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Interview R. Wehinger


Mr. Roland Wehinger is an architect in the offices of Professor Hermann Kaufmann. When Peter Metzler asked him about the project he said:In the year 1995, the University of Innsbruck had already made a study about the development of the town of Ludesch.

In this study it came to light that communication facilities were missing and that there was no real town square since the church, the Blumenegg- Hall and the old Town Hall and social centre were all located directly on the road.  Up until then, a proper village life was practically impossible.  With the decision to build a new town centre, a work group was formed in 1997 which began a space and function program in accordance with a survey conducted within the community.  In the year 2000, our company, the architectural offices of Hermann Kaufmann, was invited to join the development study.  Then, in the framework of the study, the needs that were voiced when the survey was conducted were worked into the first, rough concept.

It was our goal to scale the diversity of essential functions to fit the character of the village.  This is why the concept of a 3 element construction was created with a roofed over village square as the communicative middle point and the infrastructure facilities around it so that the village would have higher local value.  

In the beginning, the town was thinking of a hybrid construction project, but right from the start, the declared wish was to use wood as the building material.  However, due to the available technical facilities in connection with profit requirements, there were misgivings.  It was very important to us to construct the whole building with timber since we had a lot of experience in timber construction and also knew how important adding value locally was.  After numerous talks with individual expert planners it was confirmed that it was possible to use timber construction alone.  For us planners. it was important to use the wood in an ecologically friendly way.  That meant to leave it untreated.  This led to the construction of rough hewn facades with a meter deep, cantilevered,  constructive overhang as protection for the wood.  The lamella structure on the roofed over area is also made up of untreated wood surfaces.

Because the town of Ludesch had such a large number of Silver Firs, it was important to us to use this wood for the facades as well as on the inside of the building.  Leaving the walls on the first floor in a rough hewn state was a courageous yet unusual step.


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