Emerging Architecture 2 – Kommende Architektur 2

The Architekturzentrum Wien’s series Emerging Architecture is an annual viewing of current architectural positions in Austria. Buildings and projects are shown by ten teams each time: individual projects developed beyond trends that have already attracted a certain amount of attention in specialist circles but that have yet to receive a broader international reaction. The publication, touring exhibition and guest lectures offer a public platform and the chance to network in the European scene.

This year’s selection has a few different foci: minimised buildings using standardised elements, new approaches to the handling of rural contexts, the unconventional use of modern materials under restrictive parameters, new concepts for vertical accommodation, radical transformations of historic substance, etc. The various stances taken by the ten studios introduced here are linked by a basic tendency: a retention of distance to sculptural, solid building and the trend towards immateriality in or the frame and membrane-like definition of space. These are far less architectures of ’strong images’ than they are stronger, sensual aggregates in the service of qualities that leave what may be illustrated behind them.

The accompanying bilingual book published by Springer Vienna New York will be presented at the opening.

The exhibition will be introduced by:
Dietmar Steiner, Director Architekturzentrum Wien
Otto Kapfinger, Curator of the exhibition

10 More Austrians
cukrowicz.nachbaur – Bregenz
fasch&fuchs. – Vienna
Maria Flöckner and Hermann Schnöll – Salzburg
Hans Gangoly – Graz
gerner°gerner plus – Wien
Erich Gutmorgeth – Innsbruck
HOLODECK.at – Vienna
MARTERERMOOSMANN – Vienna
Gerhard Mitterberger – Graz
Wolfgang Tschapeller – Vienna

As part of the exhibition project “Emerging Architecture 2”, the participating architects are to be presenting current buildings and projects in the Architekturzentrum Wien.

Presentation #1
Friday, January 25, 2002, 6:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger

cukrowicz.nachbaur
Maria Flöckner und Hermann Schnöll
MARTERERMOOSMANN
Gerhard Mitterberger
Wolfgang Tschapeller

Presentation #2
Friday, March 15, 2002, 6:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger

fasch&fuchs.
Hans Gangoly
gerner°gerner plus
Erich Gutmorgeth
HOLODECK.at

Information:
Ulrike Kahr – Haele
Phone: ++43 1 522 31 15 Ext. 23
Fax: ++43 1 522 31 17
E-Mail:
press@azw.at

Supported by:
Geschäftsgruppe Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr, Stadt Wien
Wien Kultur
Kunst Bundeskanzleramt
Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur
Arch+Ing, W, NÖ, B

Sponsors:
UNIQA Versicherungen AG
Wiesner-Hager Möbel GmbH
Zumtobel Staff Österreich Vertriebs-GmbH

Press Release

Press Conference: Wednesday, December 05, 2001, 11:00 A.M.
Opening: Wednesday, December 05, 2001, 7:00 P.M.
Exhibition: Thursday, December 06, 2001 through Monday, April 15, 2002
Opening hours: Daily 10:00 A.M. – 7:00 P.M.

Presentations
#1 – Friday, January 25, 2002, 6:00 P.M.
#2 – Friday, March 15, 2002, 6:00 P.M.

Press / Information:
Ulrike Kahr – Haele
T ++43 1 522 31 15 Ext. 23
F ++43 1 522 31 17
E-Mail:
press@azw.at

Download Press Release (Word RTF-file)

The Architekturzentrum Wien’s series “Emerging Architecture”, launched in Autumn 2000, is an annual viewing of current architectural positions in Austria. Buildings and projects are shown by ten teams each time: individual projects developed beyond trends that have already attracted a certain amount of attention in specialist circles but that have yet to receive a broader international reaction. In conjunction with the book published by Springer, Emerging Architecture offers a public platform for the participants, with touring exhibitions and guest lectures offering them the chance to network in the European scene.

This year’s selection has a few different foci: minimized buildings using standardized elements, new approaches to the handling of rural contexts, the unconventional use of modern materials under restrictive parameters, new concepts for vertical accommodation, radical transformations of historic substance, “drawing-free” design methods, no dividing lines between ground-level and high-rise construction.

The various stances taken by the ten studios introduced here are linked by one common basic tendency: a distance to sculptural, solid building and the trend towards immateriality and membrane-like definition of space. These are far less architectures of ’strong images’ than they are stronger, sensual aggregates in the service of qualities that leave what may be illustrated behind them.

“The reality of the architecture is not what is built but what buildings trigger off in the flow of life.”
Otto Kapfinger, curator.

10 More Austrians
cukrowicz.nachbaur – Bregenz
fasch&fuchs. – Vienna
Maria Flöckner und Hermann Schnöll – Salzburg
Hans Gangoly – Graz
gerner°gerner plus – Vienna
Erich Gutmorgeth – Innsbruck
HOLODECK.at – Vienna
MARTERERMOOSMANN – Vienna
Gerhard Mitterberger – Graz
Wolfgang Tschapeller – Vienna

The exhibition concept
The exhibition, consisting of 10 mobile transport and presentation boxes, has been conceived as a compact touring show. This year the first selected groups in “Emerging Architecture 1” has very successfully toured architecture institutions around the world (Danish Centre for Architecture – Gammeldok/Copenhagen, Deutsches Architekturmuseum – DAM/Frankfurt, FONÓ Budai Zenehaz/Budapest). The presentation boxes are to be repackaged for “Emerging Architecture 2 – Kommende Architektur 2. 10 More Austrians” and exhibited in the Alte Halle of the Architekturzentrum Wien as the first in a series of venues.

ZONE is to produce the video documentation to a significant building by each of the chosen architects’ studios. With analogue displays providing supplementary information – the two elements together forming a flexible and easy-to-use set.

The catalogue
A book published by Springer Vienna New York is to accompany the exhibition. The bilingual German/English catalogue “Emerging Architecture 2. Kommende Architektur 2. 10 More Austrians” is to be presented to the public at the opening of the exhibition on 05.12.2001. The catalogue is so designed that the contributions by each of the individual studios can be removed separately and used as portfolios.
ISSN 1437-7438; ISBN 3-211-83640-3, 256 pages, 350 b/w illustrations. Prize: EUR 40,60.- / ATS 559. Curator: Otto Kapfinger

As part of the exhibition project “Emerging Architecture 2”, the participating architects are to be presenting current buildings and projects in the Architekturzentrum Wien.

Presentation #1
Friday, January 25, 2002, 6:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger

cukrowicz.nachbaur
Maria Flöckner und Hermann Schnöll
MARTERERMOOSMANN
Gerhard Mitterberger
Wolfgang Tschapeller

Presentation #2
Friday, March 15, 2002, 6:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger

fasch&fuchs.
Hans Gangoly
gerner°gerner plus
Erich Gutmorgeth
HOLODECK.at

Supported by:
Geschäftsgruppe Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr, Stadt Wien
Wien Kultur
Kunst Bundeskanzleramt
Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur
Arch+Ing, W, NÖ, B

Sponsors:
UNIQA Versicherungen AG
Wiesner-Hager Möbel GmbH
Zumtobel Staff Österreich Vertriebs-GmbH

10 More Austrians

cukrowicz.nachbaur
fasch&fuchs.
Maria Flöckner and Hermann Schnöll
Hans Gangoly
gerner°gerner plus
Erich Gutmorgeth
HOLODECK.at
MARTERERMOOSMANN
Gerhard Mitterberger
Wolfgang Tschapeller

This year’s selection shows a number of emphases: minimized assembly work, new approaches to recreational facilities in Alpine landscapes, novel concepts for residential structures, transformations of historical architectural substance, shifts of horizons between architecture and nature. The ten offices presented in this volume are joined by one common tendency: a distance kept from sculptural, massiveconstructions and a leaning toward bodiless, skeletal and membranous spatial definitions. Altogether, these architectures are by no means attached to ’strong images’, but rather powerful sensual aggregates serving qualities that leave behind what can be illustrated: architecture is not somethingthat fills up space in a more or less spectacular fashion – it is what conditions space in the first place. Here, the reality of architecture consists in what sets buildings in action within the flow of life, much more so than photogenic constructions.

In this connection, one question emerges with respect to international trends: What’s new about these constructions? ’Emerging Architecture’ is not intended as a show window for absolutely set originality, nor is this framework to discover or propagate tomorrow’s styles. Rather, the yardstick applied to these explorations is to make visible the extent, in concrete contexts, to which younger-generation architects are able to translate concepts and ideas into reality and thus decisively stimulate the quality of future endeavors. Three fourths of the buildings and projects in this volume are located outside of Vienna and concern interventions into rural, Alpine,small-town and quite traditional environments – where they altogether appear as novel and perhaps as futuristic as Guggenheim in Bilbao, yet with one difference: they refrain precisely from embodying implants of cultural imperialism. Every one of them was created from local requirements and mostly via public competitions, and elaborated and struggled for in dialogues discussing any local political, technical and bureaucratic factor. The novelty value and progress made for those truly involved and concerned is, in my mind, more sustainable and extensive than what critique solely concentrated on theoretical discourse may possibly wish to perceive.

* cukrowicz.nachbaur

cukrowicz.nachbaur

Rathausstrasse 2
A – 6900 Bregenz
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-5574-82 788
Fax +43-5574-82 688
cukrowicz.nachbaur@aon.at

Andreas Cukrowicz

born in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, in 1969. Studied architecture at the TU and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna; diploma in 1996.

Anton Nachbaur-Sturm

born in Bludenz, Vorarlberg, in 1965. Studied architecture at the TU Vienna; diploma in 1996.

1992 joint office, since 1996 cukrowicz.nachbaur architektur.

Buildings, projects (select):

1996–98 Cubus Event Hall in Wolfurt (with Lothar Huber), (Vorarlberg Clients Prize 2001, award)
1998–99 Hein House, Fraxern (Vorarlberg Prize for Woodwork 2001)
1998–2000 Fire Department and Cultural House in Hittisau (with Siegfried Wäger), (Austrian Clients Prize 2000)
2000–01 Lebenshilfe Residential Building, Gisingen (Austrian Clients Prize 2001)
2000–02 Vorarlberg Red Cross Center, Feldkirch

Planned:
Conversion and Extension of Wolfurt Secondary School
Doren Primary School
Indoor Swimming Pool, Dornbirn
Wrestling Center West Götzis
Nenning House, Hittisau; all inVorarlberg.

Twisting of Right Angles

By the second half of the 90s, cukrowicz.nachbaur had become the most successful office among Vorarlberg’s young generation with a series of won competitions. One particular forte is their ability to bundle complex spatial programs into astonishingly simple orthogonal geometries and to optimally place compact body shells into given contexts. The very first projects already showed the asymmetrical views of their clear-cut volumes to refer to a development that exceeds the linear rationality of rectangular structures. And they have been successful, with system-immanent means applied to their more recent constructions, to set simple skeletons, as it were, into a surprising dynamics and dramatics. […]

* fasch&fuchs.

fasch&fuchs.

stumpergasse 14/25
a – 1060 vienna
austria
phone +43-1-597 35 32
fax +43-1-595 15 88
office@faschundfuchs.com
www.faschundfuchs.com

hemma fasch

born in graz in 1959. studied architecture in graz; diploma 1989 (g. domenig). 1992–98 assistantship at the tu vienna (h. richter).

jakob fuchs

born in hopfgarten, tirol, in 1958. studied architecture in innsbruck and vienna; diploma 1989 (e. hiesmayr). joint projects with lukas schumacher since 1989. assistantship (1990 e. hiesmayr and 1991–99 h. richter) at the tu vienna.

since 1994 joint office fasch&fuchs.

buildings, projects (select):

1995 renner house, langenzersdorf, lower austria (j. fuchs with l. schumacher, a. konzett)
1996 schwabpost exhibition design, vienna
1998–99 rieberer house, kühlenbrunn, styria; krieglach secondary school, seminar wing
1998 kaiserin elisabeth hospital vienna, schematic design planning, new building and adaptation
1999 baur house, raaba, styria.

under construction:
knittelfeld hospital, extension and conversion, styria (with l. schumacher)
conversion, salzburg pedagogical academy

carrosserie for light and space

they design buildings like car bodies, like compact chassis for light-weight cabriolets that let their sinews and bones be felt and can visibly respond to the sun and weather, to cities and the countryside. one of fasch&fuchs.’ specialties is to develop buildings’ cross sections. automobile constructors tend to form their wedge-shaped profiles, swelling up and fading away at various angles, from an outline put to the wind-tunnel test by analyzing such factors as trunks, rear windows, passenger space, windshields and hoods. fasch&fuchs., in turn, construct their profiles by optimizing the incidence of light on static volumes and maximizing this inpour through interior layers and functional levels. […]

* Flöckner Schnöll Architects

Flöckner Schnöll Architects

Saint-Julien-Strasse 9a
A – 5020 Salzburg
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-662-87 87 99
Fax +43-662-87 87 99
atelier@floecknerschnoell.com
www.floecknerschnoell.com

Maria Flöckner

born in Salzburg in 1962. Studied architecture from 1982–90 at the TU Vienna. Worked with A. Schweighofer (office and at the TU Vienna, Institute for Building Construction). Traveled through Asia and Africa. Board Member, ‘Initiative Architektur’, in Salzburg from 1998–2000.

Hermann Schnöll

born in Salzburg in 1964. Studied architecture from 1983–84 at the TU Vienna and from 1984–90 at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna under H. Hollein. Founding member of ‘Dynamo’ in 1985.

Since 1998 joint office Maria Flöckner und Hermann Schnöll.

Buildings, projects (select):

1997 Werfenweng Center, competition (with T. Forsthuber and G. Zich); Gendarmery Boat-lifting Facility, project (with T. Forsthuber), Mattsee
1998–2000 Taxham Day Home for Children (Salzburg Prize for Architecture 2000; Austrian Clients Prize 2000; Salzburg Energy Prize 2001; Salzburg Prize for Woodwork 2001)
2000–01 Zenzmaier House and Studio, Kuchl; all in Salzburg

Optimized Cover, Innovative Spaces

Sustainable constructional concepts, passive- and low-energy houses are indeed the dictates of the hour. The recipe of compact, high-insulated constructions, however, frequently leads to reduced, sculptural, functional interactions between constructions and their environments. Flöckner Schnöll projects show fascinating alternatives to such stereotypes. They link efficient energy concepts and up-to-date modes of construction with innovative spatial solutions. Here, to optimize a building’s envelope is in agreement with an enrichment of the volumes’ interior complexity, whereas such an inner development, a conversion of conventional types of buildings, does not stop at the individual object. Rather, it is followed up as a principle of entire development structures. […]

* Hans Gangoly

Hans Gangoly

Volksgartenstrasse 18
A – 8020 Graz
AUSTRIA
phone +43-316-71 75 50
Fax +43-316-71 75 50-6
office@gangoly.at

born in Oberwart, Burgenland, in 1959. Studied architecture at the TU Graz; diploma in 1988. Founded his own office in Graz in 1994. Board Member, Central Union of Austrian Architects – Styrian Chapter, 1996–99. Lectureship from 1997–99 at the Institute for Building Sciences and Design, TU Graz (G. Domenig). Member of the Board of Diploma Examiners at the Graz College of Technology since 1997.

Buildings (select):

1996 Oberwart Fire Department, Burgenland
1998 Hornegg Estate, revitalization, Preding, Styria
1998 G. House, Graz
1998 Hametner Gallery, Stoob, Burgenland
1999 Old City Mill, revitalization (Clients Prize 2000; Prize of Recognition – Piranesi Award 2000)
2000 A. House; all in Graz

Under construction:
Dreierschützengasse Secondary School
“Herzogshof”, revitalization; all in Graz

Planned:
Hausmannstätten Community Center, Graz
GAT Formulation Chemistry, Ebenfurth, Lower Austria
Border-Crossing Institute of Dialectology, Oberschützen, Burgenland

Planning Without Drawing

Hans Gangoly does not draw. More precisely, he applies graphic representations merely to communicate with clients, authorities and executive companies. He needs no drawing to design. He develops a structural concept exclusively in his mind and with written notes. Ideally, this concept provides answers to all questions of content and form, as well as economic and technical issues.
Says Gangoly, “It is like amathematical equation with many unknowns. If the equation balances at zero, then the design is all right. Such a concept already contains the urbanistic approach and the detail, without a single line being committed to paper.”

Scripts and depots are constituents of such a concept. Scripts deal with locations and clients, they summarize the issues raised by occupants, their programs and the local circumstances. They motivate project-specific solutions and can most simply be developed when the occupants are concrete persons or when target groups of occupants can be clearly defined. […]

* gerner°gerner plus

gerner°gerner plus

mariahilferstrasse 101/3/49
a – 1060 Vienna
austria
phone +43-1-596 22 04
fax +43-1-595 44 94
gegeplus@chello.at
www.gernergernerplus.com

andreas gerner und gerda maria gerner

born in salzburg and burgenland in 1964. studied at the tu vienna in 1985–92. contracting combine since 1996 (gerner/gerner). university assistantships at the second institute for building engineering at the same school, 1997–2000. 2000–01 lectureship at the tu vienna.

since 2000 gerner°gerner plus.

buildings, projects (select):

1996 hmh, sfd (=single-family dwelling), vienna 22
1997 dachbox, gießhübl, lower austria (1st prize, domico prize for metal building)
1998–2001 wellanschitz vine-growing estate, neckenmarkt, burgenland
1999 woodstock, sfd, vienna 17; lände, roof development, vienna 9
2000 zuck, office extension, oberpullendorf, burgenland; hagel, austrian graupel insurance company, vienna 8
2001 sued.see, sfd, jois, burgenland

planned/under construction:
kfg, experimental residential building, vienna 23 (vienna municipality promoting prize for architecture, 1st prize 1998)
igler, shop conversion, deutschkreutz, burgenland
hafner, sfd, extension, feldkirchen, carinthia.

the poetics of industrial construction

the ability to bring the universal and the concrete into accord is a strong point developed by gerner°gerner plus. they are perfectly able to tune their abstract ideal of constructive modernity, as it were, to clients’ wishes and substantial requirements. the technical brilliance shown by their fine frameworks is not set in absolute terms, it is no a priori. rather, it develops from the potential inherent in a given occasion. their dynamics are sharpened in the emergent obstructions of pragmatics, the limitations of which are demonstrated and shifted, without applying provoking dogmatics. their avant-gardism is ideologically independent, attached neither to a material nor a geometry. they build in steel as well as in wood, be it curved or edged. it is primarily decisive to fully exploit the available industrial methods of the genre in a given framework and to integrate the concomitant advantages into customers’ programs: short construction periods, dry assemblings, reduced costs and material, flexibility in building and occupancy, efficiency and easiness of spatial atmospheres. […]

* Erich Gutmorgeth

Erich Gutmorgeth

Lohbachufer 21
A – 6020 Innsbruck
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-512-29 29 19
Fax +43-512-29 29 19-4
gutmorgeth@aon.at

born in Innsbruck in 1951. Studied architecture at the TU Innsbruck. Assistant Professor at the Institute of Building Engineering at the same university. Set up his own office in Innsbruck in 1988.

Buildings, projects (select):

Extension in 1987–93 and development in 1992–94 of Feldkirch Hospital, Vorarlberg
1994–96 Kematen Kindergarten (Tyrolean Award for New Building 1996; International Architectural Prize for New Building in the Alps 1999, recognition)
1996–98 Inzing Community Center (BTV Clients Prize 1999; Tyrolean Award for New Building 2000; Tyrolean Prize for Woodwork 2001)
1998–99 Mpreis Grocery Store, Leutasch
1999–2000 Hochleitner House, Mieming (Tyrolean Energy Conservation Home Prize 2000; Tyrolean Prize for Woodwork 2001)
2000 Stand, Kematen Playing Field
1999–2001 Extension of Kematen Primary School
2001 Mpreis Grocery Store, Oberperfuss; Pliessnig House, Ranggen; all in Tirol

Structuring the Void

He has materialized no more than five or six small-scale constructions since 1988. Virtually coming from nowhere, however, and in contrast with the local atmosphere, these buildings are included among theprime pioneering achievements in western Austria. They are filigree, bodiless forms, lightweight, supple pavilions, stimulating an unencumbered and self-assured utilization. They refrain from setting a strong gesture against the dominance displayed by the mountainous landscape. Their response to the ‘call of the mountains’ consists in ingenious sensitive constructions, meeting the vertical pathos of the valley’s omnipresent flanks and rocky walls with the unimpeded relaxed horizontality of modern life. […]

* HOLODECK.at

HOLODECK.at

kirchengasse 13
a – 1070 vienna
austria
phone +43-1-524 81 33-0
fax +43-1-524 81 33-4
vienna@holodeck.at
www.holodeck.at

HOLODECK.at – office for spatial design

established in vienna and berlin in 1998, founded by marlies breuss, michael ogertschnig & susanne schmall (until 2001). have directed design studios since 1996; lectured at the tu vienna and politechnico di torino. components of our design include program restructuring, superimposition of local information, conceptual interpretation and new material technologies.

buildings (select):

1996–98
benthouse (private unit), großhöflein, burgenland
rooftop 01 (private unit), bodensdorf, carinthia
positionen 01 (temporary setting), eisenstadt
spatial object fcb (temporary setting), vienna

1998–2001
convex.shop (public entity), eisenstadt
hall 01 (public entity), st.veit/glan, carinthia
making.it center (temporary setting), vienna
global tools. infusionen (temporary setting), vienna
loopedhouse (private unit), großweikersdorf, lower austria.

the loop of facts

HOLODECK.at projects are marked by loop-shaped sequences, foldings continuously shifting out of the site into buildings’ envelopes, tossing themselves up, and turning and sliding back into the terrain. loop and folding figures have been included in the hot spots of architectural debate since the 90s. decades ago, reinforced-concrete engineering had superseded the old tectonics of supporting and supported members. now, the issue of continuous spatial articulations, “freed” of the axis of gravity, was introduced into a novel dimension by the development of synthetic materials, of bearing membranes and of the emergence of complex cad programs.

for HOLODECK.at, the spatial loop is no mere formal pattern. rather, a critical mass – then leading to a turnover, a loop of empiricism into a new quality – develops in their projects from the collection and overlapping of empirical data. but of course, conventional as-built analysis is insufficient for such a conceptual turnover – “transprogramming”, in bernard tschumi’s words. specific methods must already be applied in the investigative phase in order to force open linear or monocausal lines of argumentation and to bring a given situation’s concealed potentials to light. in urbanistic designs, HOLODECK.at’s investigations are thus sharpened by observing and evaluating the established facts with new conceptual frames, supplemented by references to external observers who query and reassess the statistically gathered data with their own subjective diagrams. […]

* MARTERERMOOSMANN

MARTERERMOOSMANN

Grinzinger Allee 50-52 / 6
A – 1190 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-1-32 89 270-0
Fax +43-1-32 89 270-20
office@marterermoosmann.com

Georg Marterer

born in Vienna in 1964. Studied architecture at the TU Vienna.
1992 participation in the Salzburg ‘Internationale Sommerakademie’
(Hans Hollein and Arata Isozaki).

Thomas Moosmann

born in Bregenz in 1969. Studied architecture at the TU Vienna; diploma in 1994. 1991–93 tutorium at the TU Vienna, Institute for Artistic Design.

2000 foundation of MARTERERMOOSMANN.

Buildings, projects (select):

1995 Neuwaldegg bathhouse
1996–97 Seilerstätte apartment conversion
1997 Teahouse, Neustift am Walde; all in Vienna
2000 k-effects, Gartengasse; Beethovengasse apartment conversion
2001 VegaX, Esslinggasse office furnishings; Gloriettegasse attic conversion; all in Vienna.

Planned/under construction:
Delugstraße residential building, Vienna
conversion of an art-nouveau villa, Klagenfurt
DANZAS, extension of reloading point for trucks, Wels, Upper Austria.

Ready to Assemble

The house as a high-quality finished product, deliverable in variations from the conveyor belt and most simply assembled – a dream that has remained to be cherished by reformers of architecture, from Konrad Wachsmann/Walter Gropius and the Case Study Houses up to Philippe Starck and current lifestyle supplies. In Austria, every fourth single-family house is set up today as a prefab, with some 99% being built along the popular clichés attached to a “Gentian House” or “miniature villas” lacking any particular spatial or energetic quality.

The reasons were rather coincidental for MARTERERMOOSMANN to start the umpteenth attempt in this profession, and in Vienna of all places. For one, the town’s building regulations have undergone quite sensational innovations, permitting multi-storey residential dwellings to be built of wood only since recently. Another reason dates back four years – the so-called Teahouse in the Viennese vineyards with which Georg Marterer abruptly became known. Due to its inaccessible location, it was conceived as a precast construction in which no part could weigh more than 50kg, since all materials had to be transported to the site over a narrow footpath and assembled with the simplest of tools, without a crane. Moreover, this module was intended to be set such that subsequent replacements, e.g. of individual façade elements, would be carried out in a similarly easy way. Marterer himself had already set up small ephemerous constructions, and now detailed the Teahouse with a precision engineer’s care. The self-assembling systematics of a well-known Scandinavian furniture center was elevated to a Zen atmosphere without losing its practicability. MartererMoosmann have further developed this system from metal into frame construction and offer a pallet of products at surprisingly low prices, a minimal 50m2 variant on two floors as well as large-scale, three-storey development structures. […]

* Gerhard Mitterberger

Gerhard Mitterberger

Glacisstrasse 7
A – 8010 Graz
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-316-381 580
Fax +43-316-386 029
mitterberger@aon.at

born in Lienz, East Tirol, in 1957. Studied architecture at the TU Graz; diploma in 1985. Was granted a scholarship under Sverre Fehn in Oslo in 1986. Established his own office in 1989 in Graz and Lienz. Lectureship in 1997–2000 at the TU Graz, Institute of Building Sciences.

Buildings, projects (select):

1991–1995 Nussdorf-Debant Community Center, East Tirol (1994 DOMICO Prize; 1995 State Prize for Industrial and Commercial Building; Special Prize, Nussdorf-Debant Fire Department)
1994 Klagenfurt Hospital, Central Institute for Roentgenology (with Peter Jungmann)
1996-1998 Karl Franzens University Graz, Students Union, conversion
1998-2000 Parking Lot, Monocable Lift and Service Facilities, Matrei, East Tirol (2001 Joseph Binder Award)
1999 Stallhofen Sports and Recreational Center, Styria
2000 Bruck Castle Museum, Lienz

Under construction:
Passail Nursing Home
Bad Waltersdorf Sports Center; both in Styria.

Between Truck and Formula One

Dealing with nature is a yardstick of cultural maturity in a country that depends on marketing the Alpine regions it is marked by. To date, Gerhard Mitterberger has chiefly implemented buildings for summer and winter sports, in addition to converting historical sites which are as long-time integrated motifs of natural beauty as palaces and castles are Mitterberger’s approach to such tasks is drastically different from the folkloristic or modernistic clichés that today dominate this genre.

His interventions into grown or built substances are precise, unsentimental, unvarnished. They serve to emphasize the instrumental character displayed by the complexes and are fed neither by historical nor idealizing ideologies. Rather, their background is the domain of playfield shanties, makeshift stages, security constructions along avalanche slopes. It is the efficient world of bivouac equipment, agricultural machines, torrent regulations, overhead supply lines, platform newsstands, hang-gliders’ platforms – undiluted technology, no ‘design’. Sports facilities such as Stallhofen transfer the intelligence associated with a Leatherman tool to a larger scale, to the sportive conditioning of the landscape, connecting a precise concept that carefully rationalizes all expenditures with the directness and robustness of means and materials. […]

* Wolfgang Tschapeller

Wolfgang Tschapeller

Mariahilferstrasse 58
A – 1070 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-1-526 69 68-0
Fax +43-1-526 69 68-15
proj@tschapeller.vienna.at

born in Dölsach, East Tirol. Joiner’s apprenticeship and final examinations, studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (postgraduate studies, MA). 1993 civil engineer’s examination in Graz and established office in Vienna. Lectureships at Cornell University, Ithaca, Inha University, Seoul, Korea, at the “Haus der Architektur” in Graz, i.a.

Buildings, projects (select):

1996–2001 Murau District Commissioner’s Office (with Friedrich W. Schöffauer)
until 1997 Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna
1998 Music Theater Graz, competition
1998–99 “Bundesländer Versicherung”, study for large existing reinforced concrete skeletons
1999 Crematorium Linz 3, Linz-Urfahr, competition
2000 Department Store, competition, Innsbruck

Planned:
Franz Kafka Conference and Memorial Rooms (with M. Wallraff), Kierling, Lower Austria
Envelopes for rapidly changing programs: a restaurant, warehouse, supermarket, furniture store, office, exhibition room, East Tirol (with M. Wallraff).

Shifting Horizons

The polarity between the figure and area, the construction and ground, is an issue running throughout conventional architectural history, including modernism. Traditionally, the footing was the element with which the (building’s) figure rose above the (building) ground. Modernism blasted the footing away, allowing the construction to float above the ground and the site to flow on “untouched”. One thing remained unmoved after the break with tradition: The horizon of architecture lies above that of nature; the figure still distances itself from the site,yet with different means, and the ideal landscape continues to be the common vanishing point. For more than ten years, Wolfgang Tschapeller’s projects have been an attempt to resolve and/or shift the axiom of horizons and the figure-area dialectics.

For Tschapeller, the landscape ideal has today become fiction. The layers and sediments of civilization have long entombed the zero line between nature and culture. Correspondingly, architecture can no longer be founded on the simple contrast between the construction and site. The artificiality of the ground’s relief is now to be seen as a shaped totality, especially in old living environments. Any intervention into this relief represents a conversion that simply no longer rests upon ‘steady’ ground but rather penetrates into an already site-less swimming texture of previous constructive and destructive processes. […]