Innsbruck, Austria

Centrum.odorf

centrum.odorf

A New Centre for the Olympic Village District in Innsbruck – Austria

1 A building generates a public square

This projects distinctiveness is brought to bear by the bracket-like building configuration which creates its own clearly defined square. At the same time, the variety of uses and their arrangement within the clearly delineated massing provide for a well-frequented building, ensuring that the urban space will be vibrant as well. The building comes complete so to speak with its own square.

2 A square generates public life in the quarter

The public square constitutes the new centre of the quarter. The intention was not so much to harken back to a notion of traditional urban form, but rather to allow for an animated platform of everyday life a life which had until recently appeared to be foundering in the residual spaces between the apartment blocks and in the bureaucratically managed patches of vegetation.

3 Re-interpretation of a quarter

aerial

What can architecture achieve in this context? It would be naïve to think that by inserting a building more attractive than its surroundings, the social and structural problems of peripheral housing complexes could be solved. At best, in a comprehensive collaboration of architects with policy-makers, urban planners and property developers, it is possible to effect a re-interpretation of a quarter. This was the intention for Innsbrucks Olympic Village neighbourhood.

centrum.odorf - an urban model

Every new building in the quarter, particularly one with such significance, must take the existing buildings into consideration. It must, in order to endure, operate with the scale of the surroundings. Playing the leading role is not what counts; the goal is to be part of a convincing ensemble which requires a cast of characters.

public square

4 An urban model: centrum.odorf

bridges between apartment towers

The Olympic Village in Innsbruck exhibits all of the characteristics of a European peripheral housing estate and struggles with the same problems: lacking infrastructure, insufficient cultural life, mono-functionalism, as well as segregation of ethnic minorities. The spaces between the blocks with their endless succession of social-housing windows are piecemeal and there is, despite the large scale, no trace of spaciousness. All too often such ubiquitous, despondent satellite cities also provide the setting for social conflict, frustration and violence. Or so it would seem. Upon closer inspection one discovers another layer: in coming to terms with a place, one learns to accept the verity of the circumstances. On second glance, the poetic qualities of this unsentimental, strangely foreign place come into view.

a public square generates public life

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Europaconcorsi Beta

Centrum.odorf