Emerging Architecture 3 – Kommende Architektur 3

Each volume of the ‘Emerging Architecture’ series presents 10 teams of a younger generation in Austria. The third selection complements the previous exhibitions to form an ‘Austrian trilogy’. ‘Emerging Architecture’ offers a supraregionally oriented showcase for ongoing positions and unfolds a dense spectrum of mentalities within the country. An exceptional diversity of new and autonomous positions elaborated from Vienna to Vorarlberg, and from Tirol to Styria, is thus concisely outlined with 30 teams and a total of 180 buildings and projects. Correspondence between claims and reality, ideas translated into materiality, served as a crucial criterion for the selection.

‘Beyond Architainment’ is the motto guiding this selection. The exhibition seeks promising quality rather than striking novelty. The architects presented here consequently and consistently develop quite different approaches – spatial, constructive, functional and creative themes of relevance – which they materialize in buildings that have already gained recognition among specialist circles but still await a broader echo.

‘I am fascinated by teams who creatively and precisely work on overcoming the archtectonic object for the benefit of the architectonic condition; I have come to appreciate architecture that refrains from intentions to convey strong images or effects and whose objective is to form strong sensual aggregates.’
Otto Kapfinger, curator

With the book published by Springer, ‘Emerging Architecture’ offers an internationally oriented forum, sets oeuvres that to date are perceived rather dispersedly into compact analyses and profiles, and links up with the European scene by means of traveling exhibitions and lecture tours attended to by the Architekturzentrum Wien.

The exhibition will be introduced by:
Dietmar Steiner
Director Architekturzentrum Wien

Otto Kapfinger
Curator of the exhibition

Andreas Mailath-Pokorny
Senior Councillor for Culture and Humanities, Citiy of Vienna

The 10 Teams:
AllesWirdGut
Feyferlik / Fritzer
Holz Box Tirol
one room huber / meinhart
pool
PPAG
RATAPLAN
riccione
franz sam
weichlbauer / ortis

Presentations

As part of the exhibition project Emerging Architecture 3, the participating architects are to present topical buildings and projects in the Architekturzentrum Wien. (In German)

Presentation #1
Friday, January 24, 2003, 7:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger
Holz Box Tirol
pool
RATAPLAN

Presentation #2
Friday, February 14, 2003, 7:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger
PPAG Anna Popelka Georg Poduschka
one room huber/meinhart
Feyferlik / Fritzer

Presentation #3
Friday, March 7, 2003, 7:00 P.M.
Moderation: Otto Kapfinger
AllesWirdGut
riccione
franz sam
weichlbauer / ortis

Sponsors:
Geschäftsgruppe Stadtentwicklung und Verkehr, Stadt Wien
Wien Kultur
Kunst Bundeskanzleramt
Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur
UNIQA Versicherungen AG
Zumtobel Staff Österreich Vertriebs-GmbH

The exhibition
© Pez Hejduk

The exhibition
© Pez Hejduk

The 10 Teams

The 10 Teams

* AllesWirdGut
* Feyferlik / Fritzer
* Holz Box Tirol
* one room huber / meinhart
* pool
* PPAG
* RATAPLAN
* riccione
* franz sam
* weichlbauer / ortis

Each volume of the ‘Emerging Architecture’ series presents 10 teams of a younger generation in Austria. The third selection complements the previous exhibitions to form an ‘Austrian trilogy’. ‘Emerging Architecture’ offers a supraregionally oriented showcase for ongoing positions and unfolds a dense spectrum of mentalities within the country. An exceptional diversity of new and autonomous positions elaborated from Vienna to Vorarlberg, and from Tirol to Styria, is thus concisely outlined with 30 teams and a total of 180 buildings and projects. Correspondence between claims and reality, ideas translated into materiality, served as a crucial criterion for the selection.

‘Beyond Architainment’ is the motto guiding this selection. The exhibition seeks promising quality rather than striking novelty. The architects presented here consequently and consistently develop quite different approaches – spatial, constructive, functional and creative themes of relevance – which they materialize in buildings that have already gained recognition among specialist circles but still await a broader echo.

* Feyferlik / Fritzer

Feyferlik / Fritzer

Glacisstraße 7
A – 8010 Graz
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-316-34 76 56
Fax +43-316-38 60 29
feyferlik@inode.at, fritzer@inode.cc

Wolfgang Feyferlik

born in Hausham/D in 1957; studied architecture at Graz TU.

Buildings, projects (select): ‘Solo’ Housing Estate, Deutschlandsberg (competition 1st prize, together with Hubert Wolfschwenger), 1983 – 1993. 1983 – 1994: various houses (Graz, St.Anna, Vienna, etc.), and competitions (e.g. in Austria and Spain).

Susi Fritzer

born in Graz/A in 1967; studied architecture at Graz TU and at the Städelschule in Frankfurt.

Buildings, projects (select): Europan 4, Palma de Mallorca, competition (2nd prize), 1997; Aachen Institute of Technology Students Center, competition (1st prize, together with Eva-Maria Pape), 2000.
Collaboration since 1994.

Joint buildings, projects (select):

Basilica and Clerical House, Reorganization and Reconstructions, Mariazell, Styria, 1992 – 2007
Augarten Footbridge, competition, Graz, 1996
C. House, Graz, 1997 – 1999
Graz Town Hall, competition (purchase), 1999
Kunsthaus Graz, competition (purchase), 2000
Dr. D.’s Apartment, Vienna, 2001
Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, competition, Brisbane, 2001
R. House, Graz, 2000 – 2002

Relaxed Without Limits

Expressiveness is not their cup of tea, nor is a form that would ‘blast’ borders. Wolfgang Feyferlik’s early work and that developed with Susi Fritzer together represent a ‘bodiless architecture’. They employ the material features of structures and envelopes as discretely, as porously as possible, in an attempt to unfold a spatial totality, organized in a way that is not burdened by materiality. Feyferlik once announced a vision to ‘build up a magnetic field that does no harm to people and at once separates cold and warm areas, such that an envelope is created with that magnetic field alone, corresponding to the people’s requirements for comfort.’

This premise makes it clear how he, together with Fritzer, aspires to a minimum of material efforts to create the psycho-physiological requirements of dwellings. Contrary to classic modernity, the material is not abstracted; all building materials are applied and exploited according to their performance properties, their potentials tested with perfect ease. Moreover, the spatial continuum in Feyferlik/Fritzer’s concept is not only horizontally isotropic, such as with Mies van der Rohe who formulated open space as sandwiched between a podium and abstractly floating roofing panels. […]

* AllesWirdGut

AllesWirdGut

Große Neugasse 27
A – 1040 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-1-961 04 37
Fax +43-1-961 03 11
awg@alleswirdgut.cc
www.alleswirdgut.cc

Ingrid Hora *76, Andreas Marth *69, Friedrich Passler *69, Herwig Spiegl *73, Christian Waldner *71, have been working together, as AllesWirdGut since 1999, on projects of various scales – including urbanistic strategies, interior work and design; drive a Mercedes 230CE/82; go to the Schikaneder, Shamrock and expedit; enjoy Fridge, Motorpsycho, Beck, Cabaret Voltaire, Madonna and Guy Ritchie (alright: George Clooney, too)..

Buildings, projects (select):

DOZ, DOrfZentrum, Multipurpose Building, Fließ, Tirol, competition, 1999 – 2001
FUZI, Free-Space Planning (1st phase), Innichen/San Candido, South Tirol, competition, 1999 – 2002
turn0n, housing vision, everywhere & nowhere, 2000
DONG, Conversion of DON GIL Shops, Graz, Styria, and Pasching, Upper Austria, 2000ff
HIM Shop Conversion, Innichen, South Tirol, 2001
MBM Single-Family Dwelling, Fließ, Tirol, 2001 – 2002
mq21, Interior Work, MuseumsQuartier Wien, 2001 – 2002

Planned / under construction:
SI+, Single-Family Dwelling (together with Rainer Pirker ARCHItexture team and werkraum), Vienna
geo, Factory Building, South Tirol; FUZI (2nd phase)

Urbanity is Synchronism

The five shooting stars up from the country sharing an office in Vienna, in a former grocery store, are anything but affirmatively naïve, as the group’s name may suggest. Crystal-clear analyses in urban economy and astonishingly mature planning concepts are behind their zippy project titles, glamorous photomontages and comics perspectives. This is anything but the decorative utopism displayed by a good many architectural pop groups.

‘Alles Wird Gut’ – all will get well – is rather the motto informing a fresh, impartial approach to seemingly unattractive or cliché-saturated problematic zones. Positive thinking alone is provably not enough in this business. Yet an emotionlessly awake, vigorous insolence may accelerate considerations of the unwieldy nature of urban realities. Such action may reach the extent of a sober conceptual dynamics that is well considered as a trademark for the AWG projects. […]

* Holz Box Tirol

Holz Box Tirol

Colingasse 3
A – 6020 Innsbruck
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-512-56 14 78
Fax +43-512-56 14 78-55
mailbox@holzbox.at

Erich Strolz

born in 1959, grew up in Warth (Hochkrumbach), studied in Graz and Innsbruck, was awarded his diploma in 1989.

Armin Kathan

born in 1961, grew up in Lech, studied in Innsbruck and Vienna.

Joint office since 1993.

Buildings, projects (select):

1998 – 2001: Adler Apartbox System, Hochkrumbach, Vorarlberg (nominated in 2000 for the State’s Prize for Economic Building / Tourism and Architecture)
Rote Wand Apartbox System, Lech-Zug, Vorarlberg (1999 Vorarlberg Prize for Wooden Building)
Kar Apartbox System, Lech, Vorarlberg (honorable mention, 2001 Vorarlberg Prize for Wooden Building)
Mrs. Hitt Liftbox, Seegrube/Innsbruck
Jagdgasse Row Houses, Innsbruck (1st BTV Clients Prize Tirol, 1999; honorable mention, 2001 Tirol Prize for Wooden Building)
Hauser-Horntrich sfd, Natters, Tirol
Dwelling Box and Job Box, Klosterneuburg, Lower Austria (2001 Lower Austrian Prize for Wooden Building)
Minibox, Innsbruck (honorable mention, 2001 Tirol Prize for Wooden Building)
Mpreis Grocery Supermarket, Kematen
Altmann sfd, Innsbruck; Auduna Apartment House, Serfaus
Wanner Multi-Family Dwelling, Gerlos; all in Tirol
Crete Varibox Holiday House, Greece

Planned:
Wolkenstein Dwelling, Merano, South Tirol
Behmann Department Store, Egg, Vorarlberg
Stuhlfelden Grocery Supermarket, Salzburg.

Bivouaks for Urban Nomads

Their office is a roof extension in downtown Innsbruck: utmost use of space with prefab elements and a minimum of lost pathways under a straitjacketing steep roof form that could not be changed. Extreme values of economy are achieved in the toilet cell and in the Minibox fixed to the elevator annex as a meeting room. In view of 60cm of width given to the WC, practically and laconically mastered down to the last detail, it becomes clear to any visitor: these architects are different from the ‘autochthonous’ Tirolians. Erich Strolz and Armin Kathan were bred on the Vorarlberg side of the Arlberg mountain.

Strolz originates in the Hochtannberg Pass at Warth; his first building, in 1992, was a personnel section for the Adler Hotel in Hochkrumbach situated at a height of 1600m where winters last for up to eight months a year, where meters high snowdrifts and horizontal (!) snow- and rainfalls are part of everyday life. Loveliness or expressiveness rendered to constructions are out of place here, unlike robustness, extreme compactness of volumes, and a perfect interior economy.

Armin Kathan comes from Lech at a height of 1500m, also built by Walsers whose rigid mentality is still perceptible in a commercial respect. Kathan’s inaugural building was an extension for the Rote Wand Hotel in Lech-Zug in 1989. His unspectacular attempt to break through the cliché of a prevalent lederhosen style and to further develop the inner values, not the imported alienated motives of Alpine building, caused much turmoil in the village, and the architect was forced to overcome downright existential attacks. […]

* pool

pool

Weyringergasse 36/1
A – 1040 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-1-503 82 31-0
Fax +43-1-503 82 31-33
pool@helma.at

Christoph Lammerhuber, Axel Linemayr, Florian Wallnöfer and Evelyn Rudnicki are pool. They have been collaborating since 1993 and founded pool Architektur ZT GmbH in 1998.

Buildings, projects (select):

House S32, Hornstein, 1996
House in spe, Vienna, 1998 – 1999
T.O. Penthouse, Vienna, 1999
trum, Locksmith’s Hall and Bar, Trumau, Lower Austria (2000 Austrian Clients Prize), 1998 – 2000
pc, Office Building, Vienna, 1999 – 2000
rolphi, Sunglasses Shop, Wiener Neudorf, Lower Austria, 2000
ZOOM Kids’ Museum, Vienna, 2001
mcs, Office and Commercial Building, Vienna
Einöde House, Pfaffstätten, Lower Austria, both 2000 – 2002

Under construction:
mom, Attic Extension, Vienna

Planned:
AMZ, Office Building; Kabelwerk Residential Dwellings
nugget, Residential and Office Building; all in Vienna

Competitions (select):
bel-m, KDAG Grounds, Vienna, 1998
sehr gut, Vienna Primary School, 1998
lgkfld, Innsbruck Administration Building, 1999
sara, Sarajevo Concert Hall, 1999
kölnice, Cologne ICE-Terminal, 1999
kuga, Kunsthaus Graz, 2000
satz, Exhibition Center, Salzburg, 2000
bop mester, Budapest Business Park, 2001
okai, Office Building, Vienna, 2001
p ort, Vienna Northern Railroad Station – Praterstern, 2001 – 2001

Ramp Becomes Room

Their contribution to Vienna´s architectural accomplishments of the 1990s is epochal, for the ‘Sargfabrik’ housing developed together with Johann Winter marks a typological and urbanistic milestone in that decade´s mass of local residential building. After BKK 2 broke up, the members forming ‘pool’ in 1998 intensified the principles that were noticeable in the inclined planes of the Sargfabrik or the Linz dormitory to a new significance and along a whole scale of measures.
Simply spoken, pool architecture unfolds in the ramp´s spatial genesis. The inclined plane emancipates itself from a mere communication band to a catalyst for the structure´s entire form. From the smallest row house to the most comprehensive projects in urban planning, inclined planes of movement create a dynamically flowing, interlocking system that encompasses spatial parts and levels of usage. By grafting further occupancies – by making the ramp ‘habitable’ – the unidimensional theme is given ambivalence and crucial energy: no formal whim, but rather a creative reassessment of pertinent economic constraints into creative value added. Le Corbusier had made a start with a ‘ramp in the house’, and Loos had demanded that stairs should ‘vanish’ from the vertically opened constructional organism; imperceptible steps and plateaus that adhere to space were to link shifting and superimposing levels. […]

* one room huber / meinhart

one room huber / meinhart

hellbrunnerstraße 3/5
a – 5020 salzburg
austria
phone +43-662-84 17 12
fax +43-662-84 23 64
one-room@aon.at

georg huber

born in hallein, salzburg, in 1960. studied architecture in graz, awarded diploma in 1990. own office in salzburg since 1996. chaired the initiative architektur salzburg from 1996 to 1998. member of the salzburg advisory board for architecture from 1998 to 2001

karl meinhart

born in vöcklabruck, upper austria, in 1954. studied architecture at the tu in vienna, awarded diploma in 1986. own office in vienna since 1993 and in salzburg since 1996. board member of the initiative architektur salzburg from 1996 to 2001. lecturer at the salzburg mozarteum in 2002.

joint studio and working group since 1997.

buildings and projects (select):
the west arc for thessaloniki for the european cultural capital, 1997 – 2000
salzburg taxham, study project elaborated with the eth zurich, department of city planning, 1997
police athletic club sports center, experts selection procedure, salzburg, 1998 – 2002
icon – urban images, exhibition project, galerie fotohof, salzburg, 1998
leopoldskron kindergarten, salzburg, 1999 – 2001 (2002 salzburg energy prize)
gymnasium redevelopment bg2, salzburg-lehen, 2000

under construction:
salzburg-maxglan housing development.

planned:
business school 1+2, conversion and extension, eu single-tender action, 1st prize, salzburg-lehen

vision: perfect imperfection

their entry on the scene took a course contrary to the habitual. georg huber and karl meinhart approached their team identity not via trendy shop designs or trim single-family dwellings. actionist interventions and interdisciplinary analyses in salzburg city gave them their initial tread. their first collaborative competition dealt with structural measures to modernize a gigantic area in thessaloniki. at that time, the second-largest seaport in greece sought impulses for its role as 1997 european capital of culture. one room was awarded one of the main prizes in a procedure that involved experts and young teams from all over europe in multistage workshops.

at the same time, meinhart attended to the ‘public space’ project together with salzburg cultural associations and the local ‘initiative architektur’; and huber and meinhart accompanied a permanent study initiated by the eth zurich, developing urbanistic concepts for salzburg and giving rise, at the local level, to a fresh network with the relevant european discourse. in all these enterprises, their perspective was sharpened for the relative quality of a common architectural discussion that is attached merely to objects or isolated building projects. articulating the issues of location quality, the potential for follow-up use, the social and economic fields of activity in long-term urbanistic connections at the most up-to-date level – that is what subsequently formed the foundation for concrete building projects. […]

* PPAG

PPAG Anna Popelka Georg Poduschka

Schadekgasse 16/1
A – 1060 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone +43-1-587 44 71
Fax +43-1-587 44 71
po_po@chello.at
www.ppag.at

Anna Popelka and Georg Poduschka

studied architecture from 1980 – 1987 at the TU in Graz, and from 1986 – 1994 at the TU in Graz as well as the Ecole d’Architecture Paris-Tolbiac. Upper Austrian Promotion Prize; Viennese Promotion Prize 1994.

PPAG Anna Popelka Georg Poduschka since 1995. Visiting professorship in 1997/98 at the Department of Interior Design, Vienna TU.

Buildings, projects (select):

Praterstraße Housing and Attic Extension, Vienna (1999 Arce Prize), 1995 – 1998
Floatingtank at the Museum of Perception, Graz, 1997 – 1999
Augarten Nord Graz Development Plan Design, competition, 2000
Schadekgasse, PPAG Office and Apartment, 2000
Climatic Wind Tunnel, 2000 – 2002
Electric Avenue/quartier21, MuseumsQuartier, 2001 – 2002; all in Vienna.

Planned:
Glanzinggasse Housing (competition, 1st prize), 1999
Europan 6 (competition, 1st prize), 2001; all in Vienna
Rosenauerstraße Housing, Linz, 2002 – 2005

Exhibitions, lectures, publications:
The Scent of Architecture, Moscow, Venice, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Vienna, 1998 – 2000
Young European Architects, Biennale di Venezia and Buenos Aires, 2000
Lectures at the MIT, Cambridge, and ESARQ Barcelona in 2000; University of Applied Arts Vienna 2000
PPAG – Das Buch (2 volumes), 2001/02

Knights of the 3-D Chessboard

Chess is the infinite potentiality of strategic constellations on a grid field. Knights are not the most powerful, yet perhaps the most dynamic chess pieces. Unlike other actors, they advance into the third dimension while clearing pieces in front and may move around with short darts to as many as eight different squares. The spatial quality in PPAG’s architecture unfolds from similar moves vaulting to exceed the conventional zonings of surfaces and levels. Their buildings show horizontally and vertically flexed sectional areas.

The L-forms are either packed into one another in a mirrored fashion or arranged in spirals around a midline. Spatial structure is also created subtractively, meandering ways both hollowing out and unlocking a given volume. Ever since the early 1990s, PPAG have produced complex cuts and surprising spatial sequences based on the simplest of geometries. Their spatial loops developed independently from the foldings, splicings or interweavings of surfaces associated with a fashion that has since come to be rife. […]

* RATAPLAN

RATAPLAN

kohlgasse 11/3
a – 1050 vienna
austria
phone +43-1-544 06 25
fax +43-1-544 06 25-17
rataplan@rataplan.at
www.rataplan.at

rudi fritz, susanne höhndorf, gerhard huber, martina schöberl, friedel winkler, born between 1957 and 1963; awarded diplomas between 1989 and 1993. studied at vienna tu, berlin tu, stuttgart academy of arts and vienna college of applied arts. guest lecturers at the estonian academy of arts, tallinn.
working group since 1989, RATAPLAN since 1993.

buildings, projects (select):

literaturhaus, 1989 – 1991
hegergasse residential project (2000 vienna urban renovation prize), 1993 – 1999
vienna paint, office development/conversion and extensions, 1993 – 2001
kirchengasse residential atelier, 1996
mica music information center austria, 1997, all in vienna
kids’theme park, germany, 1997
passio, stage design, leopoldstadt theater; ARENA, open air site, both 1998
AFS1, housing, 1999; all in vienna
mödling sfd, conversion/annex, 1999 – 2001
unit-f, fashion office, 2000
vogelfrei, screen, k/haus, 2000
SSG, attic extension, 2001; all in vienna
sfd in niamey, niger, 2001

planned:
ARENA, event center, vienna
2 residential buildings, vienna 16
kaserngasse, urban villas, vienna
community center, teltow near berlin (competition winner)

individuality in anonymity

their career typifies those of the new viennese groups. the five team members started out into self-employment right after their studies, without years of acquiring experience in architects´ offices. their first jobs included interior design and conversions for NPOs, for agencies in commercial design, the media, fashion. the maxims they developed from the very beginnings applied to collectivity, role-swapping and equal rights in each stage of work, from designing to supervising construction. everybody does everything, there are no specializations.

the office is deliberately held “small” in an attempt to maintain the intensity of internal communication and to offer clients a compact, flexible vis-à-vis. the office is considered a key living space, and working-time quality of life is given much attention. for instance, every member of the team enjoys three months of vacation privileges, and RATAPLAN organized their own insurance without consulting professional associations. quite logical then, but no matter of course, that such rejection of conventional job descriptions would lead to political involvement: RATAPLAN are among the proponents and activists of the ig architektur, founded in vienna as an alternative to the chamber of architecture. […]

* riccione

riccione

Mariahilfstraße 22
A – 6020 Innsbruck
Austria
Phone +43-512-278 590
Fax +43-512-278 590-49
riccione@aon.at

Clemens Bortolotti

born in Innsbruck in 1967; studied architecture at Innsbruck TU; awarded diploma in 1995. Assistant at the Department of Building Construction, Prof. Giencke, Innsbruck TU, 1995 – 2000.

Tilwin Cede

born in Innsbruck in 1965; studied architecture at Innsbruck TU; awarded diploma in 1995. Assistant at the Department of City Planning, Prof. Langhof, Innsbruck TU, 1995 – 2000.

Mario Ramoni

born in Salzburg in 1961; studied architecture at Innsbruck TU; awarded diploma in 1992. Lecturer with Prof. Giencke, 1997 – 98; assistant with Prof. Langhof, 1998 – 99, both Innsbruck TU.

Buildings, projects (select):

Defner Office Building and Publishing House, Innsbruck-Igls, 1997 – 1998
Innsbruck-Igls Row Houses (together with A. Fessler), 1998 – 1999
Office and Residential Building, Reith near Seefeld, Tirol, 1999 – 2000 (together with Wolfgang Ohnmacht)
2000 Extension Main School, Zirl; Technikerstrasse Residential and Office Building, Innsbruck, competition, 1st prize (together with Helmut Reitter and Michael Pfleger), 2000
“Housing 2000 – Villages/Places in Town” workshop, Bonn, 2000

Planned / under construction:
Mimm House, Innsbruck, 2001 – 2002

Exhibitions:
Architekturforum Tirol, color installation, 1996
Installation on the Tiroler Landhausplatz (on the occasion of the “Continuous Towns – Urban Situations” exhibition), Gallery in the Taxispalais, Innsbruck, 2000.

To Dwell in Possibility

While going through their novitiates at local studios, Bortolotti, Ramoni, Cede & co. made use of the arts context to formulate substantial, para-architectonic statements in public urban spaces. Kitzbühel, for example, attempted in 1996 to garnish the “dead season” between the peaks with cultural events for the residents themselves. For three weeks, riccione draped the façade of a dilapidated old building with a net designating the exile status given to the contemporariness of building culture within a thoroughly commercialized society of tourism. riccione marked that net with a poem by American poet Emily Dickinson, “I dwell in possibility, a fairer house than prose…”

The position held by the non-adjusted, the outsider´s vision in a dull environment emerging from these lines is neither melancholic nor pathetic, but rather cheerful, uninhibited, and supported by sober optimism. riccione as a group stand for their generation’s mentality that is attached to a smiling, not a grim guerrilla war. Seeking loopholes for progressive, intelligent ideas in the niches of an ignorant reality – which still marks the building climate in the Alps furrows regardless of much current progress – they have come to realize: to dwell in possibility…

riccione belong to the hard core of the young “Architekturforum Tirol”. Thanks to their initiative, and that of MA’nGO, Astrid Tschapeller and Michael Steinlechner, a working meeting developed in 1999 to gather thirty young architects and groups from Austria and Germany in Italy´s Briolo – a follow-up seminar is currently being organized. […]

* franz sam

franz sam

franz-josefs-kai 45/6
a – 1010 vienna
austria
phone +43-532 81 84-15
fax +43-532 81 84-11
architekt.sam.kai@aon.at

born in 1956 in tiefenfucha, lower austria; studied architecture at innsbruck tu, awarded diploma in 1984. assistance and research at the department of building construction at innsbruck tu, 1981 – 1985. project leader with coop himmelb(l)au, 1985 – 1992. architects office since 1992. assistant, university of applied arts, wolf d. prix master class, vienna, since 1994. vice president of the chamber of architecture for vienna, lower austria and burgenland since 1998.

buildings, projects (select):

hendrik bar, 1993 – 1995
mitterau indoor tennis court, 1996 – 1997, both in krems, lower austria
stelzer office building, herzogenburg, lower austria, 1996 – 2001
design for emmersdorf square (competition in 2000, 1st prize), 2000 – 2001
sacha/katzensteiner law office, krems, 2001

under construction:
dr. resch dwelling, conversion of a medieval manor; reither house, attic development; all in krems, lower austria

planned:
göls dwelling, krems, lower austria
vinotheque, bregenz, vorarlberg
funeral parlor, großmugl, lower austria.

radicality as continuity

although he has been roaming through the scene in and around vienna for some years, sam is hardly known for his own work. he supervised some spectacular things, especially in terms of constructive conversions, as a project leader with coop himmelb(l)au – the falkestraße roof completion , the seibersdorf research center, the ufa movie center in dresden. the stridency taken by the approach, more so than the expressive gesture of the viennese deconstructivist pioneers, continued to be present in his independent constructions as of the mid-1990s. sam prefers to design and review his projects with a four-color pen.

with calligraphically jotted diagrams, he brings out the essentials of principles, lines of force, joints and spatial cross-sections – like black, red, blue bowshots in the white space of paper. the feeling for bearing and loading is perceived in every crossing, every superimposition of colors, in which the focusing, tensions and outflow of forces is anticipated. his extraordinary, ingenious talent was already noticed in building school. the pleasure he takes in the complexity of constructional statics has visibly developed from the abstract mathematical level on to sensual-projective space. each of his strokes is concrete and abbreviates the simultaneity of technical and creative vision. lines´ conciseness originates in the sharpness of looks. […]

* weichlbauer / ortis

weichlbauer / ortis

mauritzener hauptstraße 3
a – 8130 frohnleiten
austria
phone +43-3126-4510
fax +43-3126-4510
reinholdweichlbauer@aon.at, ortis@utanet.at

reinhold weichlbauer

born in bruck/mur, styria, in 1962; secondary school of technology (htbla) 1977 – 1982, graz tu, awarded diploma in 1989 and civil engineer’s license in 1994; teaching assignment at graz htbla since 1998.

albert josef ortis

born in graz in 1961; htbla 1976 – 1981, graz tu, awarded diploma in 1990 and civil engineer’s license in 1994; assistant at graz tu 1990 – 1996.

buildings, projects (select):

1991 – 2001: austria 1000 terminal, vienna; residential fracture, neudörfl, burgenland; residential tool, frohnleiten; residential settlement, st.bartholomä; consulting office anatomy, st.oswald; family shelves, frohnleiten; repacking, residential building, st.lorenzen; residential transformation, deutschlandsberg; residential DNA, gratkorn; system kindergarten, peggau; school diagram, stainach; all in styria. urban heartbeat; tool modulation; villa game; residential irritation; w#plus; art block, iron house; office implant; all in graz. architecture reparation, liverpool, great britain; dwelling mobility, giubiasco, switzerland; energy game house, tokyo; hybrid structure, tallinn, estonia.

ambivalence advances

in general, the architecture scene has banally acknowledged postmodernity as a cultural condition. weichlbauer / ortis are among the few planners in austria who attempt to practice the postmodern principle of ambivalence as a form of living and an operational method at today’s intellectual level. they are up to (virtually) all the tricks of chaos theory, fuzzy logic, the theories of data processing, science and architecture. however, they consciously beware of obvious extremes: the extreme to turn such instruments against its inherent logic by applying them in terms of conventional modernity in order to create “innovative” forms or new “styles”; or the other extreme that would see subjective decision-making or intuition fully eliminated from form-finding processes.

weichlbauer / ortis lead double-encoded lives in which one directs a contracting company while the other teaches at a building school, to join forces in a parallel existence and be able to “afford” outings into conceptional architecture. according to their understanding, the knowledge of “fractally determined space” is no real urge to seek inventions of “fractal” forms, but rather a qualification for new, open insights into and arrangements of influence factors and levels of reality. on the other hand, they employ computer programs and random generators at the beginning and in between planning steps. their objective is to fade out subjective preferences and internalized schematisms at the very root of design decisions, to let their own interpretation intervene in the mechanically triggered process, carrying on in a declared and selectively intuitive fashion. […]