This is how the architect himself describes the Culture House

“On the outermost edge of a steep ravine falling towards the Subersach river, the site for the new fire station and culture house is on the terrain of a former gravel pit bordering a forest. The unusual but practical combination of differing functions in a building in a smaller village structure is brought to a theme in the design. While the fire station thrusts into the slightly rising terrain and orientates to the main road, the cultural sphere floats over the fire station as a timber cube and opens a view to the village centre through a large glass front. The separation of the two functional spheres through differing alignments is enhanced by a radical material concept. The materials of the fire station are concrete, galvanised steel and glass. In the cultural sphere, untreated local silver fir is used exclusively for the walls, ceilings and floors in the regional building tradition.”

Description of the architecture prize

The entire timber construction was made of the light, local silver fir. An example of the use of the natural resources in the region, with a modern appearance.

In the basement of the building are the fire brigade premises and accommodated on the ground floor is the foyer, a seminar room and the music rehearsal room. On the upper floor are the works- and workrooms for the Women’s Museum and the Women’s Museum itself.

The entire timber construction was manufactured of light, local silver fir from the area of Sulzberg. Gluelam binders, however, were used in the construction. For economic reasons, additional steel bearers were used in the ceilings with wider spans. Due to the large quantities of timber required, the traditional principal of winter felling and observation of the phases of the moon could not be adhered to.

The timber constructions were carried out by Zimmerei Nenning, which also received one of the awards given to the Nenning brothers for the timber construction within the project.

The spaciously conceived exhibition area of the Women’s Museum on the upper floor emphasises the characteristics and effect of the silver fir as a material through the reduction of forms, as a vital but at the same time atmospheric, placid stage setting. It is the untreated wooden walls, the rough-sawn surface of the tongue-and-grooved floorboards under our feet and the view of the ceiling of untreated wood panelling, which brings the visitor to gasp within this “third skin”.

The growth of timber as a raw material, which nature offers to the culture of craftsmanship – to be seen here in the Woman’s Museum – is all a logical consequence of the interplay of the nature of the material and the rich, traditional culture of its constant use in the region.