing Centre situated close to the town centre replaces the "Kind-Hearted Sisters Old Peoples Home”, which was demolished a few years ago. The project by ARGE Moser Kleon Moser shifts the desired village character to an organised residential group level, with each party having an own kitchen. In a familiar ambience the elderly residents are provided with a new home equipped with adequate contemporary resources.

The first contemporary conversion of the hotel in the middle of Sölden, the "Liebe Sonne”, was carried out on the top floor. The roof space was originally closed at all sides, but after being opened up, is now a two-storey wellness area with the appropriate open space. During the second stage of conversion, the entrance area and the complete ground floor, with its hotel hall and restaurant, was completely renewed in a simple manner and with natural materials.

Environmentally-conscious thinking and acting have been strongly emphasized in the community of Karrösten for many years. The village house itself, which houses the village office, a multipurpose hall, as well as a nursery school and apartments, did not meet this requirement at all. The renovation concept, which resulted from an architecture competition, not only brought the existing stock from the1960s up to a passive house quality regarding energy efficiency, but also improved the whole spatial structure around the village office, which was relocated as the connecting middle point on the ground floor.

The former "Speckbacher” public house has served as a boarding school since the founding of the Skiing Grammar School in the 1970s. The hipped roof house originating from the Baroque era was carefully adapted by Dieter Tuscher and Martin Weiskopf to fit modern requirements. A long new building slightly sunk into the ground was built right next to the older construction. Two room-wings and the connecting passage enclose, as a U-shape, a grassed courtyard open to the west.

In 2007 the "Sunna Alm” at the Pitztaler Glacier and Rifflsee ski resort was Europe’s first passive house to be built at an altitude of 2300 metres. Both the inside and outside of the restaurant building are characterised by wood and glass, with which modern tourism and traditional mountain life are connected without slipping into the embarrassing cliché of being rustic. The outside of the building was deliberately finished in larch-wood-shingle as a reference to Josef Lackner’s Rifflsee cable car valley station.

With the "Tuum,” ("tower”), the village center of Oetz possesses one of the oldest and most significant secular buildings in the Ötztal Valley, which was made accessible to the public through the complete refurbishment and adaptation of the museum. The unobtrusive exterior design, the staging of the route guidance and the design of the additions needed for museum operation form an exciting dialog with the historic stock.

On Dorfstraße between the walls of the Stams Monastery and the old rampart gate, the former "Spitz Garden” became the construction site for the Fire Brigade and Club House. Located on the ground floor, executed in exposed concrete, are the garages and ancillary rooms of the Fire Brigade. The upper floor, enveloped with a wood façade, holds the music rehearsal room and the library. By placing the building completely on the street, a square that opens towards the village center could be created for celebrations.

The architectural originality of the Rifflseebahn valley station is typical for Josef Lackner’s (1931 – 2001) work, which he always kept at a distance from fashions and trends. In this case, with the in form and content he played with the theme of regional building, which he took and transformed into new relationships – for example, he took autonomous buildings developed in room and functional programmes and covered them with "old fashioned” wood shingle.

Situated at the entrance to Obergurgl, running up to the Festkogel alpine hut, – the location of the valley station was also influenced by the architects – is one of the first new generation cable lifts. To express the architectural topical excitement between technology and nature, Peter Thurner and Antonius Lanzinger developed an autonomous sculpture as a massive exposed concrete base with a glass and sheet metal roof placed on top.