LFU:online

The students are able to independently formulate and implement architectural concepts. They can convincingly communicate their designs, present them in detail and position them within their respective theoretical or creative context.

Structure brut dynamique

This semester we devote to the conceptual discussion and design practice within a concrete architectural project. The basis for this studio is the Congress Center in Bad Gastein, planned by Gerhard Garstenauer and opened in 1974. The “deep building”, which protrudes and develops from top to bottom, is considered an architectural icon of functional brutalism in Austria. Nevertheless - or perhaps precisely because of this - the Congress Center has been empty for almost 20 years, is in a partially desolate state and is falling into disrepair.

The aim of the studio is to contrast the existing Congress Center with a contrary, perhaps even contradictory structure and to develop a new centerpiece for Bad Gastein in this combination.

The focus lies on creating a building structure that is able to mediate between different programs and depict them as a dynamic, differentiated “spatial structure”. The study of fundamental geometric, spatial and architectural concepts and their cultural-historical dimension is just as important as the examination of the concrete location and its specific urban, social and cultural aspects.

We will take up the conscious contrasts and contradictions of the town of Bad Gastein and the existing building as a design approach and think of them as a new interpretation of a future building, whereby the congress center is understood in the sense of an expanded "landscape" that is to be modulated, adapted and understood as a new building site. 

The focus of the studio lies in the different structural aspects, whereby the term "structural" is not reduced to mean "construction", but is to be understood in a broader sense. "Structural" in this context therefore includes both constructive and geometric, spatial, organizational, programmatic, etc. dimensions.

Course examination according to § 7, statute section on "study-law regulations".

Please see studio brief.

For information for application please see: https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/architektur/studium/entwerfen-2025s/