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Field studies across town. Through the inner city on foot and by tram toward the west and east and south.
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CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE IN GRAZField studies across town. Through the inner city on foot and by tram toward the west and east and south.
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WHEN SOMEONE SAYS “A” IN GRAZ THEY MEAN ARCHITECTURE. More precisely, modern or – better – contemporary architecture.
With a density that even eclipses some other European metropolises.With a variety that proves that creative artists and freethinkers are very welcome in Styria. And with a level of quality that shows at first sight that juxtaposing old and new structures is no longer a fundamental issue.
Let this brochure be your guide on a tour of discovery that will take you to the most thrilling examples of contemporary architecture in Graz. Just choose from: a relaxed walk through the inner city that will also take you up on the Schlossberg hill, to the historical ‘crown of the town’ and the Stadtpark greenery. Or choose one of the three routes toward the east, west or south of the city – comfortably by tram, from the Kunsthaus in all cases. Or would you rather choose for yourself? No problem; just choose the buildings that are particularly interesting for you – and we will show you the way.
FROM LOCAL PHENOMENON TO INTERNATIONAL QUALITY PRODUCT
Short introduction to modern architecture in Graz p 2
Tracing a successful synthesis of old and new: Walk through the inner city p 4
Westward or “reaching” modern architecture by tram p 14
East Side p 22
Off to the south! p 30
Out of Graz p 38
Information, guided tours, recommended books p 39
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TRACING A SUCCESSFUL SYNTHESIS OF OLD AND NEW. Walk through the inner city
It isn’t just the gem of the almost fully preserved historical city centre that makes Graz so special – it is also down to the successful combin-ation of old and new. Buildings charged with history and sensitively refurbished, plus contemporary amendments – buildings that can be read as confident gestures and have been cleverly added to the city-scape, all of the highest quality. This is how this city keeps itself young and lively.
1 KUNSTHAUS GALLERY Lend | Suedtiroler Platz 2, Lendkai 1 | Peter Cook & Colin Fournier, GB (2003)
Whatever one might like to call this deep-blue, strange structure, within a very short time it became the city’s most famous building. Seemingly weightless, the ‘bubble’ rests on a glass pedestal. The exterior skin consists of more than a thousand curved acrylic sheets, which are lit from behind by innumerable light sources. Its belly holds two exhibition surfaces, one above the other, which are accessed via transverse travel-ators. The gallery of the vaulted top space leads to the so-called ‘needle’, a glazed city loggia, forming a visual brace between the ‘bubble’ and the listed neighbour, the historic building of ‘Eisernes Haus’.
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Gries and Lend: not so long ago they were still sleepy trading districts on the west bank of the river Mur, but today, having turned into extremely colourful and vital districts, they have become part of the centre. Enli-vened by foreign cultures and a fresh young art scene, enriched by jovial pubs and trendy event venues, and indeed by the Kunsthaus with its mystical light show each evening.
2 SQUARE DESIGNLendplatz | Norbert Müller (2000) – no illustration
3 ROSE AM LENDLendplatz 41 | Innocad (2008)
4 MURINSEL ISLANDKaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai, Lendkai | Vito Acconci, USA (2003)
In 2003 it was installed as a temporary “eye-catcher” but has now been given unlimited permission to stay. An artificial, shell-shaped island attached to the banks by means of two bridges. Its complex structure of steel tubes serves as both a vaulted roof for the café and a concave re-ceptacle for an open-air stage. The island can deal with high water as the two bridges are attached to moveable joints and the floats are located on poles. Island or ship, that is the question.
5 MURSTEGKaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai, Mariahilferplatz | Günther Domenig & Hermann Eisen-köck (1992) – no illustration
6 KASTNER & ÖHLER Sackstrasse 7-13, Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai | Szyszkowitz & Kowalski (1991-2003), Nieto Sobejano arquitectos, E (2010)
A skilfully executed policy of expansion allowed this traditional depart-ment store to grow into a commercial empire. The purchase of proper-ties all around the original premises by Helmer&Fellner (1914) required structural renovation and a mastery of the task of joining them. Here Szyszkowitz + Kowalski applied a skilful touch. Light glass roofs blend in confidently, bridges of fine glass-and-steel construction and glass roofs over courtyards constitute delicate connecting elements within the hete-rogeneous arrangement. The sports department by the river expresses the typical vocabulary of this architect couple: strong sculpting, playful features and pastel colouration. The latest modification and extension is a quantum leap of further expansion: adding a third to sales floor area with trendy design, reconstruction of the multi-storey main hall with gal-leries, a café on a terrace and a bar beneath the spectacular roofscape by Spanish architects Nieto Sobejano; all will make shopping here a special experience.
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7 LIFT IM BERG (LIFT INSIDE THE HILL)Schlossbergplatz | Reiner Schmid (1999)
Thanks to new gastronomic attractions the Schlossberg or castle hill recently has become a ‘must’. The square at the foot also serves as a gateway to a widespread labyrinth of former air raid shelters. Two of these were transformed into the “Dom im Berg” (Dome inside the mountain), a sound-proof room of archaic ambiance that serves for events of all kinds. It was necessary to blast 5000 cubic metres of rock out of the mountain to accommodate the most rapid aid to ascent, the glazed lift. The effort has paid off.
8 CAFÉ-BAR AIOLA UPSTAIRSSchlossberg 2 | Siegfried Frank & Michael Rieper (2003)
A place of enormous urban quality was created here. Light and transpa-rent, whilst bounded by a generous terrace, a space is created using but a few elements. A flat roof on slender steel supports, glass frontage of room height, which silently disappears into the floor at the push of a but-ton, allowing inside and outside to merge. What more could you want? 9 SCHLOSSBERG RESTAURANTSchlossberg 7 | Christian Andexer & Georg Moosbrugger, Erich Prödl (2007)
This restaurant was always recognisable for its exposed position. Now, after refurbishment, the place itself has been turned unto something special. The architects reacted both to the view – the city below – and to sunlight by using glazing of full room height. The generous space is subdivided into sought-after window seats and secluded areas by means of a lean and clear language of forms. The building is crowned by the “Skybar” offering all-round panoramic views. The uncovering of the remaining bastion walls reminds us of the historic soil on which we stand.
10 VOLKSKUNDEMUSEUM (FOLK LIFE MUSEUM)Paulustorgasse 11-13 | BEHF Architekten (2003)
For quite a while the museum, which was founded in 1913, had been skated around. This has changed since the entrance area was re-created to be more open and the exhibition surfaces more attractive. A visible sign of modernisation is the tube-shaped glass bridge combining the structures from different epochs into one building complex.
Tip: Check whether the folk life museum is currently showing a special exhibition: www.museum-joanneum.at
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11 KARMELITERHOFKarmeliterplatz 1 I LOVE architecture and urbanism (2011)
Three existing buildings, which were connected together, were to be closed to form blocks by means of a new “adapter”. The goal: resolution of deficits in design and function and provision of additional office area. Particularly striking is the “facelift” of the building with the central ent-rance – a “moving façade”, which aims to interpret the traditional Graz style of casement-type double window in a new way.
12 FORUM STADTPARK Stadtpark 1 | Ernst Giselbrecht & Peter Zinganel (2000)
As a cultural institution the Forum Stadtpark is almost venerable, yet as a home to avant-garde artists it is as fresh and cheeky as ever. After years of throbbing vitality the building had become too small and some clever thinking was required because the general ban on construction in the Stadtpark forbade any kind of horizontal extension. So it was verti-cally extended. The new offices on the top floor are part of a dominant, brilliant white body composed of steel girders and horizontal lamellae. A widely visible sign expressing the versatility of the building.
13 ORANGERIE D’ORBurggarten | Splitterwerk, Grabner & Partner, Brands United (2005)
Splitterwerk work with surfaces and patterns. The architects, who refur-bished this classical greenhouse and turned it into an event location, wish to put conventional points of view in question. Thus the central main space of the Orangerie was clad with one and the same ornamented wallpaper pattern – ceiling, wall and floor fused into a golden mirror hall – flickering, with blurred edges. Rather confusing, altogether.
14 ALTE UNIVERSITÄT (OLD UNIVERSITY)Freiheitsplatz, Hofgasse 14 | Alfred Bramberger (2007)
Cathedral, mausoleum, castle, the late-gothic spiral staircase or the old Jesuit University: each of these historical buildings of the “Crown of Graz” shows the genius of old masters. Architects, builders and craftsmen, all of them contributed, and still do, to the brilliance of this city. The most recent example is the adaptation of the old university in its splendid library as a prestigious event centre.
Tip: On all the main routes through the inner city you can discover beautifully designed new shops. The contrast with the often centuries-old building substance is particularly attractive.
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15 HAUPTPLATZ (MAIN SQUARE)Hauptplatz | Markus Pernthaler (2002)
Façades that date back to the Gothic period enclose a surface, which daily is filled with busy activity. It was necessary to clear out, apply order and zoning in order to give back to the square the full effect of its impressive triangular shape. Shifting the tram tracks at last yielded a satisfactory paved area in front of the Weikhardt watch shop, long a particularly popular meeting point for people from Graz. The uniform design concept for tram shelters and kiosks, using steel and glass, has a calming effect. The same is true of the mobile market stalls. The lighting arrangements are clearly finely-tuned to complement the square’s faça-des and paved areas.
16 STEIERMÄRKISCHE SPARKASSE (BANK STYRIA)Sparkassenplatz, Andreas-Hofer Platz | Reiner Schmid (bar), M. Szyszkowitz & K. Kowalski (2006 and 2011)
Anyone not in the know would not suppose this finely arranged, glittering crystalline façade to be a 1970s construction. The wish was not only for a significant facelift for the bank headquarters but also a complete reno-vation that took account of energy saving and changes in functional requi-rements. This also gave rise to the “Blounge” – a café-restaurant in which not only bankers can have lunch. The latest coup: construction of a service centre with a planted atrium on a vacant site on Andreas-Hofer square.
17 JOANNEUM RENEWED Neutorgasse I Arge Nieto Sobejano + eep architekten (2012)
2011 was a significant year for Graz: the Joanneum, Austria’s oldest and second-largest museum, celebrated the bicentenary of its foundation. Not only did this prompt a re-structuring of the collections but also the tendering of an international architectural competition with the aim of integrating three historic buildings from differing epochs into a functio-nal entity. The architects’ solution presents a new entrance connecting all departments - an attractive visitor centre under the museum courtyard yet flooded with light via large, glazed, conical wells.
18 BÜROHAUS NIKOLAIPLATZ (NIKOLAI SQUARE OFFICE BUILDING)Nikolaiplatz 5 I Atelier Thomas Pucher & Bramberger architects (2010)
In times of pluralism, the aspiration to construct anew amidst existing buildings carries with it the requirement for the highest architectural qua-lity. This steel construction has it: fitted with precision upon an existing underground car park, it presents itself confidently in contemporary style.
Tip: Don’t just pass by the Stadtwerke (Holding Graz) building. This modernist gem (by architect Rambald von Steinbüchel-Rheinwall, 1933) deserves a closer look. It is worth observing how skilfully a disguising of scale in the staircase was used to create the impression of greater height. An urbanistic gesture.
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WESTWARDor: “reaching” modern architecture by tram
By tram one can experience a representative cross section of quality construction in Graz. The stops on our excursion are like pearls threaded on a string: the technical college, dwellings, fine cultural buildings, hospitals, buildings for infrastructure and leisure facilities. Designed by architects who read like the “Who’s Who” of the scene.
19 PALAIS THINNFELD, HOUSE OF ARCHITECTUREMariahilferstrasse 2 | ifau & Jesko Fezer, D (2007)
A baroque, palatial town house, which was refurbished to house three mutually independent cultural institutions – above one another. The new Haus der Architektur (House of Architecture) forms the basis and is the most public institution – it serves as a passage way, lecture hall, exhibition space, office and bar – all in a very small space. A radical com-promise, reduced to a minimum of design, ideally inspiring an up-close discussion of architecture.
20 GOGO – DAS STADTHAUS (TOWN HOUSE)St. Georgengasse 7-9 | PURPUR.ARCHITEKTUR (2009)
Commercial floors with residential space above ranging from studio flats to a penthouse. Old and new side by side, flexible floor plans capable of individual adaptation, fair-faced concrete and a façade enlivened by differing window formats and recessing – best urban feeling.
TRAM ROUTE 1 TO EGGENBERG
HAUPTPLATZ
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SÜDTIROLERPLATZ/KUNSTHAUS
BUILDINGS 19, 20, 21
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ESPERANTOPLATZ
BUILDING 22
21 RESIDENZ “ZUM SILBERNEN ELEFANTEN” (SILVER ELEPHANT RESIDENCE)Südtirolerplatz 13 | Günther Domenig & Gerhard Wallner (2010)
The former headquarters of the trade unions’ association – rebuilt to become a building for living, office and shop spaces, with the addition of a multi-storey residential block in a quiet location. What is special is the new attic structure placed on top – a sculpture – stylish and streamlined like the body of a sports car.
22 RONDO Marienplatz 1 | Markus Pernthaler (2008)
The first thing catching one’s eye is a distinctively bent, backward-leaning skin made of reinforced plastic panels. This skin protects the generously designed entrances to offices, flats and studios, which are also decorated with bushes and trees. Offices, flats and studios spread out over seven storeys above the ground floor. Before this boomerang-shaped housing and office building, this was the location of the Graz Marienmühle mill. Living spaces with large glass surfaces and conti-nuous balconies open up towards the garden, through which the mill-stream runs as in the old days. What was created here, within an urban problem area, has achieved a high quality of life and recreation value alongside big city flair.
23 HAUPTBAHNHOF (MAIN RAILWAY STATION)Europaplatz 2-10 | Christoph Zechner & Martin Zechner (2003)
Since its refurbishment in technoid cool architectural language and the addition of a small shopping centre, it enjoys general acceptance, affection even. The large hall, which was allowed to stay as a monument to the 1950s, has become particularly popular with travellers since it was lined in a striking design by artist Peter Kogler in 2003, when Graz was capital of culture. Its popularity was so great that it was decided by vote to let the installation remain after 2003. Now all that is missing is a new development and improvement of the square in front of the station.
24 HOTEL DANIELEuropaplatz 1 | Refurbishment, design Werner Aisslinger, D (2005)
This typical post-war construction, designed by Viennese architect Georg Lippert, has become a must-visit since the latest refurbishment, which we would also like to recommend to the inhabitants of Graz. The motto: back to retro-styling with strong 1950s designs. The rooms: minimal and stylish. Those who cannot stay the night should visit the Espresso Bar. Coffee service in pastel colours – just like the nightly play of lights on the façade and its balconies.
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ESPERANTOPLATZ MAIN RAILWAY STATION
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25 HELMUT-LIST-HALL Waagner-Biro-Strasse 98a | Markus Pernthaler (2003)
New life for a former locomotive assembly facility. The requirement was to create a flexible event hall, which would make old and new music sound equally good. A not altogether simple building task that was resolved in an exemplary, integrative way. The central part of the hall was replaced by a new concert hall, a massive twin-shell box with solid wood cladding inside. The slender steel beams were preserved in the foyer, which serves as an airy break area. Materials such as steel and glass highlight the industrial character. Massive bodies in fair-faced concrete, pushed into the hall above the floor on both sides, constitute the readily interpretable contemporary layer.
26 FH-CAMPUS (UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES)Eggenberger Allee 11 | Gonçalo Byrne & Thomas Zinterl (2005)
Young blood for the former industrial district! The University of Applied Sciences forms the heart of the still-young campus – the design corre-sponding with the language of new simplicity. Approaching, one sees a strung-out building body with a transparent base. Its partner, placed pa-rallel, shows equally little accentuation toward the north, whilst its rear, directed toward the south, is freed up by two cubes protruding cheekily out of the building body. They house the canteen and auditorium and serve to structure the indifferent environment with a paved sun terrace and a garden with trees, water and plant beds designed by landscape architects “ko a la”. Mental work needs oxygen too, of course.
27 “AUSTER” BAD EGGENBERG (“OYSTER” SWIMMING BATHS)Janzgasse 21 | fasch & fuchs. (2010)
Dicreet protection alongside a generous threshold to the open expanse of the grounds; along the sides of the plot facing the streets, this is how the newly built water-world of this swimming bath steeped in tradition presents itself. The two wings of the building – curved, glazed towards the sun – are reminiscent of an opened oyster. They house the wellness and swimming areas. In the centre: the hall and restaurant, cloakrooms beneath and offices above. Fasch & Fuchs craft their buildings. The indoor pool, gently embedded in the landscape, surrounded by lounger and viewer galleries. Sauna and relaxation area – a landscape with islands, hills and plateaux, with water features and grottos. A delight for the body, the soul and the eye.
WAGNER-BIRO-STRASSE
BUILDINGS 25
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ALTE POSTSTRASSE
BUILDING 26
JANZGASSE/EGGENBERGER BAD
BUILDING 27
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28 SCHLOSS EGGENBERG.LAPIDARIUM.ARCHÄOLOGIEMUSEUM Eggenberger Allee 90 | Purpur (2004), BWM Architekten (2007, 2009)
One associates Eggenberg with its unique palace and extensive park. At its northern periphery: the Lapidarium – home of one of the largest coll-ections of Roman stonework in Austria. The design by Purpur is more than a protective shell for the valuable finds. The concept underlying the airy construction, extending between space-defining slabs and transpa-rent separators, is guidance through the show. Immediately adjoining and discreet in the choice of materials and colours is an exhibition room that radiates tranquillity through its range of different levels and continuous overhead light source, which not only sets the ancient and more recent historical collection in the right light but also frames it splendidly (BWM Architekten).
29 MULTI-PURPOSE HALL OF THE SISTERS Georgigasse 84 | Günther Domenig & Eilfried Huth (1977)
Don’t be shy; ask to be allowed in through the door to the convent. In the internal courtyard you get to see a key construction by the ‘Graz School’ of architects. The multi-purpose hall, a structure of organic form with ribs and wart-like projections for the lighting, resembles the physiognomy of an animal. A lack of experience in the use of compac-ting shotcrete made the subsequent encasement in galvanised steel necessary. Astonishing that this bizarre structure functions to this day as a dining room, still with original furniture and still popular. 30 FORMER TEACHER TRAINING ACADEMY Georgigasse 85-89 I Günther Domenig & Eilfried Huth (1969) – no illustration
31 LANDESKRANKENHAUS GRAZ WEST (PROVINCIAL HOSPITAL)Göstinger Strasse 22 | Arge Domenig – Eisenköck – Gruber (2002)
In synergy with the accident & emergency hospital to which it is physically connected, the hospital expresses all the qualities for which the operator was striving. Economy, greater efficiency in operation and hotel quality not only for private patients. All this was guaranteed by the prize-winning architectural concept. Even the entrance area allows worries to be forgotten. The multi-storey hall and cafeteria, flooded with light, resembles a high-class hotel lobby. This forms the centre of the cross-shaped complex. From here one can make the short trip through the vertical succession of out-patient clinics, wards and treatment facilities. Corridors as bright as day open into friendly common rooms and lead to spacious patient accommodation with balconies. Excellent prospects of recovery.
SCHLOSS EGGENBERG
BUILDINGS 28, 29, 30
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EGGENBERG/UKH
BUILDING 31
TRAM ROUTE 1 TO EGGENBERG
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EAST SIDE Crowds of students, mansion district and the green valley towards Mariatrost
32 MUMUTH – HOUSE OF MUSIC AND MUSICAL THEATRE Lichtenfelsgasse 14 | UNStudio – Ben van Berkel, NL (2008)
A notable architectural critic once noted that Ben van Berkel’s spectacu-lar Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart showed similarities to High Baroque architecture. Back then, buildings developed principally from their interior spaces, and their exterior aspect was simple. The same is true of MUMUTH, the long-anticipated new theatre for rehearsals and perfor-mances for the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. The shell, a monochrome metal mesh, the interior – wow! Flooded with light, the main foyer in front of the large theatre on the upper floor is dominated by the so-called “Twist”, a massive concrete core with a complicated shape running through both floors. It supports the main joists, conveys students and visitors up and down and - makes you dizzy!
TRAM ROUTE 1 TO MARIATROST
HAUPTPLATZ
That modern architecture in Graz enjoys such a good reputation has for a long time been attributable to two main pillars: residential and univer-sity construction. Numerous new buildings for teaching today colour the city just as indelibly as the approximately 45,000 students from three universities and two universities of applied sciences. Graz has long since shed its image as Austria’s “Pensionopolis”.
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BUILDING 32
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33 MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY GERMAN LITERATURE Elisabethstrasse 30 | Riegler.Riewe (2003)
Handke, Bauer, Frischmuth, Roth. The Literaturhaus offers a stage not only to local writers but also to the “who’s who” of German-speaking authors – with delightful regularity. The carefully renovated city-centre palatial building, with its library, exhibition areas and offices, gained a complementary construction in its interior courtyard. A new presentati-on hall, set at garden level, offers a view of the small park. A 1970s-style café has been built on top of it (design: Innocad). The minimalist pavilion with large, protected terrace forms an intimate retreat, independent of the pursuit of literature.
34 CAVALRY BARRACKS Leonhardstrasse 82-84 | Sepp Hohensinn (2007)
A former barracks, long since used for residential purposes – mainly opportunistically – was converted to new usage as teaching and rehea-rsal space for the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, for apartments and a café. Replacing the fencing along the street, a separate gateway structure was erected. Its somewhat rigid-looking aspect from the street, complete with metal trellis, was intended as screening for the offices, nevertheless allowing (judge for yourself here) an unhindered view of street life from within. 35 RESOWI FACULTIES Universitätsstrasse 15 | Günther Domenig & Hermann Eisenköck (1996)
The university as a machine. Exemplary, the way the great old master of the “Graz school” and his partner executed the gigantic programme to accommodate the 14,000 students at the faculties of law, social science and business studies. Great size requires clear rules – so a 300m long, orthogonal block was planned as the backbone. But variation creates excitement – in this case through lecture theatres, the cafeteria and the library as independent elements of highly sculpted form. Attached or – wham! – shoved into the main shape. Refreshingly unacademic.
MERANGASSE
BUILDINGS 33, 35
Tip: Not to be missed on the way from ReSoWi to the glasshouses and on Schubertstrasse, one of the most beautiful avenues in Graz, is the “Werkbundhaus” (number 31). Built in 1928 as an exemplar of pro-gressive accommodation and presented as a show home with interior furnishing.
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REITERKASERNE
BUILDING 34
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36 LANDESKRANKENHAUS (UNIVERSITY CLINIC)Riesstrasse, Auenbruggerplatz | several architects
Exploring the extensive parkland site of the provincial hospital one can see how an exemplary construction of the early 20th century was able to become an architectural showpiece project of the 21st century. The system of Art-Nouveau pavilion buildings around the main avenue has enabled step-by-step fill-in to this day – with plenty of new constructions by Croce-Klug, Giselbrecht, Team A, Windbichler, Zernig and others.
37 INSTITUTE OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGY Schubertstrasse 51 | Klaus Kada (1998)
Once the stately Wilhelminian villa, accommodating teaching and research, was bursting at the seams, Klaus Kada was commissioned to plan an extension. His appointment guaranteed not only the greatest possible care regarding the protected botanical garden but also uncon-ventional architecture. His trick: dividing construction into an extension and a graceful, separate structure for the research laboratories. The curved bridge connecting the two achieves plenty. It preserves the clear view of level ground in the garden, curves elegantly round the sequoia and ginko trees and stands as a masterpiece of structural engineering – 36.4 metres without supports.
38 GLASSHOUSES IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN Schubertstrasse 59, Holteigasse 6 | Volker Giencke (1995)
Architects’ burning interest in innovative technologies corresponds with the experience that the story of the glasshouses is characterised by ven-turous design, a search for dematerialisation and the stage management of nature. Giencke applies knowledge and creativity: to the supporting framework, a highly efficient parabolic arc of aluminium, to the curved acrylic window elements with their ideal light incidence and to the layout of routes that allows different viewpoints and turns a walk between the plants into a real experience. Beautifully contrived, this apparently orga-nic form, which “strictly speaking is based on strict geometry” (Friedrich Achleitner). No wonder this building has been presented in all of the architectural magazines of significance throughout the world.
Tip: Take a break at the Hilmteichschlössl café, set amongst flowers and lush greenery. You can purchase anything from plants to garden shears. Those who wish to enjoy the delights of nature can stroll around the lake or go skating, depending on the season.
LENAUGASSE
BUILDINGS 37, 38
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HILMTEICH
BUILDING 36
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From the Hilmteich lake by tram through the valley of Mariatrost. Onward on a journey through time that offers a cross section of local capability in apartment block construction, then inviting one to take a rest at the end of the steep climb to the basilica.
39 KERNHAUSSIEDLUNG SETTLEMENT Rettenbacher Strasse 5 a-i | Gruppe 3 (1984) – no illustration
40 RETTENBACH RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX Rettenbacher Strasse 3 a-f | Bernhard Hafner (1989) – no illustration
41 TIEFES HAUS (DEEP HOUSE)Teichhofweg 7-55, 57 | Pentaplan (1999)
This residential building is a rarity from a time of chill wind blowing in the faces of architects at large. A total of 27 apartments of the best terra-ced housing quality extending over three floors, crowned by an atrium on the roof into which no one can look from outside. Refined in terms of material and execution. All this without causing a stir and without involved frippery. As developers, the architects managed the marketing too. And they were successful.
42 TANNHOF I AND II Tannhofweg 8-26 | Hubert Riess (1988, 1990)
How does one create the ideal residential environment? Through subdivision into small units, protected green yards, communal facilities, individual apartment entrances and keeping cars out on the periphery of the settlement. Established, atmospheric, simply beautiful.
43 RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX AT MARIATROST Kirchbergstrasse 4 a-h | Ernst Giselbrecht (2006)
The basilica, sloping site and fields determined the design, which accommodates the construction of two different building typologies. A long, narrow construction was chosen for the flatter part of the plot in the form of a plateau above the access. Above two storeys there are penthouses distributed individually like “ridge turrets”. The second construction on the slope consists of four individual tall buildings, each containing seven apartments. In between is green shared between all of the apartments. The clarity and strictness of the buildings, the white colour and generous provision for daylight are all clear references to modernism.
TEICHHOF
BUILDING 41
RETTENBACH
BUILDINGS 39, 40
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43
MARIATROST
BUILDING 43
TRAM ROUTE 1 TO MARIATROST
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TANNHOF
BUILDING 42
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30
TRAM ROUTE 4 TO LIEBENAU/MURPARK
OFF TO THE SOUTH! Variety – suburbs, residential districts, the trade fair and industrial areas.
44 JAKOMINIPLATZ Jakominiplatz | Jörg and Ingrid Mayr, Johannes Fiedler (1996)
Move along! It has the highest through flow of pedestrians (and passen-gers) and is one of the first squares in Graz to have been treated to a new outfit. It’s not to everyone’s liking. Whatever the level of disagreement may be over the functionality and design of this public transport hub - in the night time, thanks to hundreds of individual points of light, it radiates big city flair.
HAUPTPLATZ
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JAKOMINIPLATZ
BUILDING 44
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45 AUGARTEN HOTELSchönaugasse 53 | Günther Domenig & Gerhard Wallner (2000)
What to do, when faced with the challenge of building a “top class hotel” on a difficult site amongst highly heterogeneous surroundings? The architects delivered a tailor-made concept. It uses the advanta-ges – and is oriented to the south. It reacts to the surroundings and existing buildings, nevertheless appearing confidently different. Hotel and restaurant / administration were divided into two buildings, unified by a delicately designed outdoor area. The outdoor character of access routes continues with the access balconies. An indoor swimming pool, exquisite furnishings and large number of works of art compensate for the sparing use of space.
46 BROCKMANNGASSE RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTIONSchönaugasse 54a-b, Brockmanngasse 102 | Innocad (2006)
This is how modern residential space can be created: Wilhelminian style buildings surrounding a block and including workshops, garages and apartments are gutted, comprehensively restored and rebuilt with new apartment floors. Not least because of the singular grey colour, this yields a harmonious whole. And this, even though there was absolutely no attempt to pay lip service to the existing buildings. In the interior courtyard, towards which most of the terraces and balconies face, old and new merge into a green idyll.
47 CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Friedrichgasse 34 | Hemma Fasch & Jakob Fuchs (2003)
It is both a place to experience and a space for activity, a dynamic structure tailor-made to suit the requirements of its small users. A sloping floor, stairs, ramps and a bridge connect several levels to form a multi-layered spatial continuum with moveable walls. Space to move is taken literally here. Also suitable for children are the low-set strip windows which, when lying on the tummy, offer a view out into the park. The building is set fairly low and thus nicely ensconced between the trees. A refreshing, unconventional building without a conventional roof, of sculpted form in a contemporary tectonic interpretation. Thus, quite incidentally, the building itself becomes an instructive example of architectural quality.
Tip: Want to get away from the hustle and bustle for a short while? A walk amongst the greenery makes a change and gives you a chance to recover. The Augarten park is as richly diverse as its visitors, and it is home to an architectural one-off: a building just for children.
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45
47
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FINANZAMT
BUILDINGS 45, 46, 47
47
34
JAKOMINIGÜRTEL/MESSE
48 STADTHALLE (EVENT HALL)Messeplatz 1 | Klaus Kada (2002)
A new centre on the axis from Jakominiplatz to the stadium, that was Klaus Kada’s dream as he designed this multi-functional hall. Its impos-ing roof, stretching out over the street, was to give a signal visible from afar and marking urban fill-in. Simple hall construction was too little for the architect; he was looking for challenges in terms of design and form. In evidence is the experienced handling of high-quality materials, best-quality detailing, exquisite feeling for colour. The roof of the 6500 m2 hall stands on just four massive steel-reinforced concrete supports and is cantilevered 46 metres out over the forecourt. Its supports are more than one storey high, its area is equal to that of the plots for 15 detached houses. 11 rotating gates, each 18 metres high, open over the entire width of the hall onto the trade fair park. Enough superlatives? No doubt about it, a centre it is.
49 MESSEHALLE (EVENT HALL)Messeplatz 1 | Riegler.Riewe (2008)
A discreet neighbour, who doesn’t want to steal the show from the Stadthalle. Though built onto the latter, it holds back from the obvious linear projection, leaving the Stadthalle, which was there first, with un-compromised visibility from the south. The new building, with two halls arranged one above the other, has an undecorated and functional ap-pearance. Quality is in evidence in the foyers. Strictly demarcated zones for cashiers, cloakrooms and access regulate the urgent flow of visitors and help with orientation. A prime feature is the building’s double skin. Hidden away between the walls encasing the interior and the façade of matt-reflective expanded metal before them are emergency staircases and lifts. The desired effect: distinguished reserve through reduction.
50 MESSEQUARTIER RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTKlosterwiesg./Münzgrabenstr. | Markus Pernthaler (2012) – no illustration
51 INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, GRAZ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Infeldgasse 16 | Riegler.Riewe (2000)
52 RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION, CARL-SPITZWEG-GASSE Otto-Loewi-Gasse 18-42 | Volker Giencke (1993)
BUILDING 50
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STADTHALLE
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BUILDINGS 48, 49, 51 , 52
49
51 52
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53 STADIONStadionplatz 1 | Team A Graz (1997)
From the very start, the stadium in Graz-Liebenau was to be more than just a place sitting isolated on the edge of town and visited on but a few days each year. So an office tower was added to the side of the outwardly apparently closed oval with its light, cantilevered roof arcs. As an 18-storey cylindrical construction it would have been the glorious “high-light” and conclusion of the axis from the centre to the southern outlying district. Would have been! – Because construction was only allowed to half that height. Imposing nevertheless, the shortened version. With the stadium and an office and commercial building marking the corner by the crossroads, it now stands as an ensemble.
54 OFFICE AND COMMERCIAL BUILDING MP09Liebenauer Tangente 4-6 | gs architects with Michael Gattermeyer (2010)
A business stages its corporate philosophy. It sets it in a building – not somehow as content, but rather as a dynamically moving silhouette. An elegant shell of black glass enclosing the company’s headquarters, ren-ted office space and a restaurant – together with generous foyers, terra-ces and interior courtyards. An impressive building as entrée to the city, as manifestation of urbanity. Unquestionably enriching the outskirts.
55 FROG QUEEN – COMPANY PREMISESLiebenauer Hauptstrasse 82c | Splitterwerk (2007)
The unusual name of these headquarters for a company of test engi-neers can be traced to the architects’ oeuvre. It has nothing to do with frogs. The intention is to tease. It starts during approach, as the façade’s shades of grey become raster points, emerging as ornamentation by machine parts. It continues with an entrance, an opening in the facade leading directly into a lift. This leads directly into a multi-storey reception hall in which the walls, floors and parapets are coated in homogeneous silver. There is central access to minimised functional rooms – offices that receive their light from several individual windows at differing heights and positions. Oh yes, not forgetting the wallpaper with land-scape scenes that turn all the outer walls into works of art. All that’s missing is the smell of fresh hay.
LIEBENAU STADION
BUILDING 53, 55
DR.-L ISTERGASSE
BUILDING 54
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55 55
54
53
LIEBENAU/MURPARKTRAM ROUTE 4 TO LIEBENAU/MURPARK
DR.-L ISTERGASSE
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OUT OF GRAZBecause building culture does not stop at the city limits
56 AIRPORT GRAZ-THALERHOF Feldkirchen bei Graz | Riegler.Riewe (1994), Pittino & Ortner (2nd extension 2005)
Once a critic wrote “if one should fly it should be from here” – referring to Graz airport, which was given the functional elegance required for a cosmopolitan city like Graz with the first extension in 1994. Pittino & Ortner followed ten years later continuing the extension. They unfolded a significantly curved freely cantilevering roof reminiscent of a wing over the old and the new part.
57 SCULPTURE PARK Unterpremstätten, Thalerhoferstrasse 85 | Dieter Kienast (1999), Peter Zinganel (architecture, 2000)
Only a stone’s throw from the airport – the sculpture park, a puzzling place full of poetry, surrounded by an embankment overgrown with grass. Artificial hills with precisely drawn ridge lines, water basins in geo-metric precision, slants and troughs form an artificial landscape, which is completed by numerous large sculptures and Land Art objects.
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MORE INFORMATION ON BUILDINGS AND ARCHITECTShttp://www.gat.st – Styrian internet portal for architecture & living space
http://www.nextroom.at – General Austrian architectural archive
RECOMMENDED BOOKS:This brochure shows a small selection of examples of contemporary architecture in Graz. For more in-depth information please refer to the following publications, available in bookshops:
ARCHITEKTUR_GRAZ – APPROACHES IN URBAN SPACE. PRINCI-PALLY FROM 1990, Published by Haus d. Architektur Graz; 3rd extended. edition 2009, ISBN 987-3-901174-67-4 (Engl.), ISBN 978-3-901174-66-7 (Germ.) SPACE TWISTED WITH TIME. RAUM, VERSCHRAUBT MIT DER ZEIT. Architectural yearbook, Graz Styria 2010, Birkhäuser 2011, Basel, ISBN 978-3-0346-0792-6 (German/English)
OF PEOPLE AND HOUSES. ARCHITECTURE FROM STYRIA. ARCHITECTURE GRAZ STYRIA YEARBOOK 2008/2009. Published by Haus der Architektur 2009, ISBN 978-3-901174-71-1 (English/German)
PETER BLUNDELL JONES, DIALOGS IN TIME. New Graz Architecture Published by HDA 2000, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-901174-36-2 (English/German supplement)
ARCHITEKTUR IN GRAZ. From the Falter’s City Walks seriesPublished by Falter 2008, ISBN 978-3-85439-404-4
“CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE” GUIDED TOURS :HAUS DER ARCHITEKTUR [email protected], www.hda-graz.at
[email protected], www.architektouren-graz.atMember of Guiding Architects, www.guiding-architects.net
GRAZ TOURISMUS INFORMATIONHerrengasse 16, T +43 316 80 75-0, F ext. -15 [email protected], www.graztourismus.at
Imprint:Responsible for content: Graz Tourismus und Stadtmarketing GmbH. Concept and text: Karin Tschavgova. Translation: Baumann-Cox, Graz,Design: Graz Tourismus und Stadtmarketing GmbH, Carina Fiala. Photography: Arch. Riegler Riewe (2), Atelier Giencke (1), Andreas Buchberger (1), Flug-hafen Graz/Krug (1), Robert Frankl (1), Hotel Weitzer (1), Herta Hurnaus (1), Universal-museum Joanneum (2), Peter Blundell Jones (1), Angelo Kaunat (Cover, S. 3, S. 18), Gerald Liebminger (2), Günther Linshalm (1), Paul Ott photografiert (24), Jasmin Schuller (1), Michael Schuster (2), Rupert Steiner (1), Helmut Tezak (1), Zechner&Zechner isochrom (1), Graz Tourismus (6). Printing: Druckerei Klampfer. Austria-Export-Prospekt. Typesetting and printing errors excepted (2012).
For ease of reading, gender-specific terms have been avoided. Nevertheless, the intent of the organiser is that masculine terms used should be interpreted as applying to both sexes.
