|
Mr. Nachbaur, it must have been a real challenge to put a fire station and a culture centre under one roof. How did you feel about it?
At the beginning, we had the feeling that this particular combination of different functions didn‘t belong together in that rather unusual location, but after a while the challenge of the situation started to appeal to us. Compared to the town centre, this piece of land is practically on the outskirts, but on the other side, it is very exposed because just behind it, there is a steep slope that leads to the Subersach river. The solution was to clearly separate the functions and building materials. The fire brigade was allotted steel and concrete, and wood, in this case exclusively Silver Fir, was reserved for the cultural area. While the fire station is facing the main street, the entrance to the culture centre, and the view from the lounge area is the middle point of the village - the church.
What were the reasons you decided to use Silver Fir?
One of the main places you can get this wood is in the front of the Bregenzerwald. This material has a long history here and personally, we also like it very much, because weathering makes it turn a pretty silver-grey colour. After studying the old farm houses in the area, it was clear to us that we had to go back to the traditional building material which hadn‘t been used during the past few decades.
In a time when sustainability and adding value locally are becoming very important, it is a special challenge to bring the concept of conservation of value to a public building. At the beginning there were a lot of discussions about the untreated wooden floors, especially about how to keep them clean, but the parish church in Hittisau has had this type of floor for a number of years and there hasn‘t been any problems with keeping it clean. Actually, the town council itself, suggested that we use untreated wooden floors. We were especially lucky to have been able to work together so well with the craftsmen who realised our creative ideas with such care.
|
Forgot your password?