Photos: Brigida – Gonzalez.
The Passionspielhaus is a summer opera and music venue set in the beautiful mountains of the Tyrol. Since the 1950s it has provided a quaint summer venue for a large part of the Tyrol Festiva, a summer cultural festival. The institution has become much-loved but recently, Delugan Meissl Associated Architects were invited to create a winter venue to compliment the summer facilities.
Flashing from the jagged landscape, they have created a black, ominous – looking object of a building that threatens to deliver a precision-guided cultural program that will create shock and awe. The drama aims to culturally illuminate the sleepy Austrian town throughout the long dark winter months. Read more
I cannot help thinking that Martin Luther would have seen this exquisite church roof, raised in his name, as something of a frippery. And just for featuring it during Lent I already feel a twinge of guilt!
Let us be thankful then, that this outpouring of what some might regard as contemporary Catholic taste, can also be enjoyed as a celebration of nature’s own patterns of fluidity.
This Coop Himelb(l)au creation is beautiful and wondrous and helps us reflect on natures own beauty. Read more
Photos: David Chipperfield Architects.
Keeping with the commercial theme for today, I thought it would be interesting to compare my earlier post, the Amasçati, retail complex in Turkey by Tabanlioğlu Architects, with the Peek & Cloppenburg flagship store in Vienna by David Chipperfield. They are not a like for like comparison as Tabanlioğlu’s project is an edge of town development, Chipperfield’s a city centre building. But the comparison does highlight the different responses necessary by virtue of the context. Read more
Photos: Martin White: www.pool2b.net
Clad externally in Larch, or as it used to be known in the UK matchwood, this summerhouse in Burgenland is the archetypical rural idyll for a person of sophisticated, minimal taste. It was designed by Judith Benzer Architecture of Vienna. Read more
Photos: Querkraft Architects
In the 1990s the transparent glass box was used as a way of extending the historical building of the Technical Museum of Vienna. It allowed views through the new building to the historical fabric and in this sense was felt to be as unobtrusive as possible, as well as an appropriate metaphor for what the museum is about.
But things change. The energy necessary to control the huge internal temperature swings of the glass structure are no longer environmentally acceptable. The space was also noisy, and did not provide the necessary emotional environment that curators now need for their museums.
Querkkraft Architects were asked to examine the issues and came up with this exciting intervention. Read more
