Otto Kapfinger

In 2001 Otto Kapfiner wrote in an architecture commentary:
„The building responds perfectly to the village and the programme defined by the township with its location, the dividing of the ways and functions as well as with the materials and constructions. While the solid structure of the fire station is slotted into the ascending terrain and faces the street, the culture area floats above it as a dominant wooden cuboid that opens up its glass front to the village centre. The polarity of both components is deepened by the concept of building materials. The technical setting of the fire station corresponds with concrete, galvanised steel and glass. The culture area is tied into regional tradition with its modern timber element, building style, whereby this is the first time that a public building of this size has implemented all of the wall surfaces, ceiling soffits, floors and stairs with untreated wood. The differentiated light, the tactile and homogenous materials in the rooms modernize the sentiments of old wooden buildings with a radically new interpretation. It is important to note the distinctiveness of the dimensioning co-ordination that runs from the cut of the volume and the proportionality of the openings to the details of the facades and ceilings. Even the smallest material module appears as a part of a whole despite the extreme differences between wood and concrete.“
Taste 3