House Mohr

House Froschauer

House Birgit Mayr

6 Terraced Houses

House Salhofer

House Nimeth

The residential and business house Nimeth counts among the oldest buildings of Ried im Innkreis and was already documented in 1598. Initially there were two parcels of land of 45 metres depth with a front house facing the main square, a spacious interior courtyard and a rear house oriented towards Kirchengasse. These buildings were accessible and connected by a passage on the ground floor and by arcades upstairs. From 1900 onwards the courtyard was successively filled in with additions. When Ms Birgit Mayr purchased the real estate in 2009 three tiny courtyards supplied the lighting of the four-storey volume so poorly that the building was entirely vacant except for the business premises.
It was the builder-owner´s ambition to create attractive living space and to revitalise the historic town centre. This idea was followed by a design that focused on dismantling uncompromisingly the dense structure of the building and on restoring the central court with circumjacent arcades. All of the twelve apartments of 60 to 180m2 feature a loggia, a terrace or a small private garden. From one of the original passages of the building two stairs, one of them under monumental protection, and a lift take you to the upper floors of the edifice. The garage on the first floor is accessible via a driveway from Kirchengasse. Since Ried was founded on marshland, an underground carpark was difficult to realise. Five apartments are arranged around the courtyard which is located above the garage – a pattern continued on the third floor. Three maisonettes, with generous private terraces, are set back on the upper floor and provide in this way sufficient lighting for the courtyard.
The conversion of the building was not only challenging in respect to the preservation order and a sensitive adaption of a four-hundred year old building substance to contemporary requirements of accommodation, static limits were maxed out as well. By using pre-built ribbed concrete ceilings it was possible not to exceed the weight of its previous ceilings. At the same time the building has gained a uniform and artistic element similar to a woven carpet on all its storeys.

House Brandstätter

Parish Church Kirchheim

The historic church building consists of a nave bordering the gallery on the western wall, as well as a southern aisle – an element typical of this region. Its aim was the adaptation of the parish church was its visible preservation with specific consideration of existing Gothic proportions.
In order to expand the nave, the western wall was removed and the church interior extended by seven metres in westward direction. In place of the original rear wall two columns were installed in order to support the gallery, which was transformed into a bridge that is accessible from both sides. The free-standing gallery acts as an element that at the same time separates and connects the old and the new: Standing inside the annexe, the observer is able to look into the historic church as if looking through binoculars. Additionally, the formerly hidden wooden pipes at the back of the historic organ on the gallery have become visible for the first time.
Walls and vaults within the annexe were built and plastered by local craftsmen using traditional methods. At this, the western exterior wall was provided with a primary wall of conglomerate rock for weather protection. Arched windows were designed for the annexe as a means of linking the building’s old Gothic elements with the rounded shapes of the new building section. Artistically they continue the tradition of the Barock windows of the baptistery located in the east of the building.  In its outer appearance the church extension depicts another stage in the history of the building meeting the requirements of its grown community.

Chapel of Seitenstetten

Office Building BauMayr

The office building of the construction company Bau Mayr is located on a narrow strip of land between the family´s residential house and the high street of the village. Due to the funnel-shaped premises the architect´s design comprises a three-storey building whose east façade – a massive wall – separates the building and the traffic; whereas the west façade relates closely to the opposite façade of the family residential building.
Reception area and offices are located on the ground floor. The first and the second floor are spanned by a wooden beam ceiling which is supported by only a few pillars on the middle floor. Interior wall partitions shape the single offices. They are carried out in lightweight construction and pitched on the finished floor construction. These separating walls serve as furniture which can be used from the offices and the corridor likewise. Each of the seven offices on the west façade provides a protected workplace with a pleasant atmosphere. Orthogonal recesses in the façade ensure appropriate lighting within the rooms and transform the corridor situated in the east into a complex spatial structure.
The second floor of the building is confined by a circumferential ribbon window separated by sash bars. A terrace is situated above the main entrance in the south. In order to comply with the local building regulations concerning the maximum height of the building, it was necessary to keep the copper sheet roof low. Thus its hipped roof pulled down far under the edge of the upper storey supports the weather protection for the untreated wooden window frames.

Studio Kumpfmüller

School and Multi Purpose Hall Kirchheim

The concept of the new primary school and kindergarten building in Kirchheim i.I. with multiple use has been gradually developed over a twelve-year period. The possibilities of space utilisation and space quality of the building were scrutinised by the community and made up a core issue for both users and planners. Moreover, the possible development and future perspectives of the centre of the village were of crucial importance, too.

The building is perspicuously accessible via a cascade stairway over five floors. At the outside, these transparent stairs are accompanied by ramps for people with special needs. All facilities such as the media room and the music practice and rehearsal room, the library, the foyer area, the gym in the basement, the public toilet, the copy room, the wardrobes, class rooms and kindergarten rooms and the workshop are situated next to this distribution zone and can be used in multiple ways. The music practice room can be opened entirely breadthwise and the acoustic lining can be varied for rehearsals and performances. The playschool is connected to the adjacent garden without steps. The primary school is accessible on both levels from outside. Furthermore, an amphitheatre makes teaching outside the classroom possible.

The complex design of the outdoor areas, planned and realised by the landscape architect Markus Kumpfmüller, differentiates between several topological subspaces with differing functions, depending on the terrain and relation to the building, and distinct degrees of accessibility to the public.Herbert Schrattenecker´s focus was placed on creating interior and outdoor spaces which offer child-friendly environments and sufficient opportunities for free movement.

Parish Centre Gallneukirchen

The parochial house with its medieval nucleus was converted into the still existing residential and agricultural building in about 1760. Before reconstruction work began, the youth rooms, which had been built into the former stables in the 1960s, were damp and electricity, heating system and windows were in bad condition.
Demolishing the agricultural part of the building, which was inhospitable and protruding into the church square, was vital for the converting process.  A narrower stage annexe meets with the alignment of the church and thus responds with its pillar and beam structure made of bricks and ashlars to the buttresses of the church façade.
The basement jutting out into the square provides an appealing stairway and suitable access to the parish centre for people with impairments. Inside a lift joins all levelled floors with the improved living area, working space and breakout rooms. The historical basement was upgraded by draining the walls. The hall and the old stairway gained better lighting by changing the windows and new stairs to the private rooms were assembled.
The square which started out round the church has become the parish square for pedestrians. It follows the naturally sloped terrain resembling a carpet made of stones.

Church of Sattledt

Church of Gallneukirchen

During reconstruction work of the parish church both staircases constricting the entrance on the west façade were torn down and replaced by a generous projecting roof, which invites church visitors to linger. Within the church the set-back gallery opens up its tall nave; two new sets of stairs are cut precisely through the Gothic vault. The opened-up clerestory windows as well as the side aisle roof, which was lowered, contribute to even lighting conditions. Reducing the church pews keeps the space underneath the gallery clear. The people´s altar and the ambo were moved far forward into the church interior. They were cast in bronze together with the baptismal font and the holy water stoup by the VOEST. After 1945 the Voestalpine, Austria´s largest steel works, contributed considerably to the population growth of the area. The church interior has been altered and hallmarked by realigning the side altars and the paintings. The newly designed, stained glass windows around the high altar piece, the light stone floor and the reduced numbers of steps in front of the people´s altar add essentially to the transformed appearance of the carefully renovated Gothic church.

Parish Church Riedau

Gialova 2001

Works in Stone

The holy water font made of Adneter dripstone was designed and completed by Herbert Schrattenecker for the conversion of the church of Kirchheim i. Innkreis. 

Travel Sketches Turkey 1988

A Child's Drawings

Pylos 2005

Navarino 2012

Fire Brigade in Pramet

Medical Practice Dr. Puttinger

House Puttinger

House Hermandinger

Ancient Messini 2015

House Mayr

House Pölzleithner

Fotos: Stefan Gruber

Wagyu-Cattle House Huemer

The new Wagyu-cattle house is part of an agricultural holding owned by the family of Diana and Hubert Huemer. It is situated on one of the gentle hills of the Hausruck with a view of the mountain Traunstein. The Wagyu-cattle breed which originates in Japan is reared by its owners with special attention and in harmony with nature. The cattle house offers shelter for the animals in all weathers.
 
From tree to saw timber
It was the aim of the construction of the exceptional cattle house to optimise the use of timber by harvesting the trees through personal selection in the forest, by the cutting of the logs in the sawmill and by the construction on site. The processed wood in the cattle house comes from spruce and fir logged in the Hausruck forest. It was cut without the pith and consists of log dimensions of 16/36 with lengths of up to 9 metres. Exhausting and passing the limits which are predetermined by the industry played an important role in sizing the wooden logs. The cattle house presents virtually the antithesis of contemporary timber manufacturing processes where the material is first cut into small pieces in order to be transformed into a substance which can be dimensioned infinitely by using a binding agent. Contrary to this technique the quality of execution of the Wagyu cattle house maxes out the knowledge of the material as such as well as traditional Upper Austrian carpentry skills without losing touch with the limits of timber.
 
Two worlds embraced by the crown of a tree
The architectural concept of the building is guided by the needs of the animals it houses. Like the Wagyu-cattle their house stands safely on a slope somewhat crouched, but with a strong body on firm legs and nevertheless it seems to be soft and flexible. The static bracing of the cattle house is reached through the roof and the supporting framework above in order to allow the cattle a maximum of free space and the tractor the passage on the ground floor. The wooden pillars on the ground floor are held bend-proof in concrete foundation and contribute to the dynamic bracing of the construction. Thus, the evoked gestures of the building refer to traditional Japanese constructive forms which make great airiness near the ground possible by using highly developed roof constructions. In combination with sophisticated Austrian carpentry a building in which the cattle can move around freely is generated. Outdoor and indoor space mesh unrestrictedly in good weather, however, in unsettled weather gates can be pushed between the pillars. In this way the wooden bracings on the upper floor form the protective crown of a cluster of trees under which the Wagyu cattle find shelter from wind, rain and heat. 
 
Roof cladding and roof framework
The most striking feature of the cattle house is its roof. It is stepped on two levels in order to provide adequate ventilation for the roof framework  - on the one hand above the lateral roof wings and on the other hand underneath the gable. The lateral stepped roof area was covered with larch shingles through personal contribution by the family Huemer. Above it lies the tin roof which is set back. The gable is formed by a glass triangle that is permeable to light which provides daylight for the building along its whole length.
 

House Aigner

House Kals

Farmstead Fusseis Holzwies

Centre for holistic medicine Geboltskirchen