POLZ
March 2009
Location: South Styria, Austria
Principal use: Visitor Center
Site area: 4500 m2
Total floor area: 1700m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team:
Chieh-shu Tzou
Gregorio S. Lubroth
This project involves the design of a visitor center for local South Styrian producers on the site of an existing warehouse, wholesale shop, and company offices. In an attempt to recycle existing structural components, the new building drapes itself over the existing shop and office. The site boundaries and a need for continued access to the existing structure determined the placement of the new building. The exhibition spaces, cafe, and lobby atrium turn at the corner of the site and face a medieval fort on the other side of the river. Due to the controlled environment of the exhibition spaces, the facade is primarily blind with the exception of large glazed surfaces at the entrance, shop, and cafe. A roof deck with views of the hill fort can be accessed from the cafe. Long aluminum panels of shifting colors clad the facade and add a sense of speed and directionality to the building mass. The color shift is concentrated at the sharpest corner of the building where visitors drive under the structure to access a parking lot in the back