Education Centre St. Arbogast, Götzis

A youth and education centre is extended with seminar rooms and function rooms, workshops and offices. In a magical landscape this “text book example” of contemporary architecture emerges, following ecological principles without force or artificial high-tech.

The church was demolished, its old farm building have been replaced with this considerable new building, which towers high above the sloping side of the valley. A tall arcade on slender steel columns forms the transition into the closed architecture of the main building. Once inside the high-ceilinged building, the guest is greeted with the magical view and the open stairwell and with the cafeteria facing onto the valley below.

The facades have their own resonance. We tuned their design into a stimulating duality of closed white surfaces, sometimes broken by perfectly cut openings, and generous glass panels. In the seminar building you have the pleasing neutrality one would hope for in such a venue. In the centre, the stairwell, which extends over two storeys in ​​the cafeteria, also accommodates seating areas, cloakrooms and reception desks. The headlining feature is, of course, is the landscape which, through the side windows of the large dining hall is like a seasonally changing picture. The hall ceiling height is determined by the flat roof.