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".

As a contribution to the careful use of soil as a resource, the supermarket chain MPREIS has built a food market in Volders, whose roof serves as a construction site for a high-quality residential building. Both functions are clearly separated from each other and designed differently as a result. The roof area around the residential building was greened and equipped with a community terrace.

Dominique Perrault was the first architect not resident in Tyrol to be entrusted with the setting up of, in the meantime, three supermarkets by MPREIS, two in Wattens and one in Zirl. The SuperM on the main road to Wattens is situated in the middle of a heterogeneous built-up-area. Perrault reacted to this with a materiality and constructively light and open building with a yard type recess, which together with the small protruding square, forms an urban centre.

Although the sports hall was built for the neighbouring primary school and is also used by the community’s various sports clubs, it was actually designed by the architects as a building for public use. A large part of the building, covered by a roof with a double bend, is sunken into the ground; the ground floor opens towards the road through a generously glazed foyer. A stand for 300 spectators completes the flowing crossover from the foyer down to the triple gymnasium.

With the Swarovski Manufaktur in Wattens, Snøhetta developed a hybrid location for production, creative collaboration and representation for the Tyrolean crystal manufacturer. A column-free hall with natural light through openings in the ceiling offers space for machines, robots and workbenches, but also for offices and meeting zones. A large open staircase, which also serves as a meeting point and arena, leads up to a wooden platform suspended from the ceiling, into which further offices and showrooms are integrated.

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.

Dominique Perrault set up his first MPREIS opposite Swarovski Kristallwelten, which was designed by André Heller – a solitary building based on minimalism with an opaque shimmering glass façade. A biomorphic scaffolding surrounding nine pines permeates the rectangular building allowing the border between the inside and outside to merge where visible truss-girders, OSB boards and black floor slabs create a market hall atmosphere.

On the outskirts of Weer; the new MPREIS food market with a café has created a place featuring a high quality of stay. The monolithic building opens onto the street with a transparent main façade and a terrace situated in front of the structure; the remaining façades are clad with polished stainless steel panels that reflect the surrounding fields. Artificial tree supports made of reinforced concrete and specifically set vistas shape the interior atmosphere.

In the rural context of the widely spread out community of Weerberg, an MPREIS supermarket was erected on a green meadow as a low budget project. The supermarket with a café consists of a plain structure with folded out corners that owe their effect to the raw charm of the materials used: industrial composite lumber for the roof, a steel construction braced with reinforced concrete slabs and a translucent polycarbonate that changes from smooth to gleaming, depending on the weather and light conditions, and lets the structure appear to be diversely pervious.

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.

The new municipal office and a child-friendly multimedia library are located in two buildings of different heights, staggered one behind the other, which - overcoming the difference in level of about one storey - connect two local areas. The striking ensemble, encased in a metal façade, fits confidently into the existing, traditional village structure.

The Fire Brigade and the Schwaz Mountain Rescue Operations Centre is situated directly next to the Inn and the motorway approach road. The building is mainly at the rear of the grounds thus leaving a large amount of space at the front for the emergency vehicles. The dominant part of the building tiered down towards the river and promenade, is the 18 metre high glass hose-tower, which makes the building’s function visible from quite a distance.

In the course of the expansion and functional adaptation of the Schwaz District Commission, a former passage courtyard was transformed into an attractive urban space. The upper level of the square was expanded, and the difference in level to the lower level has been overcome by a spacious open staircase with steps for seating. The partial, pavilion-like roofing of the stairs and the front area offers protection and forms the spatial framework for this new meeting place.

In the place of a former inn, Margarethe Heubacher-Sentobe and Günther Dregelyvari designed a clear and self-evidently acting new building in which the various sections of the population – with and without impairments – and different social and communicative facilities were brought together. What emerged was a lively place for people of all age groups, with an afterschool care center for school children and a senior citizens’ room, an inn and a local grocer’s shop, as well as apartments for young families, for assisted living and a living community for handicapped people run by the Lebenshilfe. At the same time it became the center of Schwaz’s "Dorf” district, one that had been missing until then.

Set into the landscape in a self-confident and eye-catching manner, the glass building – deriving from a contest put up for tender – accommodates a "work-landscape” in the form of an open-plan office. Three inner courtyards and the transparent façade allow the building to be penetrated with light and green-nature, slight level differences allow varying perspectives between the "winding” offices and terraces and the parking space "pushed” under the building.

In the place of a building destroyed by a fire, a central village square, which had been missing up to then, could be realized between the church, village hall and private buildings. What emerged is a calmly designed open space with a high amenity value that can be used for most diverse activities in the village. Additionally situated in a renovated house on the square is a small grocery store which, as a local supplier, significantly contributes to the vitalization of the village center.

This is a both structurally and spatially most intriguing variation on the theme of industrial buildings: Without any support, folding wood box elements stretch over two shops, each 44 m broad and over 100 m long. Through glass panels along the single elements, which somewhat resemble boats turned upside down, daylight flows in freely. The zigzag movement of the diagonal entrenchments adds rhythm to the façade.

A new type of supermarket was developed for two promoters, Jenbacher Werke (canteen) and MPREIS (supermarket): With the historic fish market in Venice as an example, a new type of roofed market under a large elevated building, in which the canteen for 300 persons, a casino, a kitchen, a works doctor and a large south terrace for the Jenbacher Werke are accommodated.

The supermarket in Wiesing is a further example of how MPREIS provides the residents of the surrounding villages with a communicative meeting point. The supermarket resembling a long stretched out wedge in the landscape is situated directly next to a roundabout and is accessible from the town centre via a footpath. With its Café with terrace to the west, this supermarket is both a meeting point for the locals and a resting station for tourists.

During the 1980s, Hotel Windegg was reconstructed and extended in a contemporary and landscape related manner by the architect Hans Peter Petri. After changing hands, the hotel was converted for a second time, whereby the bedroom wing and the striking staircase tower remained in place. Heinz-Mathoi-Streli constructed a new three-storey building directly next to the hotel. This building, with its vertical larch-wood façade, is clearly different from the original white building.

Based on town planning considerations, the new secondary modern school building was designed so that together with the polytechnic and nursery school, it would create an integrated spacious premises. The inside of the "passive house” school is flooded with light. The school’s central hall opens up into a space illuminated from above, around this an open staircase providing access to the class and group rooms.

The primary school of Brixlegg was built in the mid-1960s by the Brixlegg architect Josef Gschösser according to the concept of an atrium school. The school was upgraded functionally and spatially through targeted interventions with careful handling of the existing building substance. As part of one of the measures, the main entrance was relocated to the east and redesigned as a sheltered entrance area.

The Rattenberg Secondary Modern School has been located in sections of the Augustinian Monastery since the 1970s. With the annex building, Daniel Fügenschuh complemented the monastery complex with a new side arm. In its structure and materiality, the slender, vertical building orientates itself to the surrounding development and integrates into the small-scaled city structure of Rattenberg.

The old Mariatal school buildings, clustering closely together, resemble an abbey. Marte-Marte architects wanted to re-develop the ensemble of buildings preserving those specific spatial qualities while, at the same time, adding architectural surplus value. The new dormitory continues, as it were, the west wing of the old building, thus closing off the ensemble from the street, creating a new interior courtyard dominated by the old main school building, under the federal law on the protection of monuments, and a new solitary structure.

The new building in the centre of Kundl consists of two staggered building elements pushed into each other, which have been given their characteristic appearance by a façade of irregularly arranged fibre cement panels. In the sense of a meeting place for all generations, several social facilities are housed on the ground floor, while two "living parlours" of the residential and nursing home are arranged around an atrium on each of the upper floors.

In the centre of Kundl, between the secondary school and the music school, a new primary school building was erected in place of an old building in the format of a compact structure in which the functions are vertically layered. On the ground floor, which is glazed all around, are the communal areas, above are two learning floors and below is a large triple sports hall shared with the secondary school and clubs.

In 1973, Viktor Hufnagl, an architect from Vienna, constructed a hall-school, which at the time was a revolutionary concept, hence, an experimental building for the prefabrication of schools. Due to problems with the building’s structural design it was necessary to redevelop the school complex. The redevelopment carried out by Peter Märkli and Gody Kühnis preserves the old building’s room and material qualities, reinterprets its character and modifies it with use of contemporary means.

At the east border of Wörgl in an almost American "strip-situation” is one of Tyrol’s largest MPREIS supermarkets. In the heterogeneous (still growing) development area, Pöschl placed a bridge type building on five cylinders at right angles to the road. On the west side of the building a concave screen shade reaches out from the protruding roof across almost the complete height of the building. The space in between provides room for the fitness centre on the top floor.

The school building realised by Kurt Rumplmayr is a reduced cube design, which is transparent from all sides. The building, which completes the new village square, also resembles one inside. The public functions are arranged on the ground floor around a lowered gymnastic and events hall, the classrooms on the upper floor are accessible by means of a central light flooded hall.

Resulting from the grounds available and the town planning situation, the Kirchbichl MPREIS was constructed as an organic sweeping building. The mainly closed construction is illuminated indirectly from above; only the baguette-café enjoys an all-round open view. On the inside the curves influence the visible concrete shell; a suspended birch plywood ceiling the rooms atmosphere.

As part of necessary redevelopment measures, the Economic Chamber - Kufstein District Office was restructured and raised in height. The ground floor was completely gutted and opened up to become a vestibule. A second storey was built on top, thus turning the building into a compact – above the ground floor – suspended and combined body.

With the Visitor Centre, one of the most visited sights in Tyrol has been given a prestigious entrée. Almost invisible from beyond the outer city wall, the new building pushes itself between the existing "Feuerwerkhaus" and the new fortress courtyard and closes the square. In keeping with the existing development of the fortress, the partly two-storey large space was given an outer façade and roof cladding of untreated larch wood.

Kufstein Fortress, situated above the town, is one of Tyrol’s most impressive middle-age buildings. Extension work has been carried out on the fortress a number of times over the past few hundred years, among other things, the Josefsburg built by Gumpp, the Architect to the Imperial Court. In view of more intensive use for events, the castle was restored and adapted within the scope of a large cleaning up project. The historic structural fabric was secured and the necessary new infrastructure carefully altered.

There are two conditions that make the annex building architectonically remarkable, regardless of its utilization: the functional involvement of Art in Construction (a powerful concrete relief by Karl-Heinz Klopf) in the architectonic concept and the creation of space through the static structure. A high, spacious hall, spatially structured on different levels by a huge exposed concrete truss, opens up in the basement between the old and new gymnasium.

With the goal of revitalizing a hitherto deserted inner city district, two new buildings were erected on the area between Unterer Stadtplatz and "Fischergries” in place of the stock structures: on one hand, a shopping mall dotted with cafés and restaurants (KISS –Kufsteiner Innenstadt Shopping) and featuring office spaces and apartments on the upper stories; on the other hand, an L-shaped structure with apartments oriented towards the Inn and an event hall. A clearly defined market square, designed as a "shared space”, arose between the new buildings, the Bastion and the banks of the Inn.

In the center of Kufstein, the City Hall and the neighboring "Bildsteinhaus” were transformed into a new, multi-functional unit for the city administration. The historic ensemble was interwoven with consciously placed interventions into a complex whole. The uncovered city wall builds the foundation; a white "crown” on the roof completes the ensemble.

On a street corner of a densely built town area next to, at present, two vacant sites, riccione architects have built a solitary building with the possibility of future extensions. Above the ground floor, in which, apart from a lowered music hall, the town archive and the town library are accommodated, are three optically detached upper storeys for the school’s classrooms. Generously sized glazing and powder coated aluminium panels influence the building, which despite its transparency and openness, complies with all acoustic requirements.

A first impulse for the development of the inner city was the relocation of the university from the outskirts of town to the centre of Kufstein. Henke and Schreieck designed the "Möbel im Park” (furniture in the park), a cubic building with a glass outer surface structured with wooden slats. The energetic and innovative double layer façade with integrated room ventilation is a feast for the eyes of the studying (future) "Facility Managers”.

The Fohlenhof (foal farm) in Ebbs is considered the centre of international Haflinger breeding. Over the years, an extensive stud farm with stables, paddocks, riding hall, large arena and museum has grown up around a castle estate. Two new structures were placed in this heterogeneous conglomeration of buildings, forming a new centre with attractive outdoor spaces and giving the stud farm a contemporary identity.

The tree trunks surrounding the cubic glass building are the characteristic feature of this supermarket. The untreated spruce trunks stripped of their bark have been placed at irregular intervals forming a homogeneous construction. They also provide a functional filter in front of the roof-high fixed glazing, define protected outside-areas and spaces in between and, allow interesting "light and shadow shows” to take place inside the building.

In the rural village center of Erl, the church, cemetery and parish garden form a clearly enclosed unit marked off from the surrounding development. As a secular antipode to the church, a new parish rectory was placed in the garden. Its location and polygonal ground plan layout were derived from the existing structure. Analogous to the roof of the church, the structure was enveloped with a copper façade, which will take on a characteristic blue-green patina over the years.

The Festspielhaus – place of performance for the passion plays performed by approx. 500 actors and actresses and at the same time the main place of performance for the Tyrolean festival Erl – was built in the 1950s by Robert Schuller and in the meantime, due to its distinctive shape, has become a symbol of Erl. The white building at the foot of the Niederndorfer Mountains uses the hillside location for the ascending auditorium and emerge towards the valley side as gestural form of the stage house.

Conceived in its form and materiality as a conscious contrast, a new building of the Tyrolean Festival Erl was erected next to the Passionsspielhaus (Passion Festival House) built by Robert Schuller. Clearly offset from the white circular structure, the architects placed a dark building whose sharp-edged geometry was developed from the surrounding topography. Fluid spatial sequences with varying visual relationships to the outdoor space lead the visitor up to the concert hall situated in the center of the building.