The competition for a master plan to redesign the Alpen-Adria-Universität (AAU) campus in Klagenfurt was won by the Tyrolean team from the Swedish architecture firm Snøhetta.
The competition for a master plan to redesign the campus of the Alpen-Adria-Universität (AAU ) in Klagenfurt has been won by the Tyrolean team from the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta.
The opera house in Oslo, the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion, the design of Times Square in New York and the first European underwater restaurant in Norway have made Snøhetta internationally renowned. With their design for the master plan of the Alpen-Adria-Universität (AAU) in Klagenfurt, the interdisciplinary Norwegian office is now demonstrating what inspiring spaces for teaching and learning can look like – with sustainable architecture at the same time. The Tyrolean team from Snøhetta ultimately won the restricted, single-stage realization competition. The invitation to tender issued by the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG) for the campus master plan specified a restructuring of the university site and the design of a new institute building.
Snøhetta’s concept creates a new link between the bustling city of Klagenfurt and the tranquil shores of Lake Wörthersee in the south of Austria. A ‘landscape band’ strengthens the east-west axis of the site and connects different activities and spatial typologies such as squares, event and recreation spaces, an amphitheater, water features and outdoor learning spaces, explain the architects. Two new buildings form an overall ensemble with the existing buildings and also clearly demarcate the site. “The two new wooden buildings clearly mark the two sides of the linear open spaces, emphasize the main access to the existing buildings, anchor the university campus in the urban structure and make it visible from the street,” is how Snøhetta describes them.
The new building known as Digital Age Tower I (DAT I) – which forms the entrance to the campus – will house the Faculty of Technical Sciences. Snøhetta developed the campus idea here with an open learning landscape in the interior. It is intended to create synergies in research and teaching. Co-working spaces invite communication and knowledge transfer. Snøhetta designed the building, which consists of two parts, as a new landmark for science. A saw-tooth roof, which provides plenty of daylight and generates electricity via integrated photovoltaic elements, covers the innovative timber construction. The second new building to the west (DAT II) is also a timber construction with a saw-tooth roof, generates electricity and consumes little itself.
Snøhetta also dealt intensively with the question of what future sustainable construction could look like. “With these buildings, we are making a significant contribution to sustainable construction,” explains Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of the Innsbruck-based Snøhetta office. “With the predominant use of wood as a building material and the other proposed measures, it is possible to achieve a balanced C02 balance over the entire life cycle of the building – that means not only in the operation of the building, but also if you take into account all the gray energy that is bound in the materials.”
Patrick Lüth has headed the Snøhetta Studio in Innsbruck since 2011. After studying architecture in Innsbruck, he joined the Oslo office in 2005. There he accompanied many international architecture competitions and was involved in some of Snøhetta’s best-known submissions. In Innsbruck, he is in charge of the Swarovski projects “Kristallwelten Evolution” and Manufaktur, the design study for a new museum quarter in Bolzano, the master plan for a new city quarter in Budapest as well as hotel and tourism projects. On Tuesday, February 22, 2022, he will give an insight into his work. In the digital event “Blick über den Tellerrand”, an interdisciplinary lecture series of the Felix Klein Center for Mathematics, Kaiserslautern. Participation is possible via Microsoft Teams.
Tip: In 2021, Snøhetta curated our Baumeister issue 6/2021, take a look inside! This issue is available here in German and here in English. There’s also plenty to discover about the Norwegian office online at snohetta.baumeister.de. Or browse through our entire BAUMEISTER Curated series with MVRDV, Reinier de Graaf, David Adjaye and many more.
