Architecture

Community Centre in Tyrol
by Machné Architekten

Editor-at-large

19 June 2012

The faceted buildings of this community centre look like meteorites that have landed in a rural village in southern Austria (+ slideshow).

Designed by Austrian firm Machné Architekten, the building comprises timber and fibre cement-clad volumes that are angled to frame views of surrounding buildings.

A glazed foyer connects the three main blocks at their centre and provides entrances to the departments contained inside, which include a town hall, a music centre and offices for the fire department.

Walls inside the building also feature faceted surfaces and there are no rectangular windows anywhere.

We’ve featured a few projects in Austria this month, including a house for skateboarding inside and a chapel with skeletons in its basement.

See all our stories about Austria »

Here are a few more words from Machné Architekten:

Community Center in Abfaltersbach, Tyrol, Austria

The field and the stones

The new community center consists of three main parts (auditorium, music rehearsal room, town hall) and the fire department.

The individual functions are as large “boulders” scattered on the site.

These species were aligned along important edges (neighboring houses) and sightlines.

Those stones are connected by the foyer. The fire department serves as the basis of the “stones”.

Through these seperation of the building in the various areas the urban scale of the building fits very well into the existing structure.

The spaces between the “stones” provide glimpses such as the view to the church.

The use of the site and the positioning of the town hall on the street and the foyer to the north is creating two new squares.

Click above for larger image

The northern area of the building (foyer) goes over into the existing event space and in the south, a new place, which is flanked by the town hall and the fire department.