architek[tour] tirol – guide to architecture in tyrol

The Sill Island is a place with a unique urban situation in Innsbruck, in the middle of a water and park landscape. A high-quality housing complex, which – according to the idea of stacked city villas – is to offer an alternative to the single-family house, was built where the factory of the Herrburger & Rhomberg Spinning Mill originally stood. Parallel to the Sill Canal, arranged in a row and spread over six structures, two- to three-story units are respectively piled on top of each other in such a way that the detached house character remains legible and a high degree of permeability is assured.

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.

In the past years, a new, populous residential quarter emerged between Reichenauerstraße and the Sill-Inn estuary. The "Eugenpark” with its distinctive tower forms the gateway to this new quarter and at the same time provides the necessary infrastructure and a new meeting place to the new residents with a supermarket that features a café. Three variously high buildings – the one-story supermarket, an L-shaped, flat-roofed structure with three residential stories and the eleven-story tower — creatively form a unit that consciously subverts the otherwise solitary character distinctive of high-rises.

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 development of the former "Bürgerlichen Brauhaus” area consists of a bipartite outer edge construction on the Ing.-Etzel-Straße, an "education tower” to the west of this for the BFI (institute for further advanced vocational training) and behind each other, two "town blocks” with service zones for the insurance companies on the ground floor. In addition to this there are office spaces and flats on the upper floors. Despite the size of the project, various materials, differing facades and the design of the open space, all played a part in the creation of the heterogeneous urban accommodation.

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.

All emergency calls in the region are to – or should – arrive here, and the ILL Centre then coordinates the necessary efforts of the various bodies of assistance, firefighters, ambulance services and the like. The design of the centre strives to underline this highly important function. Four concrete panels, and a central staircase, balance a sweeping and hovering oblong structure, stretching over an impressive span, which gives the firefighters’ vehicles enough room below to move in and out of their garages and, at the same time, creates a "roofed-in” exterior space.

The BTV City Forum, right in the centre of the city core, is the bank’s new company headquarter, containing offices, an ample customers’ centre, an event hall and rooms for contemporary art and photography expositions. The sculptural building complex fits in well with the pre-existing Gruenderzeit block structure, the corner being marked by a striking tower. The core of the building is the grand soaring hall.