Exhibition
10 offices
Exhibition poster: Emerging Architecture 1
© Architekturzentrum Wien, graphic design: Krieger|Sztatecsny, Büro für visuelle Gestaltung
In September 2000 the Architekturzentrum Wien (AZW) is launching a series of exhibitions and publications which is to become a fixture in the AZW diary.
The content: 10 current tendencies in Austrian architecture, 10 architects’ studios from Vienna to Vorarlberg.
10 mobile exhibition elements and a catalogue that can be taken apart to form 10 portfolios which can be used by the individual studios for their own promotion. The exhibition has been conceived as a compact touring show and each year the participants are to be replaced by 10 new architectural positions.
A bilingual German/English catalogue is to be presented on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition.
Opening:
Dietmar Steiner
Director Architekturzentrum Wien
Otto Kapfinger
Curator and Head of Scientific Research Architekturzentrum Wien
Guided Tours:
Saturday, September 30, 2000, 3:00 P.M.
Saturday, 14. October 14, 2000, 3:00 P.M.
Saturday, October 28, 2000, 3:00 P.M.
Four wednesday evenings are devoted to the exhibition Kommende Architektur [1] – emerging architecture [1]. The situation of young architects’ studios is to be analysed beyond the hype on the basis of concrete issues: Is the development of a generation merely repeating itself, or are the new conditions leading to new strategies?
wednesdays:
12 – Wednesday, September 27, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
13 – wednesday, October 04, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
14 – wednesday, October 11, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
15 – wednesday, October 18, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
Sponsored by:
Stadtplanung Wien
Kunst Bundeskanzleramt
Arch+Ing, W, NÖ, B
Eternit
Schindler AG
Zumtobel Staff
Emerging Architecture 1 – Kommende Architektur 1
10 offices
1 Exhibition – 1 Catalogue – 1 Competition
Press Preview: Wednesday, September 20, 2000, 11:00 A.M.
Opening: Mittwoch, September 20, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
Exhibition: September 21, 2000 – October 30, 2000
& Opening hours: daily 10:00 A.M to 7:00 P.M.
Guided Tours:
Saturday, September 30, 2000, 3:00 P.M.
Saturday, October 14, 2000, 3:00 P.M.
Saturday, October 28, 2000, 3:00 P.M.
wednesdays
12 – September 27, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
13 – October 04, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
14 – October 11, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
15 – October 18, 2000, 7:00 P.M.
Press / Information: Michael Hammerschmid
P ++43 1 522 31 15 – 23
F ++43 1 522 31 17
E-Mail: press@azw.at
With emerging architecture [1] – Kommende Architektur [1] the Architekturzentrum Wien (AZW) is launching a series of exhibitions and publications which is to become a fixture in the AZW diary. Once a year an exhibition and the catalogue published to coincide are to introduce relevant tendencies and architectural concepts by 10 Austrian architects’ studios to a broader public.
This year, in addition to the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, a housing competition is being held — organised by the Mischek-Unternehmensgruppe — in which the “emerging architects” are participating. Approximately 300 apartments are required in the brief for a site in Vienna-Kaiser-Ebersdorf, where the best of these architects’ submitted designs are to be realised.
The studios represented in this exhibition have been chosen from the viewpoint of a necessary architecture emerging on a global level.
Projects already realised are to provide documentation of the power and energy of this emerging architecture. Projects alone are not enough and just being ‘young’ is no merit in itself. It is not the conditions of the mainstream with motif-orientated superficiality and short-circuited functionalism, but durability, contextual planning and a new orientation in the composition that are in the foreground. Emerging architecture will be evaluated on its solutions for social issues, those of type and energy consumption. The characteristics lie in well-founded, innovative and self-sufficient perspectives which can also be understood as more than mere regional impulses.
The exhibition has been conceived as a compact touring show, with 10 specially produced mobile transport and presentation boxes which could go on a tour of architecture forums in Austria and other countries.
Alongside the continuity involved in decking out the boxes each year with the work of 10 new architects’ studios, in the future a view of emerging architecture beyond the borders of Austria is planned.
A bilingual German/English catalogue is to be presented on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition. Each architects’ studio is to have 24 detachable pages at their disposal which they can subsequently use as portfolios for their own representation on an international level.
On October 18th, 2000, towards the end of the run of the exhibition, the results of the competition are to be announced and the prize-giving ceremony is to be held.
Four wednesday evenings are devoted to the exhibition Kommende Architektur [1] – emerging architecture [1]. The situation of young architects’ studios is to be analysed beyond the hype on the basis of concrete issues: Is the development of a generation merely repeating itself, or are the new conditions leading to new strategies?
wednesdays 12
September 27, 2000, 7:00 P.M., Architekturzentrum Wien
Following the Tradition
On the basis of two major Austrian architecture traditions, the Vorarlberger Baukünstler and the Grazer Schule (School), a discussion is to be held on how the relationship between new architecture and its predecessors is shaped. Is the heritage being carried further, is a demarcation necessary, or building independent of local influences?
wednesdays 13
October 04, 2000, 7:00 P.M., Architekturzentrum Wien
Competitions as Opportunities or Hurdles?
Architecture competitions are generally considered to be an opportunity for younger, unknown architects to make a name for themselves and to finally attain lucrative briefs. But what is the reality of the situation? How are jurors selected, how do they make their decisions, and for whom do they decide? Are competitions a means of quality contention or a senseless waste of productive potential?
wednesdays 14
October 11, 2000, 7:00 P.M., Architekturzentrum Wien
Young Architects in Croatia and Austria
The Presentation of the new Croatian architecture journal ORIS is providing the opportunity to make a comparison between the emerging architecture scenes in Austria and Croatia, to discern the similarities and differences as well as to put an end to the long-lasting reluctance to look (south)eastwards.
wednesdays 15
October 18, 2000, 7:00 P.M., Architekturzentrum Wien
Emerging Architects: Housing Development in Vienna
The Viennese society of developers and investors Mischek-Wiener Heim has invited the ten participants in the exhibition emerging architecture [1] to enter a competition for the realisation of a housing development in Vienna. The results of the competition are to be presented to the public at this soirée.
The 10 offices
* Bulant & Wailzer
* Peter Ebner
* Geiswinkler & Geiswinkler
* Kaufmann 96 GmbH
* Rainer Köberl
* lichtblau . wagner
* Marte.Marte
* Pichler & Traupmann
* Riepl Riepl
* Splitterwerk
The studios represented in this exhibition have been chosen from the viewpoint of a necessary architecture emerging on a global level. Projects already realised are to provide documentation of the power and energy of this emerging architecture. Projects alone are not enough and just being ’young’ is no merit in itself. It is not the conditions of the mainstream with motif-orientated superficiality and short-circuited functionalism, but durability, contextual planning and a new orientation in the composition that are in the foreground.
Emerging architecture will be evaluated on its solutions for social issues, those of type and energy consumption. The characteristics lie in well-founded, innovative and self-sufficient perspectives which can also be understood as more than mere regional impulses.
Bulant & Wailzer
Fleischmarkt 16
A – 1010 Vienna
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (1) 513 67 00
Fax +43 (1) 513 67 00 – 16
bulant_wailzer@hotmail.com
Aneta Bulant-Kamenova
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, studied in Sofia and Weimar. Graduated in 1974. 1976 – 1981 teaching post at TU Sofia, 1985 – 1991 at TU Vienna. 1988 sets up an office in Vienna, 1993 – 1995 ARGE with Prof. Spalt. 1996 Foundation of architectural studio Bulant & Wailzer. Since 2000 guest lecturer at TU Vienna.
Klaus Wailzer
Born in St. Pölten, studied interior design and architecture at the Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna. Graduated in 1992. Since 1996 teaching post at TU Vienna, Institute for Construction Engineering II. 1997 Price for Architecture from the province of Salzburg. 1998 Benedictus-Award for innovative glass construction from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Union of International Architects (UIA).
Buildings, projects (selection):
1993 “A-Lust-Haus”, aluminum pavilion in the garden of the Palais Rasumovsky, Vienna (K. Wailzer)
1996 – 1997 Sailer house, Salzburg
1998 – 1999 Lichtraum K
1998 – 1999 reconstruction of the “Haus auf der Höh” villa, Lower Austria
1998 – 1999 Raiffeisenkassa Piesendorf, Salzburg.
In the works of Aneta Bulant and Klaus Wailzer, complementary temperaments achieve a synthesis. Influenced by her south-eastern European background, Bulant always considered architectural forms to be ambivalent and their material presence secondary to her ambition to evolve an environment without formative dictates and to create an unrestricted aura of space and spatial sequences.
The collaboration with Wailzer has served to enrich this ongoing research. In his projects as a student of Johannes Spalt and Wolf D. Prix he has already shown a very independent streak. The “One-wall House” of 1982, for instance, developed the idea of an endlessly looping wall, split and pulled apart to form a series of spaces.
In his aluminum pavilion, a merry manifestation against blatant form and ideological debates, he increasingly applies new technologies and ideas. Inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss he distanced himself from the usual creative impulses which were aimed at form and object and declared his motto to be: “think of process, not of form — and work in model”. Whereas the idea of the “supporting skin” was only latently present in the wallhouse, it became the paradigm of further researches in his “A-Lust-Haus‘”.
Peter Ebner
Windmühlgasse 9 / 26
A – 1010 Vienna
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (1) 586 85 22
Fax +43 (1) 587 78 87
ebner-ullmann@aon.at
Born in Hallwang, Salzburg. Apprenticeship in carpentry, studied architecture at TU Graz and at the University of California, Los Angeles. Until 1996 project architect of Mark Mack, since 1995 own studio in Salzburg. 1996 – 1998 Board member of Initiative Architektur Salzburg and, since 1998 its president. Since 1998 joint studio with Franziska Ullmann in Vienna.
Project-related partnerships with Francis Soler, Paris and atelier one, London. 1998 -2000 Guest critic at Harvard GSD, Boston, Mass.
Projects, buildings (selection):
1997 – 1999 Student’s hostel Glockengasse
1997 – 2001 Roof extension
1999 – 2002 Pedestrian tower
1998 Museum der Moderne (competition)
1999 Footpath (competition) – all Salzburg Town
1999 Stadthalle, Graz (competition)
1998 – 2001 St.Anna Klinik, Stuttgart (in collaboration with Franziska Ullmann and Guenter Leonhardt)
1998 – 2000 Multi-generation residences “In der Wiesen”, Vienna.
Only if there is an intellectual plan can structural engineering become architecture. Seen from this perspective, Peter Ebner‘s externally rather heterogeneous projects reveal a strong inner coherence. His designs are not dominated by stylistic whim or by the market-conscious development of a signature, but by the mental image he conceives for the given occasion. His designs neither pursue a merely pragmatic performance of duty, nor an artificial mania for originality. He searches with changing team partners for the poetic perspective in every assignment, for the imaginary aspect that exceeds a mere performance of services. The post-modern era brought a return to fictional dimensions in architecture, split into totally opposing concepts of postfunctionalism. Ebner belongs to those within his generation who are searching for individual choices, far removed from fashionable trends. If he finds inspiration in René Magritte, Mark Rothko, Raimo Utriainen and others for the intellectual foundation of his buildings and projects, then not in a derivative manner. Rather, these references provide him with mental tools and create suitable visual filters to see beyond the pragmatic surface of a task to its deeper and broader structure.
Thus a design can be detached from the logistics of a plan and achieve a transcendent plane – the meta-level of the intellectual plan – whichfrequentlyexceedsthe deceptive certainties of the purely func-tional, purely energy-optimizing and purely topological approach.
Magritte and Rothko in particular are eminently suitable guides to descend below the accepted conception of space/reality, to disclose the paradoxical effects of our perception of things and to incorporate these aspects into structural designs as meta-functional parameters.
According to Wittgenstein, such trains of thought and mental crutches should be discarded after use: they are simply instruments – tools and not the objective. The temptation of arriving at an immediate realization of the mental plan by integrating it as a concept into the construction of reality is certainly always present. In most cases the artistic, conceptual graft upon the building trade will then be lost in flat literalness.
Peter Ebner is aware of these traps. He is not searching for poetical dimension merely for its effect, but works at transforming functionalism into a sensuous experience. […]
Geiswinkler & Geiswinkler
Nelkengasse 4 / 5
A-1060 Vienna
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (1) 581 62 50
Fax +43 (1) 581 62 51
geiswinklerarchitekten@vienna.at
Markus Geiswinkler
Born in 1956 in Vienna. 1975 – 1983 Studied architecture at TU Vienna.
Kinayeh Geiswinkler-Aziz
Born in 1964 in Baghdad, Irak. 1999 Graduated from TU Vienna. Since 1990 joint studio in Vienna.
Buildings, projects (selection):
1992 – 1995 Multi-purpose hall at the district offices building in Vienna-Favoriten
1994 – 1995 Children’s day center in Vienna-Floridsdorf
1997 Reconstruction of the gallery “Image”, Vienna
1998 Restaurant and bar “Guess-Club” in Vienna-Mariahilf.
At present the office is working on a residential complex in Vienna-Liesing and on a garden development in Vienna-Simmering.
Town-planning and structural design regulate the dynamics between private and public sphere and anonymity by means of geometry and technology, whereby the natural landscape is transformed into the dense relief of the development area. Be it a kindergarten or a residential building at the periphery or a bar in the center: the Geiswinklers always react carefully to the situation and the envisaged use – never blindly fulfilling a program, but transforming their impression of a site and assignment into a practical, open possibility.
Thus their buildings combine the contemporary leanings towards the abstract with the timelessness of human constancy. In choice of material and detail they openly indulge their passion for reduction and high-tech minimalism, but not only that. Their work revives the smoothness, silence and solitude of minimalism on a subtler level of design. Glass and metal in their cold facelessness become again eloquent agents for the qualities of direct and indirect lighting and vision, of optical reflex and diffusion as well as modulation of acoustics and tactile atmosphere – masterfully enacted on the urbane stage of the Guess-Club. It dramatically opened up an old, closed-in corner of the city and at the same time created a multi-facetted, urbane setting around the external solitude and superficiality of Internet and bar communication.
Unlike the sharply edged prisms favored at present, their residential projects display a vividly differentiated relationship between building and environment, they work as intensely on the cross-sections of their multi-storied structures as the old masters did on the profiles of cornices and eaves: the creation of transitions for space and light, the interaction of sight-lines and shadows, was and is the theme, both then and now. […]
Kaufmann 96 GmbH
split up on July 30, 2001.
Johannes Kaufmann and Oskar Leo Kaufmann since have their own offices.
Oskar Leo Kaufmann
Steinebach 3
A-6850 Dornbirn
AUSTRIA
Tel +43 (5572) 39 49 69 – 0
Fax +43 (5572) 39 49 69 – 20
office@olk.cc
Born in 1969 in Bezau, Vorarlberg. Studied architecture at TU Vienna. Graduated in 1995.
1996 Establishment of an architect´s office, Kaufmann 96 together with Johannes Kaufmann. 1997 Co-founder of the company KFN Kaufmann product gmbh (modular housing systems).
JOHANNES KAUFMANN ARCHITEKTUR
Sägerstraße 4
A-6850 Dornbirn
AUSTRIA
Tel +43 (5572) 23 690 – 0
Fax +43 (5572) 23 690 – 4
office@jkarch.at
www.jkarch.at
Born in 1967 in Bezau, Vorarlberg. 1984 – 1987 Apprenticeship in carpentry. 1987 – 1989 Worked at architectural office of Kaufmann/Dietrich/Lenz, 1989 – 1992 architectural office of Ernst Hiesmayr, 1992 – 1995 joint office with Oskar Leo Kaufmann and qualified as a master builder in, 1997 qualification as master carpenter.
Buildings, projects (selection):
1994 – 1995 Casino stadium Bregenz
1997 – 1998 Fair stadium Dornbirn
1998 Austria House at the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan
1998 Hotel Post Bezau
1997 Design and development of KFN housing systems, minimal housing units “SUSI” and “FRED”.
Through a handful of buildings, this new team set new standards for the already high level of wood construction in Vorarlberg. In conversation, Johannes and Oskar Leo Kaufmann – cousins from a dynasty of carpenters, architects and wood manufacturers – appear to be convinced they could produce wooden Jumbo jets and flying houses tomorrow, produced to order like cars from the assembly line and delivered by helicopter.
Buckminster Fuller´s motto “more by less”, long since deep-rooted in the minds of their colleagues from the west of Austria, has special significance for Kaufmann 96. Their structures are to be built more flexibly, faster and more lightweight. Modern wooden material combined with steel should be made thinner, bent further, curved higher and mounted more economically.
K 96 unconcernedly follow the footsteps of Konrad Wachsmann who replaced the term “construct” with “join” and declared 40 years ago:
“The machine-made product is going to be mass-produced in ideal precision and ready for use in the factory, which will replace the artisan´s workshop, and the building site will no longer be a place of production”. […]
Rainer Köberl
Weyrerfabrik, Ferdinand Weyrerstrasse 13
A-6020 Innsbruck
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (512) 26 10 66
Fax +43 (512) 26 13 04
rainer.koeberl@aon.at
Born in 1956 in Innsbruck. 1976 – 1984 Studied architecture at the TU Innsbruck, 1980 – 1981 Study at Technion in Haifa. 1986 – 1992 Assistant at the Institute for Interior Design at the TU Innsbruck with Professor Barth. Since 1993 own studio in Innsbruck, 1993 – 1997 Lecturer of design at the Institute for Urban Development at the TU Innsbruck. Since 1998 Founding member and lecturer at the Academy of Design in Bozen, since 1999 lecturer of design at the Institute for Buildings at the TU Innsbruck.
Buildings, Projects (selection):
1986 theater on tour “Treibhaus”
1995 Provisional home DOWAS
1995 Office of the light factory Halotech; all Innsbruck
1996 Old people’s home and nursing home, Feldkirch (Builder’s prize in Vorarlberg, builder’s prize in Austria)
1997 Architectural and urban development concept for “Olympia 2006 Kitzbühel’, together with Dominique Perrault
1999 “Chill Out” provisional home for homeless youths, Innsbruck
Rainer Köberl builds spaces to feel good in. But this not about glamour or resort styling — Köberl gives a flair to what is taken for granted, the mood of light, color, sense of touch, tangible elements, acoustics of rooms. He uses materials and shapes in a reduced, unproblematic,directly perceptible form, without aesthetic blind spots, pure yet subtle, unplastered concrete blocks, bare iron, waxed steel, fiber cement, birch plywood; he gets an armchair from the dump and turns it, with the help of Master Hussl, the cabinetmaker, into the short series ST5, which, in aselection of the best of Austria‘s furniture, is judged to be of “timeless quality”.
Köberl‘s architecture enlivens up the apparently banal, he creates situations which spontaneously and subconsciously correspond, although almost nothing of “design” is immediately evident. As Arno Ritter commented, he creates places “where you would like to sit down and light your Gitanes”. Whether in an office, a young people‘s home, a family home or a social center, Köberl‘s use of architectural means is sparing and concentrated. He reduces material, structure and construction so far that it melts into the background,but instead of banality, atmosphere takes over. It is the art of casual rooms – seen far too seldom – which remains distinctive. At the station Chill Out for instance, he uses only four materials: glass, asphalt, fiber cement, plywood, as well as a little metal and the lights from Halotech which he helped design; this could sound like a minimalist trend but is, in fact, the opposite: masterful control of limited resources, a room with almost nothing, which achieves an optimum of true “modernism”, consisting of nothing more than the lively luxury of informality. […]
lichtblau . wagner
Diehlgasse 50 / 17 /18
A-1050 Vienna
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (1) 545 18 54
Fax +43 (1) 545 18 54 – 4
l.w.arch@aon.at
www.lichtblauwagner.com
Susanna Wagner
Studied architecture at the TU Vienna, Diploma 1993
Andreas Lichtblau
Studied architecture at the TU Vienna / TU Graz, Diploma 1989, 1990 – 1994 Assistant at the TU Graz, Institute for Buildings and Residential Building, 1991 Lecturer at the TU Graz. Joint office since 1987
Buildings, Projects (selection):
1994 Government buildings Bregenz, (competition), construction begins 2000
1996 – 1998, büro.möbel gleisdorf, office furniture company in Gleisdorf, low-energy office building
1992 – 1997 solar.dach wien, solar energy company in Vienna, urban solar technology
1992 development of steel shelf system
1997 standard lamp
1997 accessible sculpture, steel stairs
1998 vinothek vignobles du sud ouest.
Since 1999 in Krems, higher education college at Krems
1997 – 2002 low energy family home hang.haus hintersdorf
1999 central parish Podersdorf
from the beginning of their joint work, they made a theme primarily of these invisible conditions of converted space; they understand planning as a development of constructions, which control their inner climate with a minimum of energy, and they expand this through research on building systems, which can be used flexibly and which – particularly in residential building – leave anachronistic norms behind. a program for “pulsating spaces” was formulated at the beginning of the 90s as a result of criticism of the code book describing the responsibilities of residential building organizations and commercial builders. it is based on the separation of hard and soft building parts: a minimal supporting skeleton, with pipe and wall breaches, all pipes and cables are in the hollow floor construction or in a custom-made shell, bathroom and kitchen are reduced to furniture elements, to be connected to pipes emerging from the floor. instead of walls made of plasterboard or bricks there are light screens made of wood, glass or fabric and variable cupboard elements; the façade is conceived as a prefabricated useable puffer zone of several layers, also the corridors and hallways are technically upgraded to become service areas (washing machine, storage space), which are placed out in the common developed structure.
in local residential building, such concepts are still taboo; in administrative buildings, however, lichtblau.wagner have already realized these ideas. their buildings are clear and perfectly formed, light and open, do without formal over-definitions. advanced consumer technology and flexible useful potentials characterize their architecture without letting it take over the aesthetics. lasting comfort, offered without histrionics, is more important to them than visual power. […]
Marte.Marte
Totengasse 18
A-6833 Weiler
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (5523) 52 587
Fax +43 (5523) 52 587-4
marte.marte@marte-marte.com
www.marte-marte.com
Bernhard Marte
Born in 1966 in Weiler/Vorarlberg. 1985 – 1993 studied Architecture at the TU Innsbruck. Since 1993, joint office with Stefan Marte.
Stefan Marte
Born in 1967 in Weiler/Vorarlberg. 1987 – 1995 studied Architecture at the TU Innsbruck.
Buildings, Projects (selection):
1992 – 1994 Weiler’s chapel of rest
1996 – 1997 Redesign of Weiler’s cemetery
1996 – 1997 Residential building- Dr. Frick, Röthis’ house
1997 Holiday apartment belonging to Dr. Matt, Lech
1997 – 1998 Weiler’s primary school and grammar school
1992 – 1999 Residential building in Dafins
1998 – 1999 The Frödisch bridge, Sulz/Vorarlberg
On the Vorarlberg scene, which is full of good buildings, Marte.Marte take a controversial stance. The modern tradition of the architect is influenced very strongly there by the linear structure of a wooden construction and the typology of a single house. In traditional, as well as contemporary architecture, conditioned by the local climate there, a structure is built as compactly as possible and seeks only to find a balanced position within the terrain, but otherwise establishes a rather abrupt contrast between inside and outside.
The architecture of Marte.Marte contradicts both of these fundamental principles, does this, however, with the same sobriety and consistency, as a superior component of Alemannic creativity would do. Marte.Marte work with monolithic, poured concrete planes as opposed to a carpenter‘s light, scaffolding-like structure. Unlike the solitary boxes of old and new houses in the region, they try to grasp the surroundings of buildings architecturally, to make them livable by creating a measured, shielded and staggered transition from the individual to the general. They do not merely replace the wooden box with a concrete box, it is much more the break-up of the classical block-like cube into shells full of angles and three-dimensional fragments of boxes. At the House in Röthis, for instance, living space was primarily developed by the use of walls of different heights, which shield the site from the rest of the large plot. The concrete walls begin by forming courts and lanes, and then consolidate to become the building itself on ground level, on top of which the bedrooms are situated in the form of an introverted wooden prism. […]
Pichler & Traupmann
Kundmanngasse 39
A-1030 Vienna
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (1) 713 32 03 – 20
Fax +43 (1) 713 32 03 – 13
pichler_traupmann@vienna.at
www.pxt.at
Christoph Pichler
Born in 1964 in Vienna. 1983 – 1989 studied at the College of Applied Arts in Vienna, Master-class Prof. Holzbauer. 1990 – 1992 studied architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, USA.
1992 – 1996 Assistant at the TU Vienna at the Institute for Structural Engineering, Prof. Richter. Since 1996, Lecturer at the TU Vienna.
Johann Traupmann
Born in 1958 in Güssing/Burgenland. 1977 – 1983 studied Theology at the Catholic Theological Faculty at the University of Vienna. 1981 – 1987 studied at the College of Applied Arts in Vienna, Master-class Prof. Holzbauer. 1992 – 1998 Lecturer at the College of Applied Arts. 1993 Lecturer at the Catholic Theological College Linz for Art and Church Architecture, Prof. Rombold. Since 1998 Assistant at the College of Applied Arts in Vienna, Master-class Prof. Hecker.
Buildings, Projects (selection):
1994 – 1996 Haus Berger, Burgenland
1995 – 1997 Haus Drexler, Burgenland. (Austrian Cement Industry Prize)
1997 – 1998 Ebner’s Glazier’s Workshop (Builder’s prize)
1998 – 1999 Haus Roubin and Haus Melchart, Vienna
One of the most characteristic features of 20th century modernism is the concept of the “flowing space”. Control of nature as a result of technology and new building materials made it unnecessary to separate the inner world of the habitat from the more or less friendly outside world. Living quarters and the natural environment should interpenetrate; that was the message from Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Richard Neutra and others. The break-up of old tectonic of solid walls and ceilings led in the case of the most radical of buildings to free-floating, autonomous walls and roof areas in conjunction with extensive glazing. The potential of such ideas seemed to be exhausted for decades and was eventually questioned in the face of environmental problems raised by the creation of more compact building concepts.
Pichler & Traupmann grasp these threads anew and develop them into a new, more complex pattern. Not only should space, according to them, be capable of flowing from both inside out and outside in, the spatial shell should also awaken from its autonomous state and architecturally merge inside and out in an analogous, flowing gesture. In addition, they go beyond classical modernism‘s platonic entities and structural homogeneity in the direction of dynamic duality. What already existed with Mies van der Rohe – the contrast of the purist base with a strict suspended roof – Pichler & Traupmann develop in their own way further. They create a relief of buildings on the top of the existing terrain
and place the figure of a complex folded exterior upon it, one that only touches the foundation at certain points and which materializes the opening, filtering and intensity of the relationship between rooms. The glazed areas and walls between the sculpted plinth and the exterior are transparent membranes which regulate the climate. Folding planes into spaces has been a hotly-disputed subject for a number of years in the avant-garde, mostly associated with overdoing Euclidean geometry to polymorph and amorph constructions; crumpled potatoes and Moebius strips are apparently highly topical. Pichler & Traupmann don‘t go that far. Their folds make the old opposites of wall and ceiling or wall and door/window equal. The values of horizontal/vertical, bottom/top remain, however, essential to them and therefore, as they strongly argue, maintaining the dialectic of rectangular forms more clearly expresses the liquification of their opposites than any other way. […]
Riepl Riepl
Hofgasse 9
A-4020 Linz
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (732) 78 23 00
Fax +43 (732) 78 23 00 – 19
arch@rieplriepl.com
www.rieplriepl.com
Peter Riepl
Born in 1952 in Upper Austria, studied Architecture at the TU Innsbruck. Since 1985, joint office with Gabriele Riepl in Linz. 1988 – 1994 partnership with Thomas Moser. 2000 Guest professor at the GhK Kassel.
Gabriele Riepl
Born in 1954 in Tirol. 1973 – 1979 studied Architecture at the TU Vienna and the University of Innsbruck. 1989 Cultural prize of the province Upper Austria. 1990 and 1998, Builder’s prize of the Central Organization of Architects, Austria.
Buildings, Projects (selection):
* 1986 – 1989 conversion of Hagenberg Castle, Upper Austria
* 1995 – 1998 O.K. Center for Modern Art in Linz
* 1996 – 1997 Engel factory Steyr
* 1995 – 1998 Management Academy Bergschlössl, Linz
* 1998 Secondary schools in Wels, Wallererstrasse and Linz, Ramsauerstrasse
* 1997 – 1999, Cultural Center Bruckmühle, Pregarten, Upper Austria
* 1999, Office building, Linz
Riepl Riepl transpose ambivalence on the re-enactment of a place, and they avoid linear causal chains and uninspired materialism. Peter Riepl speaks of “wobbly effect” as a strategy to leave the classical purism behind. The existing, free-standing building for the Open Cultural Center Linz emerges almost unseathed; the activation of the previously “blind” back court and the color scheme enhance the corporality of the old building, yet, in certain moods of light, the graphite wash (by Bitter/ Weber) creates a sense of immateriality. Placing a glass pavilion on the roof, however, manifests the old building as solid foundation, which is comparable to the rocks, on which the Parthenon is built.
For the castle Bergschlössl in Linz, a puristic, glazed structure is inserted as a low-volume background and filter between the baroque edifice and the park. A glass wing is added as a quiet background and filter between the baroque building and the park. The new building becomes, seen from different angles, a vehement kaleidoscope mirroring villa and sky (on the south side), transparency to the park (in the middle) and semi-transparency through lighting (north side). At the music school in Pregarten, the main undifferentiated body of the hall appears on the exterior, to be built as an echo of the nearby granite rocks, proves to be, however, an exact expression of the acoustics and sight lines of the interior. So can the act of building bring a presence to place that befits a contemporary world where, as Lucius Burckhardt says: “Nothing is what it appears to be; only appearances are not deceptive”. […]
Splitterwerk
Vinzenzgasse 8
A-8020 Graz
A U S T R I A
Phone +43 (316) 58 10 33
Fax +43 (316) 58 10 33
splitterwerk@splitterwerk.at
www.splitterwerk.at
Splitterwerk are:
Mark Blaschitz (Born in 1965)
Johann Grabner (Born in 1963)
Bernhard Kargl (Born in 1965)
Gernot Ritter (Born in 1968)
Josef Roschitz (Born in 1964)
Markus Zechner (Born in 1967)
All studied at the TU Graz. Since 1988 “Architecture Workshop Splitterwerk”. 1992 – 1996 Active participation in lectures on the basics of design, seminars on structural engineering and experimental structural engineering at the TU Graz. Several theses and projects on the border areas of architecture and art, several competition awards.
Building, Projects (selection):
1994 – low-cost-experimental building which could be dismantled easily, made of wooden plates as a prefabricated system, “Prototype Übelbach”
1994 – 1996 residential buildings Hödlwald, Salzburg, Duswald Office in Bürmoos, Salzburg
Since 1999 City Tower of Culture and New Media Graz
Splitterwerk further develop the ideas of the 60s, they consistently seek to expand the limits of architectural practice. Architecture begins long before building and does not end with it: Construction is not the answer to every architectural problem. The clever combination of existing structures, the rethinking of social or technological patterns of behavior, are often more important for solving problems than building might be – very much in keeping with Bernard Rudofsky‘s sentence that not a new construction method is needed, but a new way of life .
The group formed at the end of the 80s, during their student years, and began with a series of controversial competition entries. When in 1989, there was a competition to create a “mobile hall” for the festival “Steirischer Herbst”, Splitterwerk reacted with the suggestion that not the building should be made mobile but the people, and they propagated the use of the local tramway network in conjunction with locations close to it like sheds, galleries, and empty industrial halls. Theadjudicators were impressed, but it was only enough for a special prize. The “mobile hall” was never built. However, the Graz avant-garde festival has held its events – in keeping with Splitterwerk‘s ideas – in scattered ever-changing locations, since 1990. Shortly after that, their proposal for the competition “Hauptplatz Graz” presented an analogous critic of architecture competition. The starting point there too: don‘t unreflectingly work on the design of a thing, instead research the reason for the given problem, with the assurance that this research will first change the way you see the problem and then change the product as well.
The group proved that these demands were to be taken seriously with a thesis at the TU Graz. With an urban development analysis and political analysis of flats as a starting point, the prototype for an exceptionally cheap prefabricated house system was developed, one which could be transported easily and was variable and which was then built, keeping within all building regulations. The production process – from the raw-cut wood to the wall and roof elements – all took place at the yard of the university like a “trial factory”. From that point on, they started getting their first building contracts. Splitterwerk, however, did not specialize. In changing constellations, architects, photographers, marketing experts, artists, engineers, stage designers and programmers work at the crossover point of their disciplines. […]
