A hybrid banking headquarters

The new Raiffeisenbank headquarters in St. Pölten is located on a prominent urban corner in the north of the city, not far from the railway station. The concept of the building allows for hybrid use and accommodates not only a bank branch and an advisory centre, but also a public restaurant and café, an event space, a co-working space and terraces on multiple floors. A formulated joint divides the building into two volumes. It marks the main entrance and contains the access to the four-storey building. The transparent and generous staircase allows views into the street space and the quiet inner courtyard. The façade oscillates between openness and closeness. Horizontal cornices made of glass-fibre concrete wrap around the building over several storeys, contrasting generous glass surfaces, which are rhythmically broken by pilaster strips.

Awards: Callwey – Best Workspaces, DE / Vorbildliche Bauten Niederösterreich, AT

Cooperation Partner: Studio Hoffelner Schmid
Project Management: M.O.O.CON
Lightning design: Designbüro Christian Ploderer
Guidance system design: buero bauer

New corporate headquarters: renovation of the listed existing building, new office and commercial spaces

The building adopts the plot’s polygonal layout and develops it into a compact structure with two courtyards. The ensemble of the new building and the partly listed old building closes the gap with regards to urban development and blends subtly into its surroundings. A public passageway on the ground floor creates a new connection between Rochusmarkt and Grete-Jost-Park. At the interface between old and new, a multi-storey, light-flooded atrium serves as circulation space as well as meeting area. The rooms have been designed to allow for future alternative uses, thus ensuring long-term and flexible utilisation.

Awards: Austrian Federal Award, AT / Mies van der Rohe Award (Nomination), ES / best architects award, DE / AIT-Award, DE / Office of the Year Award, AT
Cooperation Partner: Schenker Salvi Weber Architekten
Landscape Partner: DnD Landschaftsplanung

Wine-selling, bar, lounge and degustation

At the entrance to the village of Kaltern, a new sales outlet was built for the winery cooperative which at the same time became a landmark along the South Tyrol Wine Route. The monolithic angular structure spans an inner courtyard to the existing buildings and acts as a mediator through its height development. Tension is created between the perception of the uniform shell made of glass fibrereinforced concrete and the only large interior space it encloses, in which a sculptural landscape of terraces unfolds. Its height development alone creates a complex sequence of atmosphere and spatial impressions.

Award: The Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award, USA

Office building for the district administration, state departments and the chamber of commerce

(NHK) is less a building than an urban module. The building volume required for the spatial programme is not implemented as a large form that negates the context, but is integrated into the small-scale plot structure of its location. The typical urban patterns of Krems’ historic centre such as alleys, bridges between buildings, passages and inner courtyards are translated into the present day. The idea of the house as a city is also continued in the routing inside. At the time of its construction the building was classified as Austria’s largest passive office building and set new standards in ecological office construction.

Awards: State Award for Architecture and Sustainability, AT / Recognition in the 2012 Lower Austrian Architecture Award, AT / klima:aktiv – for innovative, sustainable building, AT / green building award, largest passive office building, AT
Cooperation Partner: AllesWirdGut, FCP

New Austrian coorporate headquarters for a facility service company

In order to offer a high-quality working environment in a faceless industrial area in St. Pölten, it was important to create a separate, self contained world with great interior qualities — as in a hortus conclusus. In keeping with the corporate culture, the office space is organised on just one level on the upper floor. The resulting hierarchical spatial organisation between open and closed offices is intended to promote communication. The pixelation and materialisation of the façade takes away from the scale of the building and creates a multi-faceted, complex game with the perception of the building and its context.

Award: Nomination Bauherrenpreis 2011