Urban form and experimentation with materials. A look at the work

Abstract

Since the triumph of the Italian Tendenza thirty years ago, polymorphic architectural styles have developed in the central Alpine region and play an important role in the critical examination of tradition and the constructed context, a movement contrary to the globalization tendencies of structural design. By way of Grisons and Vorarlberg, this “territorial architecture” has also reached South Tyrol. Precisely placed miniatures in Val Venosta as well as Walter Angonese’s Manincor winery in Caldaro attest to that. Together with the bronze-colored, shimmering church addition by Thomas Höller and Georg Klotzner in the town of Laives, they are considered highlights of the new architecture south of the Brennero. Viewed form an angle, this annex resembles a slightly asymmetrical pyramid, then again it is reminiscent of a sculpture by Richard Serra. But it isn’t so much a subjective, fashionable architectural sculpture; it is more the result of a mindful architectural and urbanistic analysis of the town and the site, which emerged from a 2-stage competition that was conducted in 1994.