Whole generations of villagers and valley residents have pressed their nose against the large shop windows facing Bezau’s village street to admire the latest photographs. The barn, where cows used to dwell in earlier times, was later home to the business of the Hiller family of photographers. Johann Kaspar Hiller laid the foundation as the Bregenzerwald’s first photographer. His daughter Hedwig later continued the legacy – as Vorarlberg’s first female professional photographer – and commissioned young Bezau architect Leopold Kaufmann to set up her photo studio.

La entrada Revitalization Kriechere 70 se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The house stands in the meadow on the edge of buildings and agriculture. The chance to still be part of the landscape with the last building plot – i.e. to live in it – was a determining factor in the design. Similar to the well-known “hay harp”, the building stands in the landscape – characterized by a clear structure and “lightness”.

The psychologist couple, who like to travel in a camper van, wanted a retreat with a connection to the surrounding nature. A one-room house was built on 65 square meters, which opens completely to the landscape to the east, south and west and, on the northern side of the slope, accommodates sleeping alcoves, bathrooms, toilets and cloakrooms in a 140 cm wide layer of space. The one-room is divided into a living, cooking and dining area by furniture and continues to the east and west onto a generously covered terrace. Superstructure and technical equipment are reduced to a minimum and all surfaces are made of untreated spruce wood. The installation cables are bundled compactly in a wall or, where necessary, routed “on wood” – a wood stove serves as the heating source.

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada House in a meadow se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Right from the start, the design process was shaped by the search for the adequate answer to the speed and complexity of the contemporary social developments.House Schmieder in Fraxern is completely built in monolithic concrete. The 8×8 meter cube stands separated on a slightly inclined meadow interspersed with cherry trees and is accessed from a small road via a filigree steel bridge. Cooking, living and sleeping areas are spread over three floors and connected by an open staircase. Exposed concrete, raw steel and silver fir are the only materials to find. The external walls are made of 50cm thick isolating concrete. All surfaces are untreated. Any floor construction was waived, the concrete surface was only polished. The construction gave the opportunity to activate the concrete core with a solar heating system, only supported by a centrally located wood stove.

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada House Schmieder Fraxern se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Images provided by the architect.

La entrada WAEHR se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The holiday home is located at an altitude of 1042 meters in Maria Alm. The narrow development specifications that apply to the location, property and design, such as building windows, gable roofs, storeys and eaves heights, are creatively interpreted. The house appears to be well integrated into the surroundings, topography and scale without appearing homely.

The floor plan and section reflect the client’s unconventional wishes in the sequence of low and high rooms, small and wide volumes. Following the topography, you access the house at a medium level and go up to the panoramic level or down to the spatially complex levels. The rooms focus on hillside locations and views, protection and space. Open fireplaces locate the focal points of commonality.

La entrada Holiday House se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

In the newly composed construction of the old barn, a wooden body is used. The foundation is carried out on reinforced concrete foundations or on the mountain floor using reinforced concrete construction. The walls and the roof folding are constructed of cross-laminated wood. Both structures, the barn and the discontinued wooden building, are self-sufficient. An external black coat of paint provided the new building with the necessary weather resistance and abstracted it. It also creates the necessary contrast to the (comprehensible) block construction of the old city. The thermal insulation of the new building is carried out as part of a vapor-permeable construction using wood fiber insulation materials.

La entrada Heustadlsuite House se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

New room vessels were integrated into the rear building of this well-preserved Bregenzerwald house, which playfully complement the centuries-old building type with high-quality and contemporary lounges. The new building shell appears deliberately reserved and unspectacular compared to the old building in front. Only when stepping onto the raised tuft does the view of the unconventional inner workings open up for the first time.

In contrast to the simple rooms in the front building, each room in the rear building has its own special geometry according to its use. Walking through old and new becomes an everyday experience. Few but high-quality materials are used in the interior design, which means that the economical architecture of our ancestors is taken into account.

(Hinterhaus means rear building – once a stable directly connected to the residential building).

Text provided by the architect.

La entrada Revitalisation Hinterhaus se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The Rauch House is not only a place to live and work, but also a show home where experimental applications of the material earth were tested. After initial attempts of placing the building volume across the slope, the house now stands as an elongated cube in the line of dip of the slope. Two strong incisions form terraces, anchoring the structure on the slope. The design of the clay facades also helps to divide the volume. The brick layers serve as erosion brakes and articulate the top and bottom through differentiating spacing. The prominent window casements are set into the wall, emphasizing its thickness and mediating spatially as a connecting element to the landscape. Thanks to its location on the slope, the northern facade area of the house remains minimal while simultaneously benefitting from the sun’s heat input on the other facades.

La entrada Rauch House se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

Located in the Alpine town of Dornbirn, Austria, architecture practice Studio Sebastian Brandner builds its Haus Rosa. The dwelling is at once defined by its narrow and elongated volume and its construction of ubiquitous textural timber. The design team describes the architecture as ‘stringent,’ as its dimensions are informed by the boundaries and regulations of its plot.

The three-story house rises above its low neighbors, standing in contrast to their gabled peaks with its flat roof and bold silhouette.

La entrada Haus Rosa se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The mountain chapel is a prayer room, a room for contemplation and introspection. At the request of the builder, it received a simple liturgical program, but did not correspond to a consecrated place of worship in the ecclesiastical sense. A space to pause, free from functional and liturgical constraints, which allows for a lot. Overused, little-scrutinized symbols and well-intentioned gestures are viewed and cleaned up from a cultural-aesthetic perspective. The built space should be interpreted as an image and not as a housing that is at best filled or decorated. The «pure space», the deliberate emptiness, arouses tension and anticipation as an optical counterpart to the acoustic silence.

La entrada Mountain Chapel se publicó primero en Global Spaces.